Almamegretta - A Migrant Soul to a Dub Beat

Champions of Italian dub, Almamegretta (vulgar Latin for “migrant soul”) have managed to ferry the dirty, dark sounds of trip-hop into the Mediterranean, at an (apparently) impossible crossroads between Bristol, Jamaica, Naples and the Maghreb.

The original nucleus of the band was formed by Gennaro Tesone (Gennaro T, on drums) together with Giovanni Mantice (Orbit, on guitar), Gemma Aiello (on bass) and Patrizia Di Fiore (on vocals). After a decent apprenticeship in Naples venues, including the historic Diamond Dogs, playing a psychedelic rhythm'n'blues with English lyrics, Almamegretta won the first Concorso Nazionale Gruppi Musicali Di Base – Rock Ottantotto, held at the Marabù Music Hall club in Reggio Emilia, with the song “What My Brother Said”. Almamegretta, however, rose from the ashes of Cairo, a band more devoted to a certain psychobeat, among whose founders was the late Neapolitan keyboardist Gianni Guastella, who passed away in 2025, a member of the original lineup until 1989, when the group was still called Alma Megretta. Almost immediately, though, Patrizia Di Fiore left the band; after her departure, Gennaro T and Mantice re-formed the group in 1991, bringing in Gennaro Della Volpe (Raiz) on vocals, who came from a beat/ska outfit, and, through him, Paolo Polcari (Pablo) on keyboards. With Raiz on board, the band began translating the lyrics into Italian and reworking the songs through an original sonic formula made of dub, reggae, funk, electronica and pop, steeped in the melting pot of Southern Italian popular music, Neapolitan music in particular. Massimo Severino also joined on bass, and with this lineup Almamegretta took part in the 1991 edition of Arezzo Wave.

Figli di Annibale

Severino, however, also left almost immediately, replaced by Tonino Borrelli: he's the bassist who appears on the first EP Figli di Annibale (1992), the record that established Almamegretta as one of the leading names of the fertile Italian scene of the '90s. Four tracks recorded in five days, whose driving title track would later feature in the soundtrack of Gabriele Salvatores's film "Sud" (1997).

But real recognition came the following year with Animamigrante (1993), an album produced by Ben Young, where the band's countless influences from every corner of the world are already clearly audible, naturally translated into an effective Neapolitan dialect that thus becomes a universal language. Mario Formisano, a Neapolitan dub-funk bassist also known by the stage name “4mx” given to him by Raiz himself, joined on bass. The record, which marks the band's encounter with D.RaD (Stefano Facchielli) and combines new compositions with tracks from the EP, won the Targa Tenco for best debut album of the year.

What stands out above all is Raiz's magnetic singing, right from the opening summation of “'O Bbuono E 'O Malamente”, framed as an imaginary trial before a jury. A social indictment of decay and neglect: “Ije so' nato e so' cresciuto ind'a nu quartiere addo' o arruobbi o spacci o te faje na pera, senza 'na lira annanz'a televisione che te dice nun si' ommo si nun tiene 'o macchinone… e allora che vulite si vengo a cucaina si voglio magna' pur je sera e matina”.

This spirit of social critique runs throughout the record, ranging from a hymn to the South in “Suddd” to the sarcastic, explosive “Fattallà”, which takes aim at every form of racism and discrimination. There's also room for history, with the Punic Wars of “Figli di Annibale”, through which Raiz puts forward the theory of our African descent.

The whole album is a journey into the heart of the Mediterranean, driven by dub basslines along the lines of a reggae that is at once narcotic and nervy. A sonic cross-breeding aimed at creating a kind of “total music”, tearing down boundaries and stylistic barriers.

While the exuberant energy of “Fattallà”, the standout track from Animamigrante, gave the band their first commercial success, it was with Sanacore (1995) that major success arrived, thanks in part to the contribution of the dark, muffled electronic atmospheres of the dub production by Adrian Sherwood, famed producer at London's On-U Sound.

But Naples remains the epicentre of their music, a centre of gravity fiercely upheld and one that won't accept being called into question, even as it's shot through with dense Arabic and Mediterranean sonorities, in songs like “Maje”, “Pe dint'e viche addo' nun trase 'o mare” and “O Sciore Chiu Felice” (with the horns on fine form). The title track, too, is steeped in the purest Neapolitan folk tradition, poised between tammurriata and raggamuffin, with the seductive embroidery of Daniele Sepe's flute and a historic voice of Neapolitan tradition, Giulietta Sacco.

But rhythm also leaves a decisive mark on the album, between dub basslines and funk-rock pulses, as on “Ammore Nemico“, “Sciosce Viento” and “Ruanda“, intensely hybrid and hypnotic songs in which it's above all drummer Gennaro T. Bassi who takes centre stage, his drumming thundering against a wall of keyboards on the other dub number, “Se stuta o’ fuoco“, as well as on the closing track “Tempo”, another tumultuous pastiche of styles, rhythms and Mediterranean-flavoured timbres.

The album's absolute masterpiece, however, is the poignant “Nun te scurda'”, a reggae ballad steeped in electronics, in which Raiz sings in the first person from a woman's point of view, telling the story of a woman who voices her desire to love freely and who rebels against the stereotypes of "mamma, puttana o brutta copia 'e n'ommo" ("mother, whore, or poor copy of a man"). A lyric born out of postwar stories the singer had heard from his grandmother and mother, about a woman branded a whore for her legitimate desire to love and have many men. A song that perfectly embodies the Neapolitan band's attempt to fuse the Neapolitan song tradition with reggae, without distorting either. The video for “Nun Te Scurda'”, which will also be the single taken from the album, will be directed by filmmaker Pappi Corsicato.

Almamegretta's lyrics are striking too, certainly more intricate and complex than those of raggamuffin "cousins" like 99 Posse. Lyrics ranging from denunciations of racism and the abuses of power to immigration and religion, never giving in to the easy rhetoric of student-protest sloganeering.

Sanacore will earn the band another Targa Tenco, this time for Best Album in Dialect.

Naples trip

But the successes don't end there, and above all they don't stop at national borders. Sanacore, in fact, makes an impression in England, where members of contemporary, hugely popular bands (Massive Attack, Asian Dub Foundation, Zion Train, Leftfield), close to them not just in stylistic terms but also in political and cultural affinities, begin to take an interest in Almamegretta, forging personal relationships of mutual respect and collaboration. Massive Attack, in particular, ask Raiz and co. for a remix of their famous "Karmacoma": the Napoli Trip version will later be included by the English trio on their compilation "Singles".

In 1996 the compilation Indubb is released, featuring previously released tracks reworked in a dub vein, remixed not only by Almamegretta themselves but also by Bill Laswell, Adrian Sherwood, Scorn and Frequencies. The following year brings the prestigious collaboration with Pino Daniele on the track "Canto do mar", included by the Neapolitan singer-songwriter on his album "Dimmi cosa succede sulla Terra".

Pino Daniele returns the favour by taking part in the making of Almamegretta's next album, Lingo (1998). A complex, harmonious record that confirms the band's phase of full artistic growth. Raiz's entourage grows ever more crowded: also taking part in the project are Bill Laswell, Pasquale Minieri, Tommaso Vittorini, Eraldo Bernocchi and Count Dubulah, bassist of Transglobal Underground.

The leitmotif is the hypnotic "Suonno", which reappears twice over the course of the album, with different shades of sound, rhythm and language. But there's no shortage of more melodic tracks either, such as "Rootz" or "En Soft", where Raiz's captivating voice skilfully conjures dark, romantic atmospheres. An original vocal style that harks back to Neapolitan tradition while winking at Arab muezzin calls. Backing him up are various MCs who support him with rapped interjections throughout a constantly evolving work, swinging between the tight dance pulse of "Ninas" and the rarefied ambient electronics of "Berberia".

But what really carries the album are above all the two singles: the driving funk of "Gramigna", the vibrant tale of rebellion that opens the tracklist, and the furious black rap of "Black Athena": both will become huge hits on music TV too, with their videos in heavy rotation. Worth a mention, finally, are the Middle Eastern-tinged secular prayer "Fatmah" and the poignant "Respiro", closer to Neapolitan tradition with strings arranged by Pasquale Minieri, yet projected into the future thanks to injections of sturdy electronic loops.

The band's migrant soul continues its journey with 4/4 (1999), the first album entirely produced by the band and mixed by D.RaD, which, as the title suggests, expands on the ideas of Lingo and pushes them to extremes, heading towards the dancefloor, between dance music and social commitment, in the vein of the international trip-hop of the period.

4/4 doesn't boast powerful singles but rather spreads its mix evenly across the whole record, starting with the opening track, "The Cheap Guru", which warns against the dangers of today's cut-price gurus. Special attention should go to "Riboulez le Kick", the obsessive track that was meant to be the album's second single, before the more accessible "Sempre" was chosen instead.

There's no shortage of love songs either, like "Brucia" and "Venus", never predictable and carried along by an ever-compelling rhythm.

The album, recorded at Mauro Pagani's studios in Milan, also features a contribution from the extraordinary Siberian singer Sainkho Namtchilak.

The following Imaginaria (2001) once again surprises with the freshness of its sound, enriching the techno and dub rhythms of their music with new Mediterranean contributions. Their lyrics, simple and therefore universal in content, mark a further step in the pursuit of their utopia, through an Anglo-Afro-Hispanic-Italian-Neapolitan language that aims to be the world's passepartout.

Although the bursting creative flame of their early work seems to have somewhat dimmed, there's no shortage of brilliant tracks, such as the electric gallop of the title track, the intense “Fa Ammore Cu ‘Mme” and the pressing “Mergellina 70”, a contemporary look that's nonetheless packed with stylistic nods to a kind of imaginary TV crime drama of chases and gangsters set in the Gulf of Naples.

A crescendo that unfolds over 71 minutes of music and culminates in the two closing tracks, “Pa' Chango” and “Rubb da Dubb”, where the rhythm grows ever more relentless and gripping.

The album earns the group their second Targa Tenco for Best Album in Dialect (and their third Targa overall), while the cover art wins the Italian Grammy Award for Best Graphic Design. Crowning a period of extraordinary popularity, Almamegretta perform in their hometown of Naples, in Piazza del Plebiscito, in front of over 70,000 people for the New Year's Eve concert.

A year later came Come! Come! (2002), their first live album (and last for Bmg), documenting and summing up the band's relentless activity on stages in Italy and abroad over almost ten years of touring. The tracklist is rounded out by two new studio tracks recorded with the participation of Mauro Pagani.

Diaspora and reunion

In 2003 Raiz left the band to pursue a solo career that would nevertheless never match the success he achieved with his bandmates.

While the charismatic vocalist tackled the first of the three solo albums that would feature him between 2003 and 2009 (Wop, Uno and YA!), the remaining members carried on with Sciuoglie O'Cane (2003), which marked the debut of the newly founded Sanacore label as well as the beginning of a new phase in the history of Almamegretta. Vocal duties went to rapper Lucariello and the returning Patrizia Di Fiore. Also worth noting is the significant contribution of guests such as Marco Parente and Francesco Di Bella of 24 Grana.

At the heart of the album is once again Naples, a bubbling cauldron of social contrasts and creative ferment, which inspires a sonic hybrid where pop, jazz, dub basslines, and narcotic, stretched-out rhythms blend into a sonic magma that reaches its peaks in the gripping single-and-video “Preta d'Oro”, in the turbulent funk of the title track, and in the lyricism of “Lo stesso vento” (“Dimmelo/ pure senza parole/ che senti quello che sento; Dimmelo/ pure senza parole/ che siamo lo stesso vento”) e nella malia di “Solo cu tte”, another piece of electronic alchemy with a Mediterranean twist.

On the lexical front too, the album reaffirms the band's “mixed-blood” soul, alternating between four “languages” (Italian, Neapolitan, Portuguese, English).

In 2004 the winter tour kicked off, followed soon after by a spring leg, which saw Zaira join the vocal line-up.

But just as they were finding a new dimension, Almamegretta suffered a devastating blow: on the night between October 31 and November 1, Stefano Facchielli aka D.RaD, the band's dubmaster and true sonic playmaker, died in a car accident in Milan, leaving a void that couldn't be filled and that put the very survival of the project in serious doubt.

On December 29, a concert for D.RaD was held at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. It was a tribute concert for Facchielli, featuring the participation of many friends: Ash, Patrizia Di Fiore, Massimo Fantoni, Mario Formisano, Fefo, Greg Ferro, Lucariello, Gianni Mantice, Sergio Messina, Pasquale Minieri, Marco Parente, Raiz, Gennaro T, Zaira. As a further tribute, the band released an “instant CD” titled Sciuoglie 'e cane live 2004, a double live album featuring the last recorded evidence of D.RaD's work on stage.

Having weathered the moment of disarray, in the name of their departed friend Almamegretta regrouped and decided to carry on, effectively establishing themselves as the last “Italo-posse” of an exhilarating national era.

Together with longtime collaborators such as Mario “4mx” Formisano on bass and Fefo Forconi on guitar, they released an almost entirely instrumental album, programmatically titled Dubfellas (2006), which paved the way for the more elaborate Vulgus (2008), which saw Raiz return on vocals for one track (the pulsing “Guarda annanz'”) and featured contributions from Neil Perch of Britain's Zion Train, Julie Higgins (Princess Julianna), Horace Andy (Massive Attack), Lucariello and other guests.

Their metropolitan ethno-dub blend returns, still spiced with Arab and Mediterranean aromas. But the mind quickly drifts to Bristol (as well as Kingston) on hearing the immense voice of trip-hop guru Horace Andy on “Just Say Who”, a true gem of the album, alongside the featured contributions of a dazzling Princess Julianna, who lights up the drum'n'bass of “High And Dry” and the exotic, Orientalist cocktail of “Che 'a fa'”.

Neapolitan folklore, meanwhile, comes back to life above all through the contributions of Piero Brega and Peppe Lanzetta.

During that period the group took part, alongside Raiz, in John Turturro's docu-film "Passione", a project that, having since become a live show, would go on to showcase the best of Neapolitan music from the last fifty years, bringing together three generations.

In 2010 came Dubfellas Vol.2, which sharpened the experimental, exploratory approach rooted in dub, with contributions from Neil Perch (Zion Train) and vocals by Marcello Coleman, Julie Higgins aka Princess Julianna, and Raiz himself.

Despite having deepened their interest in the experimental side of their sound world, Almamegretta didn't shy away from the occasional dip into popularity, such as their appearance at the 2013 Sanremo Festival, where they finished 14th with the songs "Mamma non lo sa" and "Onda che vai".

For the occasion (almost) the entire original line-up reunited, sealing their rediscovered unity with a new album, Controra (2013). Raiz returned permanently on vocals — though in truth he had never fully left the fold — while Gennaro T took up drums and percussion and Pier Paolo Polcari handled the keyboards.

The long-awaited return, however, partly disappointed expectations. The familiar offbeat rhythms, ethno-dub textures and electronic contaminations are still there, running through fairly successful tracks like "Amaromare", "Controra" and "The follower", co-written with musician and composer Gaudi.

Less striking are precisely the two Sanremo songs, "Mamma non lo sa" and "Onda che vai" (the latter penned by Federico Zampaglione), which point to a pop drift that risks undermining the solidity of the project. Somewhere in between sits the powerful "Custodiscimi", melodic yet gritty enough to preserve the historic trademark of these standard-bearers of Neapolitan dub. The duet with Enzo Gragnaniello also works, on the track he composed, "'na bella vita", as does the ever-timeless sax of James Senese, which runs through the last of the eleven tracks, "Pane vino e casa", which includes a fragment of a speech by the enlightened entrepreneur Adriano Olivetti on ethics and business.

In the lyrics, the social themes dear to Raiz & co. remain central, from working conditions (the title track and "Pane vino e casa" itself) to the illusory myth of progress ("Mamma non lo sa"), from emigration ("Amaromare") to a sense of solidarity with worlds that are distant but not that distant ("La Cina è vicina").

The next project was titled EnnEnne (2016), from the acronym of "Nescio Nomen", one of the phrases once used to register at birth children born to unknown parents. The album contains ten songs — nine new tracks and an unexpected reggae version of "Ciucculatina d''a ferrovia", an old hit by Nino D'Angelo — and brings the band's original line-up back together

The ethno-dub of "On The Run" opens the proceedings, suspended somewhere between Vesuvius and Bristol, while the spirit of Napoli Centrale hovers over the afrobeat veins of the single "O'ssaje comm'è". The ever-present Neapolitan folk tradition also resurfaces, in the mandolin strings of "Scatulune" (the next single, perhaps?) and above all in the tammurriata of "Musica popolare", featuring Carlo D'Angiò (already a key figure in the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare). "Curre core", on the other hand, is a heart-stopping plunge into the Naples-trip territory of that special "Karmacoma" gifted to Massive Attack, its refrain resurfacing amid the keys of a sumptuous piano.

Among the guests is also Cristina Donadio, a stage and TV actress who would go on to fame thanks to her role in the second season of the series "Gomorra", who delivers a spoken-word part on "Votta a passà" alongside students from the Liceo "Elsa Morante" in Scampia, Naples.

Sherwood returned for the mixing, once again collaborating with the Neapolitan band for the occasion.

A year later came Ennenne Dub (2017), in which producers such as Sherwood himself, Dennis Bovell, Gaudi, Vibronics, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Manasseh, Mario Conte, Khalab & Messmorize and Paolo Baldini remixed the tracks from EnnEnne. The album also contains two new tracks: "Pray" and "Music Evolution".

On June 10, 2022, Senghe (which means "cracks" in Neapolitan) was released, a new album of original material six years in the making. Preceded by the single and video "Figlio", the album was produced by Paolo Baldini, the undisputed leading light of European dub/reggae, who also joined the band as bassist. Deep lyrics, rich in content grounded in reality and social themes, the result of collaborations that give the album an international scope.

The Mediterranean melody that has always been the Neapolitan band's distinctive trait crosses paths with reggae and, above all, electronics, which here more than on any other album leaves ample room for striking live interpretations. Every track was written by Almamegretta and Paolo Baldini, except for three songs written for them by Danilo Turco ("Figlio", "Senghe" and "Sulo") plus one cover, "'Na stella" by the late Fausto Mesolella. The cross-pollination shows not only in the sounds and lyrics but also in the languages Raiz uses: Neapolitan dialect, English and Hebrew.

There's considerable curiosity about how well these tracks will translate to the live stage, given their dance-hall and electro leanings

With three Targhe Tenco awards to their name, Almamegretta - though now chronologically distant from the peak glory days of Sanacore and Lingo - deliver to their audience an album with a decidedly intense and very polished sound (perhaps even a touch conventional), marked by universal, international sonic traits.

Meanwhile Raiz continues his solo career as well with Si l'ammore è 'o cuntrario d' 'a morte (2023), enlisting the collaboration of Radicanto for a tribute to another great singer of Naples, Sergio Bruni, through ten tracks meant as a kind of thank-you to the city.

An encounter that overturns the timeline and underscores just how much everything in Naples lives on with its own constancy. Sergio Bruni, the first, is among the already illustrious Neapolitan singer-songwriters who set to music everything that happens in daily life in the shadow of Vesuvius. His music and his lyrics dispensed poetry on sunny days and comfort on the sad days of Naples and the Neapolitans. The second protagonist is Raiz (formerly frontman of Almamegretta), who less than a month ago brought Bruni's work back into the present with a tribute album dedicated to him.

As Raiz himself has explained, the record was not an easy journey, given the emotions and memories the city stirred up in him. It's a work undoubtedly charged with a particular intensity. Raiz's voice is as it always is, but in some tracks you can truly sense remarkable emotional commitment. After all, as he has reiterated, the album is dedicated to the memory of his mother.

On the whole, this work of rediscovery is interesting, though it remains an operation that's hard to pin down in purely record-industry terms. The melodies are enchanting, delicate, melancholic, and Radicanto's accompaniment is perfectly measured, blending seamlessly with the vocals. One does wonder, though, just how necessary yet another revisiting of the Neapolitan song tradition really was. Perhaps Raiz himself answers that question when he says that tackling these songs should be read as an after-the-fact study of material he simply listened to passively as a child.

Contributions by Antonio Cammisa ("Senghe", "Si l'ammore è 'o cuntrario d' 'a morte")

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