#FeatureFriday – a vile sickness dwells in tacoma by odd person

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a vile sickness dwells in Tacoma by odd person

spring is the radiant awakening.
summer is the fire of spirit.
autumn is the wretched decay.
winter is the boundless ethereal.

Haunting and hypnotic synthesis of minimal beats, sound design and atmospherics into something that sounds the way uneasy sleep feels. Layers of repetitive, simple drum loops build a metronomic base. Overlaid atop that are small bursts of noise, splashes of synth, and processed voices – mere snippets of sound, each carrying an unusually large burden of meaning. The two base elements fuse together to guide your way thru liminal states, oscillating between a dreamlike lightness and a dark call to the void.

The results are like an extension of the modes of thought that led to minimal techno carried to an even further logical extreme, or ambient forced into a claustrophobic space and forcefully given a pulse, perhaps. Speaking of which, this makes for fantastic background listening, as long as you don’t mind the doomed feeling you’re on the way to exorcism or maybe a witch’s mass that’ll creep in about halfway thru. Foreground listening has similar effects, but you won’t be quite as perplexed as to why you feel that way. Powerful stuff; apply liberally, but use wisely.

Ether Diver

On Odd Persons’ notes for this album on Bandcamp, it reads:

this is summer.
the sun is coming. this world is ending.

As those lines suggest, this album is like some elegant nightmare-tinged dream. “A vile sickness dwells in Tacoma” sounds like it should be the title of a collection of weird fiction short stories, and the experience of listening to this album isn’t far from that. It’s thrilling, and little enchanting, both abrasive and beautiful.

I listened to this album while sitting outside under a nearly-full moon. It was an almost too on-the-nose setting for this music, but it was an ideal listening experience. I was fully engrossed in the abstract percussive beats going to unexpected places of ambient melody, but also the snarls and growls and minor-key-haunted atmosphere.

This is music that invites you to get lost for a while, music that makes you put your phone down and let your gaze relax into the middle-distance. Sometimes music feels like magic, and this album is some powerful sorcery.

E.A.

Odd Person’s ‘A Vile Sickness Dwells in Tacoma’ is a darkly atmospheric EP rich in rhythm. These rhythms range from actual percussive elements to even the compositions themselves bearing a very rhythmic quality due to them having a very loop-based and heavy ‘on the grid’ feel which gives it a machine-like quality. This of course will not be to everyone’s tastes but I do feel it works to hammer home the dark atmosphere in a way that’s reminiscent of Industrial’s uncompromising clockwork rhythms while still retaining the more dark spin on New Age feel the record has going for it.

It kinda feels like the soundtrack to a ‘Metroid’ game in that way where it marries dark atmospheric textures and tight percussive elements with a very New Age Music feeling interpretation of naturalistic sounds. But where that game’s music is designed to make you feel isolated while being on a beautiful yet hostile planet this is in fact a thematic EP about the season of Summer. The album’s tagline reads “The Sun is coming. The world is ending.” which is especially apt this specific summer of 2026 where the effects of climate change have become really hard to ignore. And it’s reflected really well in this genre that is usually known for nature worshipping calming and meditative music, that genre being New Age Music that in a hauntingly apt parallel to our current reality equally takes a darker turn than it’s usually known for and so reflecting the state of crisis mother nature currently finds herself in.

So damn, that took a dark turn huh? And maybe that’s exactly why this record might be interesting to check out, you can take in the awesome dark atmosphere but in the meanwhile reflect on the state of things. It’s a state that’s been brought upon us by people way more powerful than us that can easily use that power to at least minimize the damage already done so in the end it can make you feel pretty helpless as a puny citizen. But it’s so important to be aware of what is going on around you and most importantly, why that is. And that is why art like this is so important, to keep our eyes open while listening to cool-ass music.

Eveyweveydevey

‘A Vile Sickness Dwells in Tacoma’ is an exercise in imagination, it feels like ancient music straining to become industrial – there’s something of the old world with certain elements feeling new age, percussive and rhythmic at first it makes way for other elements without giving way. The beats can be crunchy and downsampled at times. Same with melodic elements, they feel like old patches mixed with found elements. The use of space and effects help these elements interweave and shift in a very organic way. There is also a dark, dangerous feeling swimming inside all of this. Forbidden, unseen, unnamable and that’s what pushes it out of the background and into your periphery.

Untidy Music

Updated: August 28, 2026 — 5:00 am

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