LE VER DANS LE FRUIT

One more nice experience with new prog! Nemo is a French band which made its first record 2002 and now 2013 released their eighth one now called "Le ver dans le fruit". It took a couple of listenings to be used to their quite special sound. They are called eclectic here, a genre very hard to define. I think I would say it's progressive rock which is not symphonic and not pop oriented. That definition matches Nemo's newest record well.

The cover picture is amazing with a man who paints a picture of a tree. He wears a high hat and has along white beard. I get a feeling of harmony when I see it carefully and I think I would be wonderful as a LP cover. Jean Pierre Louveton plays guitar and sings, Guillaume Fontains plays keyboard and sings, Lionel-B Guichard plays bass and Jean Baptiste Itier hits the drums on this record.

Nemo sings its songs in French, a fantastic decision others should follow, that would make prog more progressive; Nemo has always did. The voice on these songs isn't though my best friend. There's something ingratiating in it, even if they're not exactly populistic. My feelings for it go up and down through the record. The best track is "Arma Diania", the long "epic" where you'll get something of the best. A celtic folk structure is used here and it returns some times. They really rock and I like the vocals and all the acoustic stuff in here. The music is dynamic and nicely mixed. Another favourite is the first and shortest track "Stipant Luporum" with marvelous vocal harmonies which reminds me of happiness and a song by the Swedish Children Song band Electric Banana Band. We have a couple of other amazing songs here: "Milgram, 1960", a handsome tune with great instruments, "Le fruit de la Peur", a very sophisticated song and "Allah Deus" where the melody does small jumps in my heart. Most of the other songs are also very worth listening. Two songs didn't really caught me: "Neuro-MArket" and "A la une" but hery were'nt bad at all.

As I wrote before it could be hard to get into Nemo's music. It's quite heavy music, and not very easy. The vocal style is also something I perhaps have to learn to understand. As a whole I am impressed by this record which has so much splendor and wise music. I really think you should try it if you want to try and hear what prog can be today. Four stars!