Monsoon – Third Eye

Third Eye is the lone album by the short-lived English-Indian pop ensemble led by singer Sheila Chandra. The brainchild of musician and producer Steve Coe and multi-instrumentalist Martin Smith, Monsoon was one of if not the first group to seamlessly blend East and West with sitar, tambura, tabla meeting synthesizers, drum machines, and Bill Nelson’s e-bow guitar. In 1982, the group’s debut single “Ever So Lonely” became an unexpected global hit, making history in the process as Chandra (only 17 at the time) became the first South Asian woman to appear on the UK’s “Top of the Pops.” The group would dissolve shortly after in order to focus on Chandra’s solo career, but their lone album remains a classic from the Asian Underground in ’80s London.

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