The album is dense, rich and eclectic and is above all, an ambitious record and an album with no restrictions on form or length, every track provides a door into a different universe from the one before.

 

Here’s their latest video for ‘Peaceful Life’ for an idea: 

 

 

 

How did Guts, a go-it-alone producer who had only rarely called upon other musicians for help since his time with Alliance Ethnik, become the frontman of a live band as he started work on his new album? To understand how this came about, we need to rewind through the last two years of his life to his previous album, Hip Hop After All, and the tour of the same name.

 

As his tour ate up the miles around France and Europe, spending many hours on stage, in vans, on planes and backstage, Guts came up with the idea of channelling the energy and unity forged by the tour into a recording, an album that would pool the creative talents of the different musicians, an album with a single voice – the band’s.

 

Florian Pellissier’s keyboards, Greg F.’s guitar, Leron Thomas’s trumpet and mic, the voices of Von Pea, Don Will and Lorine Chia, Kenny Ruby’s bass and later Tibo Brandalise’s drums all flowed into a project where each was a key piece of a musical jigsaw puzzle. The foundations were some fairly simple outlines that were then refined during intense studio sessions – refined, honed and pushed into territory they never imagined they would explore. The only rule was that there were no limits for anyone, starting with Guts himself, who decided to reverse the proportions of 20% live and 80% samples and machines that had defined his musical path up to that point.

 

Funk, soul, rap, Cuban, African and Russian sounds – styles that had previously mixed only as five-second samples, infiltrated into the beats and rhythms, were now stirred and shaken by a band playing real instruments. Keyboards were allowed to wander from their acoustic comfort zone and become charged with electricity, and guitars produced precise, incisive rhythms. A trumpet could count on back-up from a sax and a trombone to form an imposing array of brass; mikes cautiously caress as well as kicking out at the rules; a bass purrs in the background or sends a ripple through the whole score like a lead dancer; at a nod, drums go from pounding out a beat to rolling a groove.

 

Wild jazz appears side by side with Japanese-sounding strings, spacy rock gazes down from the stratosphere at pure premium hip hop and its dominant beats, electro funk slugs it out with afro on the dancefloor, while urban Western brass throws down the gauntlet to post-apocalyptic synthesizers..... simply put, you've GOT to hear it!

 

Catch them on tour;

26 June GLASTONBURY          GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL     

27 June LONDON                     XOYO  

28 June BRIGHTON     GREEN DOOR STORE

29 June BRISTOL                     THE FLEECE  

01 July SIERRE           FESTIVAL WEEK-END AU BORD DE L’EAU    

02 July LYON   FESTIVAL ILES UTOPIE          

03 July BONNEUIL MATOURS LES HEURES VAGABONDES 

09 July LIEGEFESTIVAL LES ARDENTES -   

10 July MONTS            TERRES DU SON - Chapiteau 

14 July LA ROCHELLE LES FRANCOFOLIES DE LA ROCHELLE - Grande scène Jean Louis Foulquier  

16 July NICE    JAZZ A NICE   

17 July GENT   POLE POLE FESTIVAL

19 July NIJMEGEN       VALKHOF FESTIVAL   

23 July ABBOTS RIPTON         SECRET GARDEN PARTY      

31 July LAKE DISTRIC          KENDAL CALLING         

10 August  BRUXELLES               BRUSSELS SUMMER FESTIVAL       

13 August  LE PALAIS   BELLE ILE ON AIR      

14 August  LUXEY        FESTIVAL MUSICALARUE - Scène St Roch

18 August  PENTHALAZ                  VENOGE FESTIVAL          

21 August  BRECON BEACONS                    GREEN MAN FESTIVAL 

27 August  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE       SHAMBALA FESTIVAL

 

 

Social Media

Facebook

Soundcloud