Essential Anatomies moves
slowly – each side is about 23 minutes of unbroken programming trickery that
comes at ambient drift without the all-purpose synthesizer as its weapon of
choice. Sounds and tones are processed by Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck
Rippie, Austinites, my age, firm believers in academic representation of music
composition. Just like me! Well, when I’m not having a blast with my LL Cool J
collection on those warm summer afternoons. Perhaps Sheffield and Rippie hang
out on their porch, too, jamming to some cool tunes, breeze blowing stray notes
down the sidewalk. But today is not that kind of day – today is one of those
days when the jazz trio you were listening to at lunch has melted into the
pavement by the time you leave work because they’ve been out in the sun too
long. That’s side B for you. Side A is
approach, reentry, and burnup in the atmosphere. So essentially, even though
Sheffield and Rippie compose these sides with a clinical eye – “essential
anatomies”? Please, it doesn’t get clinical-er – the heat generated from their
work is undeniably present. Thought you were going to get the cold reaches of
the cosmos here? Think again, headphone dude – it’s almost all friction, and
friction produces heat. Enough friction melts you down into the base elements. Essential Anatomies is unbroken,
unending, slow-cooked friction that causes molecular breakdown (from the heat)
from the inside out until you’re an unfortunate husk. Kind of like a terrible
illness from the X-Files or
something! But pleasant. Did I get that across clearly enough? Essential Anatomies pleasant. Don’t call
it a comeback.
--Ryan Masteller
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