In the moment when I'm deciding if some of my ancient vinyls should be sold or kept gathering dust and must, it's perhaps ironic that a cassette release featuring artists working with samples and turntables as primary constituents reminded me of the evocative charm of sounds combined and deformed until near-incomprehensibility.
Sheffield and Rippie operate at the margins of that critical area where the heavy processing of a given source can either increase a music's momentum, or just turn it into commonplace. In this case, the source in question is a series of not better specified "commercial recordings" utilized in an improvising context. After the couple's manipulations the resulting matters are reminiscent of feverish visions, unconquerable phobias, unjustified excitement. And, needless to say, they prepare us to the crash landing caused by countless broken illusions.
This notwithstanding, colors and reverberations are still warm enough to build a comfortable milieu for the willing listener. There's beauty in here, as distorted as it may be. Piano ghosts, grimy hissing and reverse harmonies form a misrepresentation of reality replete with stretched-and-warped instrumental wakes. In those places one can discover new levels of knowledge while getting completely lost in entrancement. Nothing is vulgar or overly invasive: you can choose if acting as a detached observer, or go further and being entirely seduced by the cross-pollination of reiteration and awkwardness.
At any rate, a few hours with Essential Anatomies are definitely recommended.
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

It's been fourteen years since Colin Andrew Sheffield (the man behind the label here) worked together with James Eck Rippie. I believe the first time was when they did 'Variations' LP together (see Vital Weekly 316). Later on they also released a CDR 'Vessel' (Vital Weekly 359). The credits on this new release are that Sheffield is responsible for samples and processing and Rippie for turntables, samples and processing. Before their music was quite minimal with long spun sounds and slow movements, and that is something that hasn't changed on this new release, be it that the music seems a bit louder than before, but never ever being very noisy. It is very hard to say what it is that is subject to their sampler and towards the end of '22:57' we finally recognize some of the turntable sound, and throughout it seems to be playing around with these highly amorphous fields of sound, of whatever nature they are. In '23:24' samples might be taken from orchestral music records and have than far away trumpet quality, set against a dark backdrop of intensified drone sounds, whereas the other piece uses a mass of small sound snippets, maybe also orchestral, but with similar darkness hanging over it. Not as refined as before, but perhaps more of their own this time around. Great experimental ambience.
- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly