Highly recommended. 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. It's uncanny to think that NYC duo Essi, should be just that; a duo. However, Jessica Ackerley and Rick Daniel continue to compose and play with the dynamic virtuosity and tonal enormity of some full, unworldly orchestra. Vital Creatures skirts the edges of genre, never quite standing still, but the one thing that remains the same across its fourteen tracks, is that they're all huge. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jonathan (Jonny) Schenke at Thump Studios, the record displays a deft and appropriate mixture of guitar pedals, percussive electronics, and vocal distortion. Having come from backgrounds in noise rock, improvisation, and otherwise experimental bands (the likes of Gold Dime and Yvette), Ackerley and Daniel play with a knowledge of self and a proclivity for unorthodox songwriting that is unparalleled.
