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I'm such a big fan of this band. It's the way they create intricate melodic music that sounds very french, especially the vocals. Melodic and catchy but drifting into experimental territories is nothing new for this band out of France. I mention that because on this first live record by them they have gone deeper into the avant than ever before. Kind of surprising given this is live and you would think the catchy stuff would rule but it's the other way around. Some of these tracks are quite shorter than the originals but then we get the song "Travelling" from "A L'amitie" which is twice as long as the studio version.

That's my favourite studio album by this band and we get two tracks from it on here including the closer and four from "Laisse Ca Etre" the album they were touring for. Eight tracks from different venues and times, in fact the music covers an almost 2 year period. I like that they put this little insert in the packaging that is blank on one side and on the other we see the band performing on stage somewhere. I count eight musicians there and there's nine total with five blowing horns or flute.

The one track for me that seems out of place is "My Funny Valentine" originally a piano/vocal jazz ballad and of course changed a lot here but I'm just not into it at all. The rest is very good. It would be hard to limit this to a top three but the opener "Virange Sud" is outstanding and recognizable by that bass line that opens it. Some good contrasts and quite avant late. Love that relentless rhythm section. "C'est Pas Tout Mais" has to be a top three just for how unique sounding it is. Spoken words, humour, some singing and very french sounding.

"Travelling" I mentioned and it's my final top three. At nine minutes it is pretty much cut in half with two completely different sounding sections. The opening section is a repetitive rhythm section with different sounds coming and going over top making it interesting while the last half is an experimental soundscape with no structure really. Quite dark after 6 minute and I wonder what the crowd thought here. If you like avant check out the short 2 1/2 minute "Tintin On Est Bien Mon Loulou(Extrait)", mainly that final minute. The closer "Je Viens" is from my favourite album by them and is a worthy way to end this record.

Easily a four star record and very cool to see it make the top 20 for 2018 by the collaborators here, considering it's live and how strong that year was.