EVE ET LE GÉNIE DU MAL

For you Nemo fanatics out there who have wondered how the band would sound with English vocals might check this EP out. I never buy EP's and really have little interest in them, even by my favorite bands. I happened to get this as a freebie from my internet shop when I bought one of their other studio CD's. And a nice extra it was.

The first song is in the traditional Nemo vein with French vocals. Good hard edged guitar from Nemo mastermind JP Louveton along with some nice piano work. Good song. Then comes the cover of Strawberry Fields Forever sung in English. JP has good command of English but he does have the French accent when singing. But this, along with the arrangement, sets the song off from the original. It starts off in the traditional sense but then the hard guitar kicks in backed up by a brooding synthesizer that really kicks the song into hard prog territory. Then about two-thirds through it changes gears from the original and goes to acoustic guitar and piano as JP does vocalizations from that point forward instead of lyrics. The song finishes with one of his trademark and well done guitar solos.

The third song is also in English but is a showcase for Guillaume Fontaine's lovely piano playing. It has a bit of a jazzy tinge and goes between slow and fast as JP's acoustic guitar trades passages with the piano. For a mainly acoustic piece it has a lot of energy. The last song goes back to heavy electric guitar and French lyrics. A good, fast Nemo song and certainly up to par with much of their other studio efforts.

As for a rating, I'll go with 3 stars just due to paucity of material here, but really a good effort for a great band that needs more attention. If you can find it and want to here the English singing, you can't go wrong if EP's are something you like to search out. More Nemo is always a good thing.

An interesting but certainly not essential 4 track ep from French prog band Nemo who play at the heavier end of the prog spectrum. Eyebrows may be raised when seeing that Nemo have covered The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever. It's a competent enough version but lacks the atmospheric and melancholic feel of the original. Any band that attempt such a song are asking for failure and while I wouldn't go quite that far it's still a bit of a pointless exercise, though they do add a guitar solo, therefore not a straight copy. Incidently, Nemo normally sing in their native French but not surprisingly stick to English here.

The other songs are Eve Et Le Génie Du Mal, taken from their Prelude A La Ruine album, one of the mellower moments from that excellent album though beefed up with some powerful guitar work from Jean Pierre Louveton. The Cyclop's Eye is another rare opportunity to hear the band sing in English (the original was in French), though not one of the bands better moments with a jazz/funk groove. Générateur, taken from Presages is given the remix treatment. It's the best of the bunch with its heavy guitar riffing and stabbing keyboards though I can't say I noticed any improvement over the original mix.

A decent enough ep then but I'd say you're better off sticking with the albums where these songs came (strawberry Fields excepted), particularly Prelude A La Ruine which really captures the band at their most powerful and dynamic.