Music
Press
“The project Neo continues to grow. It’s the trio of Terracina led by guitarist Manlio Maresca, which debuted in 2005 under the aegis of a really tight nu-jazz.(...) The sound is more and more rapturous, the interloching rhythmics are more and more perfect, and their claustrophobic expressive alphabet (which spans from Z of Zappa to Z of Zu, going ... for Z of Zorn!) has been expanded to accommodate Primus’s avant-noise and Slyer’s trash, free rock and jazz tout court, in a seething cauldron but minutely structured. Playful, virtuous, however, destined to leave its mark. “
- Rockerilla - E. Ramunni
“Their music is nervous and aggressive, it struggles fragmented into a series of surreal sketches (Canto di Natale, Pensieri e Riflessioni sull’Ottimismo), launches with the spirit of suicide bombers in a jungle of dissonances and abrupt changes of rhythm (Candida), plays with quotes (zornian echoes of Ooh No!) and confuses the issue
(The Proliferator, where a swinging sax Lounge Lizards-alike breaks the rhythm of the ramblings metal guitar). Essentially, it shines its light. - Blow Up - M. Busti
“In Ooh!, the opening song of the new work of the pontine trio Neo, there is the same haste that fans of jazz of the late Fifties could trace in the fast and burning expositions of the theme of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry; there are speed, anger, urgency. (...) Add the art of the hybrid between Minuteman’s postcore anger and free jazz (Albert Ayler’s husky and parodistic voice), and you will get the world of highly organized chaos
from Manlio Maresca, Carlo Conti and Antonio Zitarelli. (...) No academicism, indeed, fun mocking, as in the universe of Carl Stalling’s cartoons.”
- Rumore - A. Prevignano
“The truth is that there is not only one Neo but there are many, and they all live inside the hour of an album soon leading the trio walking all over Europe to highlight, as if it was needed, that the Italian avant-garde music scene doesn’t know many rivals in the old continent. The problem is everything described above (and its a lot).
That it does not reverse, break, reassemble and redirect but it floats and reproduces, it splits and continues to fluctuate reproducing and dividing itself. ... “
- Nerds Attack! - A. Franquelli
“The musicians technique supports the development of the tracks, unambiguously pointing that we’re in front of people who know how to play there instrument very well, obtaining quite unusual voices but well designed.
The pieces, apparently without structure, are actually the result of the resolution of elementary cells logically repeated, thereby maintaining an organic sense of substance. A thoroughly modern work, far from commercial and complacent coordinates, which challenges the listener to a tour de force rather tiring but full of satisfaction; leaving you the feeling of participating to a communicative event of our days.“
- Mescalina - V. Formenti
Discography
2001 DemoNeo (cda)
2002 Neo (cda)
2003 Distratto po.box 5.6 (Wallace Records)
2003 CD compilation (Arezzo Wave)
2005 La quinta essenza della mediocrità (From Scratch)
2005 CD Remix (Compagnia Nuove Indie)
2009 Water Resistance (Megasound)
Photos
Bio
The project Neo originated in 2001 when two jazz educated musicians, guitarist Manlio Maresca and drummer Antonio Zitarelli, join Fabrizio Giovampietros bass to create an instrumental avant-blues trio.
The geographic epicenter of the project is the sunny beach of Terracina, a truthful town of southern Lazio, although the trio is harmonically and rhythmically closer to Northern Europes contemporary music, except for the overseas influences of Frank Zappa, Fred Frith, John Zorn or Minuteman.
They begin to propose their destructured and madly ironic sound to the small clubs of Lazio, rewriting the traditional blues and effectively experimenting an unconventional blend of jazz, rock and punk who leads them in a few years to major artistic achievements and a brilliant reputation in Italy and abroad.
After two selfproduced albums, Neo are chosen by Wallace Records and incorporated in the P.O. Box 52 compilation, while in 2005 they release their first album La Quinta Essenza della Mediocrità, produced by the florentine label From Scratch and immediately welcomed as an excellent and unexpected start by the best specialized press (enthusiastic reviews on Rockerilla, Blow up, Mucchio Selvaggio, Rumore, Losingtoday, Music Club, Ox Fanzine).
Following the 2003 edition of Arezzo Wave, they continue to perform at brisk pace on the stages of the best clubs in Italy: Circolo degli Artisti Rialto SantAmbrogio, Init, Jailbreak, 360Gradi (Roma), Lazzaretto (Bologna), Melos (Pistoia), Target (Bari), Area Fenderl (Treviso), Ambasciata di Marte (Firenze) and many others.
In 2006 their second album Problemi Dubbi Perplessità (From Scratch) is released, and in the same year, the trio takes a new form, replacing the bass with Carlo Contis tenor sax, musician of completely jazz extraction from the mainstream background of the capital.
With the new line-up, the sound of Neo takes on a different form, always maintaining the distinctive counterpoint between the two voices (now sax and guitar) and the melody at the edge of the harmonic structure, with short solo improvisations of jazz nature and unexpected sound excursions.
The challenge that Neo seems to face is to attack the essence of sound, destructuring it in paradoxical and unconventional forms, among excited Balkan flavoured rhythmic spasms and a review of that New Orleans blues from the20s.
Various and important collaborations with artists of international renown, have contributed over the time to broaden Neos audience beyond any restriction of musical genre: beginning from Luca Mai, Zus saxophonist, which occurs in the first album to add sharp colour to the joint of crazy cubist rhythms in the song Terrore Vigile. Then with Marco Di Gasbarro and Fabiano Marcucci, drums and bass in Squartet, involved in the song Il Sempliciotto of the same album, then finally with Remo Remottis live participations, Steve Piccolo & The Crowdofone (USA), Flying Luttenbachers (USA) Sabot (USA), The Hub (USA).
After more than two years of preparation, Neo is releasing the third album, produced by Megasound and distributed by Megasound / iTunes / Nokia.
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