The return of Sumo: Pettinato and Daffunchio reissue their first album from 40 years ago on vinyl

Roberto Pettinato AND German daff They met just over 40 years ago. She brought them together Luca Prodan in a rehearsal room and we immediately started playing together Sumowithout knowing that they were giving shape to one of the great legends of Argentine rock.

Today the brand new vinyl edition of his first recording Together He brought them together again and they shared anecdotes with emotion and joy, without nostalgia.

Regard Bustiers early in the morninga sort of demo to attract record companies, which they eventually ended up releasing on cassette and sold it at their legendary concerts in the Buenos Aires underground circuit in 1983-84, before releasing their first “official” album, Divided from happiness.

At that historical moment, Luca Prodan had arrived in Argentina in August 1980, trying to escape his heroin addiction, attracted by a bucolic photo of a schoolmate (Timmy McKern) who lived in Traslasierra, Córdoba. He immediately wanted to put together a rock band and recruited Daffunchio, Timmy’s brother-in-law, and his friend Alejandro Sokol.

Enthusiastic, Luca returned to London to buy the instruments and convinced the drummer Stefania Nuttal to join the adventure. They settled in Hurlingham and visited small pubs in the capital and Greater Buenos Aires, but in 1982 Stephanie returned to her country due to the Falklands War.

A new phase was crowned by Sokol’s move to the drums and the entry of the Diego Arnedo as bassist and Pettinato as saxophonist. That lineup was captured on tape Bustiers early in the morningseveral months before Sokol’s departure, the entry of Ricardo Mollo+Superman Troglio and signing the recording contract with CBS, where they would record Sumo’s three official albums.

Emotional meeting

The vinyl edition of Bustiers early in the morning It was an initiative by Pettinato together with his friend Marcelo Friaswho had already produced the LPs of Pettinato plays Garcia. McKern’s approval was enough to start this project, which became a double album and added an unreleased song.

Information for fans and collectors: to purchase it you must contact us directly via Instagram with the label @nyc_records

And just as Pettinato launched the album at an event with Diego Arnedo at the Musicomio record store, this special reunion with Germán Daffunchio completed his walk down memory lane. The date was at his house, taking advantage of two Las Pelotas shows in the capital, and the conversation took place during lunch in a nearby bar.

The first memory is of the saxophonist: “I remember making the cover when we were about to release the cassette. I wanted it to be like the Beatles’ white album, only with the name of the group and the title on a white background.”

-At that time it was neither easy nor cheap to record an album, how did they pay for the recording?

German: -I think Timmy and Luca sold some cows.

Roberto: -They sold cows to record it???

German: -Yes. It was like an investment they made with, I don’t know, ten cows. On another occasion they invested in the purchase of olives.

Roberto: -One thing I don’t remember is why we chose the Del Jardín studio, there on Avenida Santa Fe, near Talcahuano, on the first floor.

German: -It was the fashion studio. It was there that Charly had created the sound of Willy Iturri’s drums Moving from the bed to the living room. That’s why we went.

An unreproducible sound

German: -At that time we were already playing at Café Einstein and there was no way to sign with a record company, so the idea of ​​cassettes was born. It wasn’t a great idea at the time. I remember being at a show and finding out we had sold two cassettes. Then, little by little, they were sold.

-Do you remember, Germán, when Petti joined us?

German: -Yes. In the evening we went to do a report, because he was a rock journalist at Expreso Imaginario, and in the end he came with us to Urquiza to rehearse for Hurlingham.

Roberto: -I always had saxophones in the editorial office, to play them a bit when I wrote notes.

German: -At that time the sax was not a common currency. Sumo had a very free creativity.

-What was the process like for making the vinyl?

Roberto: -We use the CD. Mixes came and went, because they mixed them in the United States. I wanted the album to have bass, because I always had the idea that there was little bass. Also, we made it a double album to be able to open up the groove and make it thicker.

-And there they put the unreleased one, because there is no “Heroin”, which coincidentally was from CBS/Sony.

Roberto: -I called Timmy, asked him if he had anything and this topic came up, The Paraguayan man, which sounds pretty good. The lyrics are crazy, because Luca says that he is drinking a gin in a bar at the train station and he sees a man with blue eyes and it occurs to him that he is a Nazi leader.

German: -I recorded a moment when I got up in the morning, after recording it the night before. It belongs to a group of songs that are the last ones we recorded at that time. It was something very experimental. We were looking for an identity.