Venice-based psych outfit New Candys — core members Fernando Nuti (vocals, guitar, synth and programming) and Dario Lucchesi (bass, synth, programming), alongside newest members Emanuele Zanardo (guitar, backing vocals) and Francesco Giacomin (drums, percussion, sampler) — will be releasing their highly-anticiapted fifth album, the Maurizio Baggio-produced The Uncanny Extravaganza through Fuzz Club on May 30, 2025.
While showcasing the Italian outfit’s newest lineup, the album sees the band marking a bold evolution in their sound, with the material seeing the quartet blending their signature rock roots with electronic influences and cutting-edge production to create a genre-defying experience.
The album can trace its origins back to late 2022 when the band started working on new material. The band’s primary songwriter, Fernando Nuti, recalls, “It was an intense and exciting time. I had many songs and ideas that I wanted to try out with the band, and we ended up debuting ‘Crime Wave’ live. We don’t live close to each other and can’t rehearse very often, so using our home studios became the solution. This new process gave us the opportunity to experiment further, and it allowed me to quickly explore different arrangements to find the best one for each song.”
Dario Lucchesi’s growing interest in electronic music also played a pivotal role in shaping the album’s direction making the transition from drums to bass a natural evolution. “The lineup change and shift to bass created a situation, where I could bring new ideas to the band,” Lucchesi says. “Working alone, with my own pace and methods, allowed me to explore and express myself more effectively. I found it refreshing to play remotely, exchanging projects and seeing the progress of the songs that both Fernando and I could work on, handling all the instruments and breaking away from the roles established on stage and on previous albums.” Their collaboration resulted in album tracks like “Regicide” and “Night Surfer,” with contributions from Zanardo and Giacomin further enriching the band’s evolving sound.
Production duties were handled by Maurizio Baggio, who worked with the band closely throughout last year, spreading the recording sessions across the course of the year to focus on individual track in detail. “After self-producing all our records, except for the first, we wanted to collaborate closely with Maurizio on this one”, New Candys’ frontman explains. “We’re thrilled with the final result. With Vyvyd, we just scratched the surface of electronic elements, this time we wanted to fully embrace them and find a new balance. I couldn’t imagine us finishing a song using only the instruments we normally play live, it wouldn’t have been interesting, contemporary, or new enough. Also, I couldn’t have cared less about making a stylistically and genre-cohesive album. In fact, the less categorizable and the more bizarre it was, the happier we were. I wanted each track to feel unexpected, a constant surprise. Just when you think you’ve figured out what kind of record it is, the next song makes you realize you’re wrong.”
Sonic variety has long been a hallmark of the Venetian outfit’s work — but with The Uncanny Extravaganza, it’s more pronounced than ever with the album’s songs spanning an wider arrange of styles and references. You’ll hear minimal and melancholic tones, Western and surf-influenced riffs, psychedelic codas paired with slick electronic production and more.
Lyrically, the album delves into surrealistic and sometimes cryptic themes with a recurring motif related to water, inspired by the band’s proximity to Venice, the city floating on water. Nuti reflects on how everything underwater transforms and appears dreamlike, distorted, inaccessible and often lifeless. And this imagery is used metaphorically, relating to reality.
The album’s material also conveys a sense of restlessness and rebellion, informed by the COVID-19 pandemic providing the bulk of the world’s population an opportunity to rethink priorities, which most politicians across the world have seemingly missed.
The Uncanny Extravaganza‘s latest single “Night Surfer” is a danceable and hooky bit of garage rock anchored around buzzing power chord-driven choruses and a motorik groove featuring bursts of electronic pulse in the song’s verses, before ending with an explosive coda. While recalling a mix of The Raveonettes and The Stills among a handful of others, the song’s titular night surfer symbolizes the thrill and danger of nightlife in the big city.
“The night surfer is someone who moves through the night, surrounded by its shadows and artificial lights,” Nuti explains. “But when morning comes and the natural sun rises, sometimes it’s better to forget what happened just hours before.”
Nuti adds, “’Night Surfer came together in a unique way, showcasing a tight collaboration between all four members. I had the first verse parts ready as early as 2018, while Dario created the instrumental for the choruses last year, which instantly inspired me to come up with a fresh vocal melody. Merging the two parts ultimately completed the track. Francesco added the mid-song break and gave the drums an energetic, borderline feel. The guitars were recorded by myself, Dario, and Emanuele, who also contributed vocals, creating a dialogue within the song.”