Guts (Le Bienheureux) - Guts (2007)

Guts (Le Bienheureux) is the 2007 debut solo album by French electronic beat-maker Guts. Guts, pseudonym of Fabrice Henri, started his long and illustrious career as Gutsy, the producer and beat-maker in French hip-hop ensemble Alliance Ethnik. Guts released two albums with Alliance Ethnik, their debut album Simple et Funky going platinum in France, before the group disbanded. In between Alliance Ethnik and Guts (Le Bienheureux), Henri composed and produced music for other French artists such as Big Red, Svinkles and Passi. He eventually grew tired of collaborating though and moved to Ibiza to try his hand at being a solo artist. This adventure has since brought us six studio albums where Guts shows off his ability to blend hip hop, jazz, and funk both instrumentally and with vocal features. Le Bienheureux is a fine example of how Guts uses his hip-hop roots to create a J Dilla inspired solo album. A record that is totally and utterly about the music and Guts’ talent.

Guts (Le Bienheureux) is an album that starts how it means to go on. The opening track ‘Intro’ displays this early Gorrilaz sound in its sampling which is consistently apparent throughout the album. Other tracks that feature this influence are ‘Escucha Me’, ‘Take a Look Around You’ and ‘Metis’. These songs all feature melodies reminiscent of Gorrliaz eponymous debut album, with ‘Take a Look Around You’ including a vocal sample that sounds like Damon Albarn. Aside from these tracks, the textured aspect of all the tracks on Le Bienheureux is another common feature of both the album and the Gorrilaz. This textures on Le Bienheureux take the forefront over vocal melodies; the songs sound full in themselves and do not lack any lyrical accompaniment. Saying this, the vocal samples on ‘Skunkfunk’ and ‘Good Morning’ fit the song beautifully. The vocal samples are so clear that it simulates a guest feature as well as varying the melodic focus in the tracks, so the album avoids monotony. The track list order is also built around this variation of ideas. ‘You Know Dat Sh*t’ and ‘I Love You’ are the two very soul influenced tracks on Le Bienheureux. Both tracks feature a Jerry Butler sample (soul singer of the late-1950s) but are placed at opposite ends of the album. Likewise, with ‘Everybody Know’ and ‘Cry and Smile’ – two songs that are very Dilla influenced in their aesthetic but placed apart in the track listing. Of course, the hip-hop influence is throughout the album and is what makes Guts’ music his.

The stand-out tracks for me are ’Sweet Love’, ‘Cry & Smile’ and ‘Everybody Know’. A special mention goes to ‘And the Living is Easy’ though. The brass sample and the faster tempo shows the West Indian influence that Guts picked up whilst living in Jamaica. It is the only song that features an overt West Indian influence and for that, deserves some credit. As for the other three: ‘Sweet Love’ is very jazzy and uses old jazz and soul samples to achieve a neo-soul sound, without playing a single instrument. ‘Cry & Smile’ and ‘Everybody Know’ sound straight off an early Wu-Tang Clan or J Dilla album. Guts shows his musical heritage and love for hip-hop in tracks like ‘Cry & Smile’ and ‘Everybody Know’ and to amazing effect. These two songs epitomise the alum – Guts (Le Bienheureux) has deep roots in 90s East Coast hip-hop through the soul/jazz style beats he has produced on every song. This album was a pleasure to discover and is hard to fault. If you have not yet listened to it, I would highly, highly recommend.