What, or who is this? Bowlegs questioned as we skidded off the road, fumbling with our iPod, hands frozen from the morning bike ride. Nipple who? What kind of name is that for a band? Who is this guy, Berg, who has this areola free existence? We remembered we had a teacher back when we were nine, who got into a scrape over a gal and had his pair snipped clean off in revenge. It was a bad day for double math.

So, these Nipples, they are rocking some special bare bones rhythm shit right here. Out of the box they crack with ‘Change the Shape’, like De La Soul playing Double Dutch with Steve Reich. Except that someone else tore up the vocal track and tried to repair their mistake badly. The track floats – doesn’t move – then becomes an enigma right before our eyes. Next they get all physics on us. ‘Build with Erosion’ is an elegant exposition on the subject of entropy: in our minds, at least. You know, entropy … how everything breaks down eventually. Once they’ve seasoned the mix with plenty of delay, they have us in the palms of their hands.

So many highlights follow: ‘Dead Dinosaurs Rule the Earth’ and its marimbadelic, stone-age library music; ‘Weatherman’ turning up the gas, distorting a quite gentle sonnet into a clinking clanking overture. This is a blend of the quietly spoken and the peculiar in excelsis. Everything is controlled, nothing is left untampered with. Album closer ‘Pink Rays Sugar’ holds in the emotion, probably doing terrible internal damage somewhere else. Behind the placid demeanour, worlds are on fire. But these boys are young, they have good muscle tone and they can handle the strain. If you prefer your aesthetics on the lean side, or like that kinky electro voodoo, you really need to check out these Nipples.

-Julian Tardo-