by Dom Lepore (@domelepore)
The moody, nonchalant indie rock from UK’s bar italia is, paradoxically, so exciting. They finally received their deserved flowers with May 2023’s Tracey Denim – a textually hypnagogic, lethargic, and pensive guitar record with an echoey timbre and self-destructive narrative. Like its cover’s high contrast photo capturing the trio sitting unassuming, their music mirrors that, as if they accidentally became so acclaimed. On the surface, bar italia don’t sound technically proficient, but thorough listens swiftly reveal the complexity underscoring their chemistry. Their sound evokes the night. They soundtrack gloomy overcast days. They’re alluringly bougie. Also, like their contemporaries on Dean Blunt’s World Music label, there is a surreal but familiar quality to their sound, almost like it’s liminal. The inversion on Tracey Denim is indeed an act of taking familiar ‘90s art rock conventions and making them new.
Later in the same year, November brought upon The Twits – the noisier, Britpop-adjacent, and spiritually power-pop follow-up to Tracey Denim. It’s not more of the same, as the cover’s elongated bright yellow reading of the title hints at: more light has seeped into the trio’s dark crevices. It’s less monotonous and eerie than its predecessor, instead adopting a bluesy, chamberlike neo-psychedelic undertone. It’s creepily trippy – the brash, anthemic opener “my little tony” suggests otherwise – but every rhythm moves with grounded propulsion, like anything from Pavement’s thorny farewell record Terror Twilight. Better yet, The Twits resembles the ominous low-slung percussion of any The Brian Jonestown Massacre record in their prime. All in all, it’s a different beast. To then get more upbeat outtakes outside of the near-gothic country overpowering the album is a welcome treat.
The 2024 EP, The Tw*ts, perhaps cheekily titled given the band being shrugged off as provocateurs (the band’s own Jezmi Tarik Fehmi is quoted in Mixmag saying, “I don’t think there’s been a huge amount of exciting guitar music recently”), contains three would-be B-sides to “sounds like you had to be there,” a standout smoky dirge during The Twits’ final third. The first in the set, “The only conscious being in the universe” is poppy like “my little tony” and is maybe their most refined song. Warbled guitars vortex as if fed down a tube, Nina Cristante’s voice is as glistening as ever, but Sam Fenton is uncharacteristically raucous, interjecting with discordant screams that allude to another style change. “Sarcoustica” is an uneasy and mellow violin-infused acoustic guitar song. “drumstart,” then, features a punchy barrage of crunchy guitars and rushing hi-hats, with Fenton reprising his novel quivery vocal performance. People may still disparage bar italia for being careless, tired, or even pretentious, but their uncomplicatedness gives them their authenticity. Cryptic from being both ordinary and effortlessly cool – that’s remarkable. If The Tw*ts bookends their 2023 one-two punch victory lap, their next reinvention has much anticipation.