Larry Manteca

Alessandro Paiola, aka Larry Manteca, was born in 1976 in Milan, where he trained as a videomaker and musician.  

Driven by his passion for cinema and soundtracks, in 2012 he started sharing on YouTube a number of scores he wrote for imaginary films in various genres, from the erotic to the spaghetti western, and from crime to zombie-horror, drawing inspiration from the classic Italian B-movies of the 60s and 70s. 

Over the next ten years, his artistic partnership with musician Riccardo Danieli resulted in several albums and EPs, produced by Manteca and released digitally. “Zombie Mandingo” (2012), a reinterpretation of exploitation films, was followed by the cop-flick-inspired “Deep Cut” (2013) and the sci-fi/erotic-themed “Mutant Virgins from Pluto” (2015).   Then came “Emmanuelle Goes to Hollywood”  (2017), “Zombie Mandingo II”  (2019), “Shoot ’em all”  (2020), “Space Love”’ (2021), “Pizza Al Piombo” (2022), and finally “Bangkok Fury”  (2023), which is a new take on the soundtracks of 1970s martial arts films. 

Since the beginning, the project’’s musical and visual world has kept gaining breadth and depth thanks to trailers and video clips crafted by Manteca himself, which often accompany the band’s live shows. 

In March 2023, Manteca made his debut on 7” vinyl under the aegis of Four Flies Records, whose team hand-picked two of the grooviest tracks from his output, both recorded in 2015 for the album “Mutant Virgins From Pluto”: “Ufo Bossa”- a delightful uptempo bossa-jazz number cast in an ultra-lounge style with references to Les Baxter’s exotica – and “Intergalactic Porno Scene”, a typical poliziottesco theme with a super-funky groove. 

February 2024 saw the release of the vinyl LP Zombie Mandingo, once again on Four Flies Records:  over ten years after the original digital release, nine tracks from vols. I and II of Manteca’s horror-tinged exotica finally found their way on vinyl in a meticulously remixed and remastered version.