French national, Ibiza resident and intrepid beach digger Guts, has readied here something very special indeed. Now five albums deep into his recording career, he’s built a loyal fanbase and following from his early days as a beatmaker. Guts’ initial spirit of sampling, sequencing and programming still remains but it has now morphed into something of a full-on musical opus.
His journey started with 2007 debut “Le Bienheureux” released on Nightmares On Wax imprint Wax On, that led up to 2016’s “Eternal”, which was his first endeavour into making an album with a full band, The Akaras de Scoville. Having toured extensively with the band in support of the album and playing festivals like Glastonbury, Secret Garden, Green Man and Shambala, it was during these shows that something really embedded in him about ideas of how music could be made from a more collective point of view. So now having worked through this stack of ideas, he bestowed this new full length player, ‘Philantropiques’, which marks something radically different from his previous outputs.
‘Philantropiques’ is an experimental yet sunny outing, comprising longer tracks that open up into carefully considered arrangements. A tropical afrobeat LP if you like. One strong theme that runs throughout is the vibrations of the Southern Hemisphere, somewhere Guts has been so well associated with over the years. His compilation series, “Beach Diggin”, now in its fifth volume, brings together highly sought after rarities, lovingly curated with long time friend, collaborator and visual artist, Mambo.
To help him realize this new musical plan, Guts set up a brand new live band featuring Kenny Ruby on bass, Christiane Prince on drums, Cyril Atef on percussion, alongside Adelaide Songeons and Ben Ababarbanel Wolf on the horns. This was the musical base, around which all the other elements were to be composed by a whole host of other musicians, MCs, vocalists and creatives.
The ideas developed were based around live horns, flutes and vibraphone. Once Guts was thick in the musical jungle of creation, intrigued guests came by the studio to see what he was cooking and lend a hand; saxophist Jowee Omicil, guitarist Lameck Macaba, Djeuhdjoah and Lieutenant Nicholson, storyteller Pat Kalla, Brazilian legend Pinduca, vocalists Nazaré Perera & Catia Wernec, and also French jazz virtuoso pianist, Mario Canonge.
Be it poems, musical solos, a touch of humor, or travel tales between Brazil, the Caribbean islands, West and Central Africa, all these artists feature on this LP in some capacity or other. The recording sessions flowed fluently with Guts holding it down at the controls.
Afro trance, Brazilian jazz funk and frantic percussion are all explored over this 13 track offering. Lead singles ‘Kenke Corner’ and ‘Mucagiami’ step effortlessly between the dancefloor to ballad, the latter featuring a stunning vocal performance from Angolan vocalist, ‘Vum Vum’. With stopovers in the Caribbean, West and Central Africa and the Amazon, Guts has gone far and wide enlisting various people to present you his new album — he is one true ‘Philantropiques’.
‘Philantropiques’ drops on the 29th March via Heavenly Sweetness and you can order your copy here. Check out the exclusive premiere of ‘Daddy Sweet’ featuring Pat Kalla below.