Photo by Simon Mercer

Matador Records may be happening upon its next golden era, with the label who brought the world music by some of the most style-defining indie rock names like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, late-era Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Interpol and more recently, Snail Mail, again becoming a hotbed for its next gen with recent signees, the young Chicago rockers Horsegirl and Lifeguard, as well as Brooklyn’s Water From Your Eyes. bar italia, the London-based trio of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton, are the latest to pique intrigue and add their own footprints on the label’s lasting impression in creating inimitable yet somehow, a familiar sound. Case in point is their first single for the label, “Nurse!” where there’s an air of elusive storytelling intersecting with nostalgia in their art house-minded post-punk wireframe. “Come here, join me in the silence / We need undoing to set us free / Forget about the man that stole your dream / ‘Cause that was just the way it seemed,” sings Cristante, only to be followed in by the voice of either Fehmi or Fenton observing, “A mask covered your еyes / And you move like crazy to your favorite song / You said, ‘I’m coming alive’ / Haven’t felt this way since you were 21.” Their transcendence through our timeline keeps a certain kind of indie rock mystique alive and well in an age where so much of the rest out there sounds uninspired.

Directed by: Simon Mercer

bar italia’ “Nurse!” single is available now on Matador Records.