Occurrence’s Anniversary: An Electronic Retrospective

If any of you are familiar with The Vampire Diaries or Supernatural, I’m sure you will understand when I say that when I hit play on Occurrence’s Anniversary EP, it immediately made me think of the late-2000s to early 2010s dramas. Somehow, I am back in my room secretly trying to sneak in another episode of my favorite show and completely being absorbed in another fictional universe and daydreaming about other people’s lives as though they were my own. There is something almost embarrassingly specific about the nostalgia of having the liberty of choosing your own makeshift reality.

The hazy, nocturnal, and melancholic electronic quality of Occurrence’s sound confronts a period of my life that revolved around exactly that: the freedom of navigating and disappearing into fictional worlds as I please. The Anniversary EP reminds me of those late nights, not because it sounds like a television soundtrack in the literal sense, but because it recreates the atmosphere surrounding those memories, and there is nothing sweeter than being able to revisit memories that you probably had already forgotten. This becomes even more fitting with how the band revisited their old records and layered atop a fresh touch wherein vocals were re-recorded, and while some elements were removed, new synth parts were likewise added.

The curation of the EP itself makes this effective. My Days and Nights Belong to You (2026 Version) masterfully builds up the nostalgic mood, although Occurrence does not allow themselves to be confined only with that. Instead, the first track serves as an entry point into a sound that the band has painstakingly spent years developing and mastering. Ken Urban, Cat Hollyer, and Johnny Hager have established their own sound which occupies a mixture of ambient music, synth, pop, electronics, and punk – sounds that would sound disjointed if not mixed and properly produced, but they made it work. The result is a familiar electronic music vocabulary, almost like being stuck in a loop.

Occurrence proves to be quite an expert in understanding repetition as a musical device – a repeated beat and a recurring synth line—and If He Were Here (2026 Version) reflects the band’s sonically cohesive musicality.

The whole EP, from start to finish, works as an experience in retrospect of the band and oneself. As a listener, what’s particularly compelling about the whole record is that the choice of songs to re-record feels deliberate as they all possess the sonic qualities that allow nostalgia to happen naturally, which ultimately makes Anniversary an effective and engaging listen. It provides the atmosphere, the sound, the emotional distance and depth, and lets your own memories do the rest.