Sumo

Luca Prodan was born in Rome in 1953 to a family whose money had come from Chinese antiques, a business the Japanese invasion of China put an end to. Sent to board at Gordonstoun in Scotland, he left before finishing and settled in London, where he worked at EMI and led an earlier band, the New Clear Heads, shaped by the same post-punk currents that would later mark Sumo.

He arrived in Argentina in 1981 at the invitation of a schoolmate, first settling on a farm in Córdoba province before moving on to Buenos Aires' Hurlingham district. There, under a military dictatorship that kept much of the music scene guarded, he began assembling the band that became Sumo, playing early shows at spots like Café Einstein.

The line-up over the years included Germán Daffunchio, Diego Arnedo, Ricardo Mollo, Alberto Troglio, Alejandro Sokol and saxophonist Roberto Pettinato, who joined full-time after sitting in as a guest. Prodan sang in both English and Spanish, often switching mid-song.

The group's records, made across the mid-eighties, set post-punk austerity against reggae and blues, drawing on Prodan's love of Joy Division and dub, and their shows built a following outside the progressive and nueva canción currents that dominated Argentine rock at the time. Because Prodan sang mostly in English, Sumo got little of the airplay given other bands, yet became an underground pillar alongside acts like Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota and Los Violadores.

Prodan died in 1987 and the band ended with him; surviving members went on to form Divididos and Las Pelotas. Sumo remains a reference point in Argentine rock, and a subject of continuing argument about what it meant.