Bar Italia – The Twits review

It’s worth mentioning that Bar Italia are made up of Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, Sam Fenton and Nina Cristante, largely because their early work for the equally enigmatic Dean Blunt’s World Music label was shrouded by anonymity before they jumped ship to Matador and revealed themselves to an extent with the release of their third album Tracey Denim earlier in 2023.

If that inevitably came with accusations of ‘selling out’, it was still a morsel which proved hard enough for many to chew, a spidery, hipster-ish bricolage of nineties post punk and, reaching back further, no wave dissonance, all profered in songs which rarely ended up going beyond the two minute mark.

If the “I liked the early stuff” crowd disliked that, they’re going to hate The Twits, work not be confused with the children’s story of the same name. Some of the old features, like the tri-vocal interplay and determined use of the minorist of chords remain, but the likes of my little tony, hi fiver and world’s greatest emoter are all encouragements to cracking open their avant-garde shell. The secret’s out – and Bar Italia sort of want you to know it.

You can read a full review here.