Ramasandiran Somusundaram – Skinny Woman (1974)

Hello everyone! Today’s entry will be very short due to the lack of information available from this curious artist. An Indian (raised?) in Italy, who played with important members of the progressive scene from there. We thank our colleagues from Boxes of Toys for the rip and remember that this is an obscure album, the supposed lack of sound quality should be tolerated. Many of you may already know the funky Skinny Woman, but this album has much more to offer, let’s check!

Let’s go to our artist:

In 1974 a new incarnation of Garybaldi was formed by Bambi Fossati along with old cohort Maurizio Cassinelli, bassist Roberto Ricci, and Indian percussionist Ramasandiran Somusundaram as Bambibanda & Melodie. The percussionist previously active as a session musician also released an album and no less than three singles (in a more commercial vein) between 1974 and 1976 on the Magma label.

Let’s go to our album:

The A-side have a funky (non-stop) party atmosphere, with heavy percussion, cosmic keyboards, insane flutes, lo-fi brass, all wrapped in an exploitation feel. On B side things slow down a little bit, we see some influences of Ramasandrian homeland, with oriental tinges, melodic ballads, in a very peaceful Hindu atmosphere. (!)

It’s strange to imagine that this is the same artist from the beginning, the songwriting, a bit iffy on side A, convinces us in B-side, along with the tight band that accompanies him. The overall feeling at the end of the album is of surprise and contentment!

The ‘IM’ highlights are Electronic Heart and Chan.

यात्रा मंगलमय हो!

Tracks Include:

A1 Skinny Woman

A2 I Am Afraid of Losing You

A3 Everybody

A4 Electronic Heart

A5 Leon Dance

B1 Swamy

B2 Bombay

B3 Hari Siva

B4 Shanghai