Naples, Italy · disco · funk

Nu Genea

1 upcoming festival

Neapolitan disco built out of Mediterranean funk, dub and boogie — sun-bleached grooves sung in dialect, with a live band that pushes them harder.

Nu Genea are an Italian duo, Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina, from Naples; the pair spent formative years working in Berlin before returning to Italian themes. They recorded early on as Nu Guinea, including work built from sessions with Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen.

Their music combines seventies Italian disco and boogie with funk, dub and Mediterranean influences, often sung in Neapolitan dialect and arranged around synthesisers, bass and hand percussion. Albums including Nuova Napoli and Bar Mediterraneo have framed the city, and the wider Mediterranean, as the records' subject as much as their setting. On stage the duo expand into a full band, which pushes the studio grooves toward longer, more physical versions.