Vacuum
Sflanellette

"Sflanellette" more than a CD seems to be the sound document of an artistic and existential adventure from the '70s. It was the name of a "combo" that lasted the span of a tour in 1975, composed of these Vacuum recently coming off albums like "Preserve Your Youth" (their most experimental, communicative, and Mediterranean album): Juri Quiciicasca, a visionary vocalist who later became a monk, Lino 'Porcello' Vaccina, at the time a percussionist in Aktuala, Robbie Mezzamazza, who we find today on the oboe in the group Dissoi Logoi, Victor Racky on the Farfisa organ (!) and Terra di Benedetoz on vocals.

In the flight of Sflanellette they soar high, completely off the line, like not even a finger through the needle's eye. A surprise, a surge, and another carnival. Rivers of milk, houses of cream, salami hanging from branches. The abundance fills our carotid arteries, intestines, and coronary arteries. The muck in the blood will clog like cement, that’s true, but at least may Lent take us full.
It must not be very easy to continue playing with an almost Luddite flair when you have a glorious past to contend with constantly. Entered the history of rock between the '80s and '90s with the Pixies, a much-loved band in the indie scene of the period, Susina seems to have nothing in common with the low-fidelity productions dear to much recent Apulian rock. In reality, in the '80s everything was more difficult: synthesizers dominated, producers amplified the sound, guitars were out of fashion... Sflanellette is the degree zero of this conception, as it is entirely played live in the studio. Curiously, some echoes of Jagger can be heard in Terra's voice, and in the lyrics, more oriented to a "storyteller" style, we find oddities that are a summation of rock, singer-songwriter, and psychedelia.

The album was recorded in Tucson, Arizona. This strange border town in the desert influenced the production. The same things don't happen in Europe, fortunately, but our heroes went from playing in packed clubs in New York or London to ten people in a venue in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio. It was incredible.