Their burgeoning individual careers, to date, have included many years of touring experience with some of the founding fathers of Brazilian Bossa Nova and Tropicalia and collaborations with such diverse musicians as Beastie Boy producer Mario Caldato, Brazilian noise-guru Arto Lindsay, and Trattoria artist Takako Minekawa.
Most recently, they have embarked together on the project of a musical trilogy: three albums by the threesome, each created under the leadership of a different member, and allowing his particular vision to come to the forefront. With each incarnation, we see the triumvirate through a different lens. As Domenico explains: “We had the idea to make a trilogy with music. Each member of the band will stand in the center and make his own album, in this way, we can change the focus every shot we make.”
2001 saw the release of Music Typewriter, the exquisitely crafted, lyrical debut of the plus twos. The album, accompanied by an extended tour of the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan, was highly praised by critics. “Half of this debut is mentholated bossa nova; half is sexy carnival music for the digital era. All of it is gorgeous.” (Entertainment Weekly; February 23, 2001)
Three years on, the band has undertaken a change in musical direction (and name), shifting focus to the drummer, electronic percussionist, composer, and “sound-scapist” Domenico Lancelotti. Sincerely Hot infectiously combines samba, bossa nova, tropicalia, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), rock and electronica together in a raw, rough mix that still hangs on to its sweet Brazilian roots. It may be, in Moreno’s words, “clearly a drummer’s album,” but its reconstitution of the diverse elements present on Music Typewriter – increasing the emphasis on groove and sonic experimentalism, without sacrificing the compositional mettle and subtlety that kindled the trio’s first album – result in an invigorating, inventive, but approachable record that should appeal to ears of all stripes.
-Domenico- was born in 1972 and raised in an Italian-Brazilian family in Rio de Janeiro. The rhythms of samba are in his blood: his father is the well-known 1970s composer and singer Ivor Lancellotti. Domenico has collaborated with artists such as Quarteto Em Cy, Daniel Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Fernanda Abreu, Adriana Calcanhotto; in the ’90s, around the time he first met and befriended his current compadres, he formed the experimental rock band Mulheres Que Dizem Sim (Women Who Say Yes). As well as a drummer, Domenico is also a visual artist – he created the cover art for all of the trio’s releases so far, with the help of his wife Zoy.