Banda do Casaco
Dos benefícios dum vendido no reino dos bonifácios

Release Date: 1975 | Tracklist

October 1974. Portugal was in a state of great political upheaval, with the April revolution on 25 still very fresh and with a not yet fully established and stabilised social order after having left 48 years of a dictatorship political regime. It was in this month and in this socio-political troubled context that a new prog group in Portugal named Banda Do Casaco came into the studio to record their debut studio album, “Dos Beneficios Dum Vendido No Reino Dos Bonifácios”.

The final result of the work made by the band was a conceptual album of Portuguese progressive folk music absolutely odd that no one managed to overcome in other subsequent efforts tested in this musical style, and, in my humble opinion, not even the group itself. In reality, it’s, therefore, a musical work of the highest quality level. That is true to the instrumental and composition level, to the level of the concept and lyrics and to the level of the art cover of the album.

From the lyrical point of view, it treats the Portuguese reality, at the time, setting it in a highly intelligent and ruthless political satire. The album develops around the story of a character who sells his soul to the Devil in return, not so much for knowledge or wisdom, but only for money and social prestige. This entire narrative is served to the listener through excellent satiric lyrics, always cared, poetic, corrosive, allegorical and metaphorical, occasionally adorned with inspired puns which, moreover, are perfectly evident even in many of the titles of the tracks such as “Henrique Ser Ou Não Henriquecer”, “Lavados Lavados Sim” and “Horas De Ponta E Mola”. The use of puns is frequently used in Portugal, which is particularly evident in the dialogues of many of the Portuguese films of the 40’s in the 20th century. Moreover, a simple attentive listening to this album is enough for realizing the enormous importance that the lyrics have. They’re at least as important as the instrumental aspects, and, in fact, there are few moments unsung throughout these almost 40 minutes without it. However, this abundance of vocalizations never becomes tiresome. Probably, the fact that the sung parties will be divided by many performers contributes to that. This must be seen in both aspects, in lyrics and music. It’s very difficult for those who don’t know the Portuguese language to have the complete picture of it.

In music and in instrumental terms, the group will drink their musical influences from several different musical sources. The two most important are the intervention political songs and the traditional Portuguese music. To that we can join the jazz, some progressive music, experimentation and boldness, all served by an exemplary implementation. Indeed, we can perfectly find on this album, side by side, the reverence to the tradition of the old time music, and some absolutely revolutionary aspects such as the use of dissonances, some intricate composition or even the use of unconventional instruments like the use of stick and deodorant sprays. In terms of composition, it’s notorious for the richness of new ideas that were put on the album, preventing any possibility of it becoming boring or repetitive, even after several hearings. This richness of ideas is particularly evident on the song “A Cavalo Dado” where, thanks to the constant changes in melody, the band can build an epic track that doesn’t reach more than 3 minutes long. What is impressive is that despite the multiple changes in a short time they never sound forced or seem to be put out of place.

It also highlights the beautiful graphic work of the art cover of the album, courtesy of Carlos Zingaro. He involves the album with a kind of comic that reproduces some of the moments of the narrative presented on the album. Who is lucky to own a copy of the original vinyl disc, which is my case, knows very well what I’m talking about.


Conclusion: I returned to review some more Portuguese progressive albums. After reviewing albums from Quarteto 1111, José Cid and Petrus Castrus, now came the time to review albums from Banda Do Casaco. I decided to begin by their debut. It belongs to one of the few and best Portuguese progressive albums from the 70’s with some others like “Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê, Cantamos Pessoas Vivas” from Quarteto 1111, “10.000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus E Marte” from José Cid, “Mestre” from Petrus Castrus and “Mistérios E Maravilhas” from Tantra. “Dos Beneficios Dum Vendido No Reino Dos Bonifácios” is really an exceptional album from the lyrical, musical and even from the art cover point of view. It’s an entirely acoustic album with lots of instruments performed, which some of them are very unusual, plenty of vocal works and an irreverent musical approach to the composition mixed perfectly with very special lyrics for the concept story. The final result is an incredible and very original album. So, and concluding, if you want to hear a traditional progressive album with long epics and where the use of electric musical instruments is common, stay away from it. However, if you are an open mind and you are looking for something new, strange and original, even if you don’t catch a word of Portuguese, you are in the right place. I really think that you can’t waste your time checking this.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

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