Biography
London's bar italia shapes hazy, introspective indie rock that pulls equally from post-punk, shoegaze, and lo-fi aesthetics while steering clear of overt allegiance to any single strand. In their earliest phase the London trio aligned with Dean Blunt's World Music imprint, and efforts such as 2020's Quarrel and 2021's Bedhead mirrored the label's murky, dreamlike experiments. By the time 2022 brought singles like "Banks" and the following year delivered full-lengths Tracey Denim and The Twits, bar italia had shifted toward a marginally more refined sound that retained every bit of its restless, mesmeric core.
Although the group maintained a modest public presence, its three members—singers, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalists Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton—moved through London's underground circuit in the late 2010s and early 2020s both together and separately. Fenton and Fehmi first crossed paths at a 2018 open-mic night and promptly launched the grungy indie project Double Virgo. Once they shared a flat, they encountered upstairs neighbor Cristante, a Rome native who had already released hazy, lo-fi pop on Blunt's label under the name NINA. The three began collaborating in 2019 and intensified their work during the COVID-19 global pandemic. bar italia's debut on World Music, the November 2020 EP Angelica Pilled, presented murky shoegaze and included several tracks that later surfaced on the band's first album, Quarrel. That December release broadened the group's palette with touches of folk and elliptical electronic music. In March 2021 the trio followed with Bedhead, a splintered set of vignette-style songs that highlighted their moody, off-the-cuff energy and included a guest appearance from Mica Levi.
Throughout 2022 bar italia put out multiple singles, beginning with March's "Banks," then May's "Miracle Crush," and November's "Polly Armour." These more expansive and polished pieces were compiled on an EP offered at live dates including a show alongside Coby Sey. Around the same period the band appeared at Pitchfork Music Festival London and opened for Martin Rev. Early in 2023 bar italia joined Matador, which issued the third album Tracey Denim digitally and on CD that May and on vinyl that September. Recorded and produced by the group itself and mixed by Marta Salogni, the set emphasized the hypnotic, bittersweet aspects of their music. The band again teamed with Salogni for their second release of the year, November 2023's The Twits. Shaped across eight weeks inside a home studio in Mallorca, the winding tracks paired cleaner production with denser, noisier guitars.
Although the group maintained a modest public presence, its three members—singers, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalists Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton—moved through London's underground circuit in the late 2010s and early 2020s both together and separately. Fenton and Fehmi first crossed paths at a 2018 open-mic night and promptly launched the grungy indie project Double Virgo. Once they shared a flat, they encountered upstairs neighbor Cristante, a Rome native who had already released hazy, lo-fi pop on Blunt's label under the name NINA. The three began collaborating in 2019 and intensified their work during the COVID-19 global pandemic. bar italia's debut on World Music, the November 2020 EP Angelica Pilled, presented murky shoegaze and included several tracks that later surfaced on the band's first album, Quarrel. That December release broadened the group's palette with touches of folk and elliptical electronic music. In March 2021 the trio followed with Bedhead, a splintered set of vignette-style songs that highlighted their moody, off-the-cuff energy and included a guest appearance from Mica Levi.
Throughout 2022 bar italia put out multiple singles, beginning with March's "Banks," then May's "Miracle Crush," and November's "Polly Armour." These more expansive and polished pieces were compiled on an EP offered at live dates including a show alongside Coby Sey. Around the same period the band appeared at Pitchfork Music Festival London and opened for Martin Rev. Early in 2023 bar italia joined Matador, which issued the third album Tracey Denim digitally and on CD that May and on vinyl that September. Recorded and produced by the group itself and mixed by Marta Salogni, the set emphasized the hypnotic, bittersweet aspects of their music. The band again teamed with Salogni for their second release of the year, November 2023's The Twits. Shaped across eight weeks inside a home studio in Mallorca, the winding tracks paired cleaner production with denser, noisier guitars.
Albums
Singles
