Kiko Dinucci - Rastilho (Tratore)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

---

WHAT WE SAY:

With his percussive approach & a unique style rooted in the Brazilian greats, African religious ceremonies as much as his São Paulo hardcore & punk history the new LP from Kiko Dinucci for Tratore is as fresh a guitar fronted LP you'll hear this year.

If anyone has any tips on how I can keep tabs on eclectic, independent Brazilian music I'm all ears. I always feel I'm missing so much.

Vertical Divider

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

---

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

I’ve wanted to do an album dedicated to the guitar for a long time.
As a child, I treated it as a toy. In my early teens, with the guitar patched with pieces of sellotape, I tried out the most varied tunings to reproduce heavy rock riffs. At the end of adolescence, in the samba circles where someone asked for a D minor and began to sing something I had never played in my life, I forced myself to find the cadences and breaks in the midst of my fear. The guitar came first and always accompanied me.
My dream was to perform choro. I tied myself in knots, but, due to technical limitations, I started looking for my own way to play. Although I really like that Brazilian guitar tradition, it was in the Afro works of Baden Powell and in the guitars of Dorival Caymmi, João Bosco, Jorge Ben, Rosinha de Valença and Gilberto Gil that I could see a different way of applying the instrument to the song format.
My quest with the guitar has always followed a path linked to rhythm, especially with the right hand, which usually sweep-picks the instrument or makes the attacks. The idea has always been to play the guitar as a percussion instrument. The samba and choro guitar, separating the bass strings from the high strings, have helped me a lot in creating a more polyrhythmic view. Usually, when I do something on the guitar, the bass lines and sharp counterpoints are present.
My experience in the São Paulo punk rock / hardcore scene of the 90s, in the samba and in the religious activities at Ilê Leuiwyato, directed by the priestess Iya Sandra Medeiros Epega, somehow shaped the way that I play guitar today.
Music also comes forth from the ground that people walk on, in people, in the dust of the paths, and not only in the artistic world.
Rastilho is part of the desire to find these places. The songs were basically composed over a period of one month. Over a few days, André Magalhães and Bruno Buarque recorded and mixed everything to tape in a completely analog process. Before putting the sound together, I showed them some recordings from the 60’s by Sergio Ricardo, Geraldo Vandré, Edu Lobo, Pedro Sorongo and we noticed a very interesting use of the effects of echoes, delays and reverbs. We looked for this ambience as part of the sound of the album.
The album features Ava Rocha, Ogi and Juçara Marçal.
The wonderful Coral is formed by Dulce Monteiro, Maraísa and Graça Menezes.
The master was done by Felipe Tichauer at Red Traxx Mastering
The cover is by Pablo Saborido, a tropical, putrid, sick image that reminds us of today.
Rastilho truly is a guitar record, where the instrument overlaps everything else, the voices, the lyrics. It is the wood that sings.
Rastilho can be the piece of bone that supports the strings on the guitar easel. Rastilho can also be the fuse that lights the bomb.
The characters on this album lit their own fuses and exploded.

translated by David McLoughlin (Brasil Calling) 
Credits
Recorded and mixed at Minduca Studio - SP (september and november 2019)
Kiko Dinucci - Vocals, acoustic guitar (nylon strings), production, songs and lirycs.
Dulce Monteiro, Maraísa, Gracinha Menezes and Juçara Marçal - chorus (tracks 02, 04, 05, 09 and 11)
Juçara Marçal - voice (tracks 08 and 10)
Ogi - voice (track 08)
Ava Rocha - voice (track 07)
André Magalhães and Bruno Buarque - recording and mixing
Felipe Tichauer - Mastering at Red Traxx Music - Miami
Pablo Saborido - cover photography - Estúdio Soy Yo
Aline Belfort - profile photography