Berg Sans Nipple Transcends Electronica Genre

Sounds Like: The Tin Man avec brain; the Lion avec heart; Dorothy avec stylin' red pumps

RIYL: Stereolab, James's Wah Wah, Postal Service

A Few Words: The genre term "electronica" is tossed around so much that it's losing its power to define and will soon go the way of other deflated descriptions like "indie" and "alternative". Such is life, I suppose, and the unwavering human need to categorize every bi-labial fricative. Take Berg Sans Nipple, the musical pairing of Frenchman Lori Sean Berg and Cornhusker Shane Aspegren. Their efforts are filed under "electronica", "electronic", "experimental", "dance", and "house mood." I'm not even sure what that last tag is supposed to mean. The more I write about music, the more I'm convinced the boundaries between styles evolve and blur as much as the music.

Berg Sans Nipple is indie by definition, yet they are electronica since laptops and synth are as integral to their sound as are drums and guitar. But are they jazz for the shifts in time signature? If you can groove to it, is it "dance" or "funk"? I struggle to fit the duo neatly into a definite container. However, while categorizing Along the Quai is akin to juggling sand, the album does not altogether escape explanation.

Woven into the tapestry of bleeps and bloops are heavy synthesizers, steel drums, hand-claps, horn, and moody vocals sung in pitched falsetto. Thanfully, BSN spares us the art-rock crap and bee lines straight for accessible harmonies. The result is a melodic, layered, and robust album you can actually listen to. Go the Franco-American alliance!

Download "Mystic Song" from their album Along the Quai.

Buy Along The Quai from Amazon.com

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