NU GENEA - People Of The Moon

We'd left them dancing on the tables of “Bar Mediterraneo”, lost between the calls of one land, Sicily, and others inevitably coming from their native Naples, on a record that earned critical acclaim as well as public praise, confirming them as headliners of some of the trendiest festivals on the continent and beyond. Four years on, we find them again, more mature, more composed, heads and hips swaying towards the Moon, on a new album, their third, featuring English singer-songwriter Tom Misch, Andalusian singer-songwriter María José Llergo, Neapolitan Fabiana Martone, Lebanese Celinatique, and Rio-born percussionist Gabriel Prado.

“People Of The Moon” announces its emancipation from the cover art alone, simple and partly evoking the aesthetic of Gong's “Shamal”, one of the most underrated records by David Allen's merry crew, with Lucio Aquilina and Massimo Di Lena standing as champions of a southern-European and Maghrebi rebirth of Balearic nu-disco, winking throughout at Algerian raï and Nigerian jùjú, along with other exotic fascinations, samba included of course.

From the potential hit “Puleza”, which resurfaces the Neapolitan power of Avitabile-esque memory, to the romantic-movie bossa nova of the Seventies in “Celavi”, all the way to the sparkling rhythms of a beach party thrown on some shore of the Agrigento coast in “Carè”, the ten songs of “People Of The Moon” embrace Neapolitan dialect, Arabic, English, Spanish and Portuguese all at once, giving life to a sinuous dance that at times refreshes and elsewhere lulls.

At this lively sunset party, where echoes of Africa pop up, as in “Ma Tu Che Bbuò”, alongside other Brazilian touches complete with spacey synths, as in “Ondas Do Mar”, the effect is always the same: you find yourself dancing without breaking too much of a sweat on the shoreline, setting aside negative thoughts and the dramas of everyday life. Because Nu Genea, deep down, still aim to soothe the spirit, sharpening their listening background into a recipe that's popular in appearance but gourmet in substance. Which is not a flaw at all — quite the opposite.

With “People Of The Moon”, then, the two Neapolitan multi-instrumentalists stay true to their course, further embellishing it without overdoing it, and above all with a sly, genuine, never-forced approach. For now, that's their most fascinating trait.

Perhaps the sparks and impulses of “Nuova Napoli” are missing, an album that, all things considered, still remains their masterpiece, but at the same time their sheer desire to have fun with style stays intact, amid improbable Hawaiian shirts and sorbets to be devoured quickly before the sun swallows everything up. And that's enough.

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09/05/2026