Rui ‘Riot’ Pité
Do Bairro
ao Cais
From Bairro to Cais is my vision of a path that has left a mark in my life as a musician throughout the years. More than a dot in a map, it’s a line in the city. A journey that I undertook for more than 10 years several times, almost as if it were a Music Route in Lisbon.
My piece starts during the day, in Bairro Alto, and it reveals the sounds and the light this part of town possesses. A sort of quiet in the midst of urban chaos. Fado players tuning their guitars, tourists walking by and taking photos and even African street vendors selling their necklaces and thumb pianos (kalimbas).
Later, the Bairro gets ready to welcome the people who want to start the evening out with a drink and perhaps even stay for dinner.
Here starts a more pronounced musical journey. Background music, a lot of talking and time flies until the next live music bar.
But the night always wants more and as soon as the Bairro starts to fall asleep it’s time to start the pilgrimage, down the street to Cais do Sodré. From 80s music to Jungle to Reggae there is something for everyone. Food, drink, striptease, very loud music, the night gets chaotic, in the best way possible.
Until the day
comes again.
Bio
Rui Pité, Rui Pité, stage name RIOT, started his career as a drummer in a garage band, back then already in a partnership with João Barbosa (also known as Branko, founding member of Buraka). In 1998, at a party, he listens to Drum&Bass for the first time and electronica became a part of his life for good. Riot and Branko joined the Cooltrain Crew, the oldest Jungle/Drum&Bass Portuguese collective, having played and produced music until the international boom of the Buraka Som Sistema phenomenon, which became a huge part of their lives.
In 2008 he creates Faster Music, the first Portuguese label of Drum&Bass, Dubstep and everything revolving around the Bass culture. Around 2013 and together with his Buraka Som Sistema colleagues, the search for the perfect bass line led to the development of one more musical genre based on the zouk sounds of the Antilles and the Portuguese-speaking African kizombas. The phenomenon became a hit and they called it Zouk Bass.
Because of the rhythmic proximity between this new sound and the music RIOT has always produced, and the approval of audiences all over the world, his solo career has been growing and for the time being walks alongside the Buraka Som Sistema project.
