LA MACHINE A REMONTER LE TEMPS

A smart move this on the part of Nemo. La Machine A Remonter Le Temps is a DVD/2Cd package that combines a DVD of a great live show with two Cd's of material spanning their previous six studio albums. As if the DVD alone isn't enough incentive for the already converted to shell out for this, much of the material that makes up the compilation Cd's has been remixed, remastered and even re-recorded in the case of some of the earlier songs. As an added bonus there are also two new unreleased tracks.

Musically Nemo sit at the heavier end of prog combining metal/heavy rock with symphonic and occasional jazz touches in complex arrangements with excellent musicianship. The dominant force is guitarist Jean Pierre Louverton (who also sings, in French by the way) who's powerful and intricate playing makes for an exciting musical experience. Despite this there's still plenty of room for Guillaume Fontaine's excellent keyboard work to shine where he combines more traditional sounds with the new and all topped off by a tight and inventive rhythm section. I sometimes hear them being compared to Rush but to be honest I've never seen this myself other than the combination of prog elements with heavy rock.

The DVD is an intimate live show filmed before a small audience and captures the band in fine form playing some classic Nemo including a stunning version of the twenty Six minute Barbares, the title track of their most recent studio album. Despite the small scale venue this doesn't thankfully reflect on the quality of the DVD which is well filmed with excellent picture and sound quality throughout and doesn't suffer from a lack of camera angles giving a good view of each band member. David Zmyslowsky has been drafted in as second guitarist for the purpose of live performance to take some of the pressure off Louverton I presume but is fairly low in the mix overall.

Moving onto the Cd's, as already mentioned much has been remixed, remastered and re- recorded here. The re-recorded earlier material does seem to benefit from it, Nemo having grown as a band over the years. As for the remastering and remixing, without doing a direct track by track comparison, there doesn't seem to be a vast difference but the sound does appear a bit more powerful in general. No doubt long term fans would argue over what to include here but the band have done a pretty good job of selecting a strong and varying body of work covering their whole career. As for the two new tracks, La Machine À Remonter Le Temps and Et La Vie Continue which bookend the collection, the first is a powerful rocker while the second is an instrumental, mellower and twisting and turning in typical Nemo fashion. Neither is likely to be regarded as amongst their greatest moments but welcome additions nevertheless.

Overall this makes a great package, not only for the opportunity of older fans to get hold of a fine concert recording, but in giving them enough of an incentive to buy older material they'll probably already have on other albums. It also makes a great introduction to newbies giving them a good cross section of Nemo songs alongside a great live show. Hurry though, as it's limited to just one thousand copies.