The Berg Sans Nipple – Build With Erosion

The songs on Build With Erosion, the second full-length from Parisian/Nebraskan duo The Berg Sans Nipple, make a virtue of a sparse musical palette. The combination of stripped-down guitar and bass with sputtering drum programming recalls Tortoise’s earlier albums. Here, though, the use of reverb on the vocals, along with rhythms lifted from contemporary club music, lends proceedings a dubby warmth absent from that band’s records – although Build... does lack the aesthetic subtlety of, say, Tortoise’s Millions LP.

The music is driven by syncopated rhythmic patterning, infectious and deceptively complex. Sunday Morning layers tribal percussion over echoing synths and vocals, while Weatherman’s overdriven melodic crashes nod towards Konono No. 1. Although this absorption of global influences within a post-rock framework is impressive, the album starts to run out of steam before its eleven tracks are up; there is no shortage of ideas here, but they are not always entirely compelling. [Sam Wiseman]