SUGARBUZZ (USA) MAY 2015GUTTERCATS “Beautiful Curse”By Lucky (Hollywood Lost Boy)Consummate artiste Guts Guttercat has gathered together master showmen extraordinaire for direct support and collaboration on the spectacular new release entitled “Beautiful Curse”. Hailing from Paris, France, Guttercats compliments a succession of previous album and single must haves with a stellar collection of first-rate musical mainstays. Electrified with acoustic base, the songs on “Beautiful Curse” are a singer songwriters’ dream and, from afans perspective, tracks you can latch ahold of for self-revival. “Beautiful Curse” has an aura of nomadic romanticism, traversing a musical landscape. Prime examples are opener “Ain’t Going Nowhere, with its impassioned directionless wanderlust built on a solid song structure and the beautifully orchestrated “Slow Down”. Straight ahead rocker “Nobody Knows” sports an almost early to mid career Kinks feel via Guts master story telling and infectious rock and roll direction. Lick Lickens swinging guitar hooks and Hubert Delgrange’s pounding piano carry this cut the whole nine yards. “Death And The Girl” casts a shadowy noir. Guitar accentuate makes an impact reminiscent of Ennio Morricone soundtrack extraordinaire. Interwoven spoken work and lyrical choral create a dream-like kaleidoscope. Aude-Marie Duperret adds an alto breath of life. GUTTERCATS have made “Night of the Vampire” their own thanks to a spirit stirring rendition of the Roky Erickson masterwork. Mathias Luszpinski’s soulful saxophone retorts to Guts’ poetic. Gérald Coulondre makes pomp and circumstance driving the chorus home with solid in the pocket. Two versions of the absoluteamazing “Dead Love’s Shadow” are presented on this release. The heavier of the two has a more rock driven delivery and the second version is included as an acoustic bonus track. You will be hard-pressed to pick a preference as both have endearing musical qualities. This is the track that instigated my infatuation with this band and still captivates and commands after continual repetitions. Maintaining the overall aura is the tribal driven “Fire” with scorching lead guitar and unrelenting Taliaz Blonde bottom end and the ensuing heartache of “Without You I’m Nothing”. The latter features searing guitar realizations from Mister T. Jones and almost an underline sigh of relief as what should be sad and downtrodden has an uplifting feel throughout. Sustained power chords divide the lines between colloquy and refrain in the poignant “Black Sorrow”. The song paints a portrait of dark sentimental turbulence. You can sense Guts profuse anguish as he cries, “This is the last goodbye”. The song invades and leaves a lingering impression on ones psyche. “Way Down In Hell” has hints of outlaw country smattered with jingle jangle. Perhaps Lick Lickens’ tour de force, the spotlight solo builds majestically culminating in a vanishing act that speaks volumes. Guts’ storytelling is so convincing, it is as if he has been there and come back to tell the tale. “Beautiful Curse” has been a mainstay through some personal trials and tribulations and will forever be recognized as a healing force in my vast musical library. Poetic as it is magical, the music is real and the talent is genuine. Own it.http://www.sugarbuzzmagazine.com/?p=14846#more-14846

GUTTERCATS Beautiful CurseCloser Records CD/LP (2015) CL 125 / CLCD 125Following two albums of highest interest, "Pandora's Box "(2008) and"Black Sorrow" (2011), the protean gang, articulated around Guts Guttercatmakes a strong comeback with this third opus of a class hardly reached in ourlands. Recorded in Paris, mixed in Brittany by Jean-Louis Réglain, mastered inBirmingham in the famous John Rivers' studio (Swell Maps, Jacobites,Love and Rockets, Buzzcocks), the mechanic is irrefutably well oiled on thisthird album. Acoustic and electric guitars most naturally melt to raise asumptuous layer to a complex tangle of ballads and Rock n'roll songs in thepure English tradition. Subtle piano or viola arrangements confer nobility andmelancholy to the works. Therefore let you catch by this strange carousel puttogether to leave only thin instants of respite, so much the lulls of this albumare present only to better drive you in the whirls which follow themrelentlessly. Different stages of this journey, in form of a crepuscular RoadMovie are named «Ain't Goin' Nowhere», illicit crossing between Johnnys, E.Morricone and J.Thunders, «Death & The girl», "Dead Love's Shadow","Black Sorrow", elegant triptych of captivating atmosphere circa Only Onesand other Nick Cave, "Nobody Knows", surrounded by the ghosts of N.Suddenand B.Dylan, "Night Of The Vampire", the Roky Erickson's cover in the spirit ofMink Deville with its burning saxophones licks, "Fire", "Way Down In Hell"which wobble dangerously between Gun Club and The Stooges,«Without You I'm Nothing» on which the alchemy between electric guitars andacoustic ones reaches a symbiosis close to the best Dogs D'Amour's,"Slow Down", acoustical intimist ballad flirting with late Nick Drake or ElliottSmith, "Black Sorrow" hinting The Spiders circa 73 ...Add to this two bonus tracks such as very Dollsy western "Hot On Our Trail"and the splendid acoustical version of "Dead Love's Shadow" where the pianoand Guts Guttercat's voice draw us back into the first L.Cohen, or even aforgotten J.Jarmush's soundtrack, and you get one of the brightestatmospheric Rock’n'Roll albums of these last years !There reign shadow and light in perfect harmony, "Beautiful Curse" is aspiritual album which speaks to your soul without ever falling in the high-flownor the reverential, with the necessary dose of intelligence and reflexion whichenable it to rise up in a higher grade and to share the most famous' pantheon.This record shall be discovered without moderation, the more you'll listen to it,more new territories it will reveal you !CLOSER RECORDSwww.facebook.com/guttercatswww.soundcloud.com/guttercats-1