by Patrick Pilch (@pratprilch)
ESSi arrive in the midst of a mini-sance for Brooklyn’s psych noise scene, surfacing in the wake of venues like the Glove and Silent Barn and in the crest of labels like Wharf Cat and Sacred Bones. The duo’s volatile punk uneasily clamors like Shimmer and Brainiac, but aesthetically revels in the wake of Pill’s malaise and the radiant aura of No Age. ESSi mimic the latter-most group’s ability to sound much more than a two-person group, as Jessica Ackerley’s bottom heavy guitars flesh out ESSi’s strikingly atmospheric low end. Sonorous bass and staticky effects plunge into the cavernous backdrops of “Seams” and “Pines and Cones.” The result is like a psychedelic riptide; each subtlety a loose rock on the slippery slope of ESSi’s disintegrating framework.
Vital Creatures continuously rebuilds a grippingly visceral atmosphere, weaving styles and skits with an excellent sense of pacing. Numerical vignettes become integral moments, serving as the ethereal tape between ESSi’s most delirious and dissociative tunes. “13 13 13” and “02 02” surround “Break Frame,” intensifying one of the album’s catchiest moments with an off-kilter preface and ambient afterword. Ackerley’s dreamlike vocals are a treat and all that foggy reverb in the chorus feels like the slow dance scene in a prom-themed slasher flick. It’s as if the band knows “Break Frame” is one of their most accessible songs - its neighbor tracks seem to serve as buffers to communicate to more patient listeners, “Hey! We’re still weird!”
Peeling back Vital Creatures’ muddled shell of dissociative effects and turbulent tangents uncovers some truly compelling, essentially pop moments. The pummeling, dirge-like rhythmics of “Other Side” are instantly effective, especially following the sinister apprehension of “Pines and Cones.” Its this sweet and sour juxtaposition that leads to the record’s best moments. The caustic cross of Death Grips and Yeah Yeah Yeahs on “Fly By” prefaces Ackerley’s angelic vocal pivot on the late-album highlight “Da Di Da Di,” proving its going to take more than a 13 track full length for ESSi’s ideas to dry up. The band’s Ramp Local debut is warped in acidic tangibility, cloaked behind layers of static-stippled feedback and a project that strays far left from convention.