New York, USA-based alternative pop act Occurrence have been on our radar for a few months now. Jane originally featured them as part of her Pride roundup in December last year, following it up with an interview the same month. I first ran the rule over their music last month thanks to their track Universe Moves so Fast which features on their new album Slow Violence.
By Graeme Smith
Feature photo by Cameron Scoggins
Slow Violence is a beast of a double album that includes 22 tracks and the band’s heart and soul. Composer Ken Urban set about creating an expansive sound for the album, and an emotional intensity that co-vocalist Cat Hollyer found both uncomfortable and liberating. Along with Ken’s partner and the band’s co-vocalist Johnny Hager, the trio feel the album reflects the closeness they now feel in their relationships.
The title of the album is an environmental terms and you see nature and the environment (and harm to it) running through the collection as a theme. It starts right from the off with Blossom Forth, an urgent, aggressive electro-acoustic number that grips you from its first few bars.
The aforementioned Universe Moves so Fast comes next, providing an early highlight. Fudge gives us heavy, sensual trip hop while Survive, Die Faster is bright, jumpy alternative dance. Only four tracks in and we’ve seen such an eclectic mix of styles. It’s already obvious that Slow Violence is going to be a special album.
Things stay dance-y for nihilistically-titled, anti-religious You’re Not A Miracle. This Isn’t What I Imagined is a dreamily-saturated instrumental while Heels Over Head is rich with romance. The Future, Pt. 1 keeps things bittersweetly bright before we arrive at the first part of the three part title track, Everything I Had Then / Slow Violence I. It’s a track that further pushes the experimentation of the album, and makes its environmental message more overt.
The album’s middle part goes deeper and gets edgier. Love Is Love (Until It’s Not) bounces and seethes. November 30, 2014 feels reflective, opening gently with strings before launching into a whirlwind of electronica and spoken word. All My Days (final) is a quiet, operatic moment. The Remote Past Tense is the album’s story at its most vulnerable. Messiah Longing is a dark folk moment while Slow Violence II is an instrumental vignette that sets up the album’s final leg.
Depression Water takes us emotionally deeper, with Cat’s passionate vocals paired with fractious, erratic electronica. Water Into Ocean brings with it touches of deep house and pleading vocalisations. Dissolve is as ethereal as it is visceral. Anonymous Data Call is a Gothic industrial pop moment before Godwound / Slow Violence III closes the title track trilogy with vibrant percussive trance.
The album is rounded off by I Fucked the World to Get You to Love Me and Prepare My Body for Sleep. Musically they are quite different but together they tie up the album’s themes of loss, anger, violence and hopefulness well.
Slow Violence is such an ambitious effort, and there are few bands that could pull it off. Occurrence do it with apparent ease (though I’m sure it wasn’t easy!) Do yourself a favour and carve out the time to give the whole thing a listen. You won’t be disappointed. You can check out Slow Violence below.
