Gianni Rojatti's Dolcetti: Metallo Beat

Dolcetti is the first solo project from Italian guitar shredder and member of The Casuals, Gianni "Jana" Rojatti, who is impressively assisted on the album by drummer Erik Tulissio. The album is also notable for the odd guest appearance by Alex Masi, Alberto Rigoni (Twinspirits bassist) and Fabio Trentini (bass). So with the lack of a vocalist, you'll already have gathered that this is (almost) an instrumental album, where Rojatti has the freedom to sway from style to style, as well as buuurrrrnnnn his fretboard as and when the mood takes him.

It would appear that today's episode of Dolcetti was brought to us by the number "3" and the letter "T", with the eight songs on this self titled debut all rather oddly being 3:33 in length (the half brother of the beast??) and with the exception of the only vocal track "Away From Home", they all also begin with the letter "T". So putting aside the rather "anal" tendencies of this album, thankfully the music is actually pretty interesting and certainly is expertly performed. Whether there is really room for another uber talented six string slinger who has elements of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and John Petrucci in his repertoire is rather doubtful, but if like me you are impressed by what those three guitarists bring to their music, then Dolcetti have quite a lot to offer. Rajatti himself is a versatile, fluid player, whose tone is reminiscent of Vai, but thankfully has the songwriting skills of Satriani, meaning that rather than eight tracks of widdle, this album actually has songs with structure, as well as tremendous musical skill. Yes much revolves around fret swoops, swirls and flurries, but on the whole the idea is to hit you with a strong melodic idea first and a barrage of notes second. Sometimes the effect is like heavy riffed up Zappa, sometimes we slide into Satriani cool and from time to time the shredding and rhythmical patterns head into prog metal territory, but thankfully it is all done with style, skill and taste.

The aforementioned "Away From Home" which is an odd and unwelcome mixture of ska licks, oddly English sounding vocals and twee guitar licks, leaves an end result that sounds like it should be the theme tune to a kid's TV programme. Whilst it is throwaway good fun, it is completely out of place on an otherwise guitar heavy instrumental workout.

This album may only appeal to a small section of people, but if top class guitar playing centred round interesting instrumental ideas is your bag, then there's much to enjoy here.

Track Listing
1. Tribale
2. Transient
3. Transport
4. Tremors
5. Trytrebor
6. Away From Home
7. Tresex
8. Tremendous

Added: March 27th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Dolcetti MySpace
Hits: 2942
Language: english

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