Berg Sans Nipple
Play The Immutable Truth EP
(Acuarela)
Berg Sans Nipple is a duo comprised of Jerome Lorichon and Shane Aspergen. Lorichon is the former drummer of a Welsh band named Purr and Aspergen is an ex-pat who played various rolls in a huge amount of releases from the Nebraska scene (Lullaby For The Working Class, etc). The two multi-instrumentalists met up in Europe while playing with various bands in 2002 and the rest, shall we say, is history.
Mixing electronics and organic instrumentation, the duo released their first disc as a short score to a film that Aspergen has directed entitled Marie Madeleine. Mixing ambient soundscapes with ripping bursts of programmed and live percussion, it was a good dose of what to expect from the group but they showed huge leaps in creativity with their first full-length Form Of... (which featured members of Do Make Say Think and Bright Eyes). Play The Immutable Truth EP is their newest effort of 4 unreleased tracks and like their other discs seems to blur genres with the greatest of ease.
Drifting into a more rhythmic than melodic territory than their last discs, the release opens with "An Eternity In Purgatory," an almost 8-minute track that blends chimes and filtered vocals with simple a simple keyboard melody and alternately subdued and rumbling drums. "Swordfighting" again brings out the blistering drums while warbling electronic basslines pulse and droney melodies float in the background. On the other side of things is the quiet and subdued "Hark, The Poonie Angel Sings!", a gentle mixture of soft horns, bass pads, and filtered electronics.
The eclectic release closes out with "Memory Hole," a two-part track that opens with almost grinding slabs of filtered beats and horns before giving way to a 4 on the floor beat that lightens things up considerably and completely changes the direction from the almost industrial first half. As a whole, the nearly 20-minute EP seems a little bit unfocused but also contains some of the best work from the group thusfar.
Rating: 7
