The Berg Sans Nipple
Along the Quai
Team Love
The French/American duo Berg Sans Nipple seems like such an odd addition to the Team Love roster. Inherently weird from their name straight through their whole sound, they’re more like a psychedelic soundtrack to a cult film that was never made than the label’s accessible folk/pop fare. There are shades of post-rock grandeur, avant-garde melodicism, Animal Collective freakiness and even allusions to Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores all vying for speaker time. On the opener “Ghost,” the group puts heavy emphasis on the percussive drive, rooting it firmly in dance music and almost giving it a techno undercurrent for slower melodies from glockenspiel and piano to unfurl over top. “Aquarium Life,” one of the more cinematic tracks is equal parts Morricone and Air. The casual entrance and exit of hamonica and glock and the sustained piano chords provide a gritty organic texture to the processed guitar sounds and electronic chirps that make up the melodic sections. “Of the Song,” lilts along comparatively gently, trading in the harsher sound of harmonica for the smoother vibrations of melodica and some woozy, buried falsetto vocals to bring to mind a twee version of Animal Collective. “Carnival Days” is a surprisingly laid-back number cobbled together from a freak show collection of sparse horn sections, pitch-shifting Moogs and synthesized steel drums. It’s fun to imagine the reaction a member of Team Love’s usual demographic – a 16-year-old Tilly and the Wall fan – would have to a single spin of Along the Quai. Most would likely tune out pretty early, but there would be probably be some who stick with it and have doors to many new, undiscovered genres opened for them. Those kids are going to grow up to have some pretty fantastic taste in music.
Team Love: http://www.team-love.com
