Shark Move

Shark Move started playing in Bandung, Indonesia in 1970 and was founded by Benny Soebardja who played lead guitar and sang. Shark Move is one of the Indonesian rock pioneering bands who combined rock music with traditional harmonies and progressive sounds. Some songs on this LP have English lyrics. While other bands at that time were still playing sweet music, this is really an experimental recording. Unfortunately, at the end of 1970, the keyboard player passed away so Benny decided not to continue with his band and formed a new one named Giant Step. Sharkmove was established in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia in 1970 by Benny Soebardja (lead guitarist and vocals) who also wrote songs titled “My Life”, “Butterfly”, “Evil War”, and “Insan”. Benny, at that time was registered as student at the Faculty of Agriculture, Padjadjaran University. He invited his best friend, Soman Loebis, a student at ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) to join Sharkmove as keyboard player as well as percussion. He then contributed writing one song “Bingung” for the band’s debut and only album “Ghede Chokra’s”. They then recruited one of the best bassists in Bandung, Janto and also drummer: Sammy. Janto wrote two songs: “Harga” and “Madat”. The music of the band was then recorded in the Musica Studio, one of the well-known label in Indonesia until today, and sponsored by Bhagu Ramchand, an Indian with Indonesian nationality. The contribution of Bhagu was significant as he contributed financial support as well as ideas to make the one and only album of Sharkmove “Ghede Chokra’s” became a reality. The band was considered as pioneer in Indonesian rock scene by combining rock music with traditional harmonies and progressive sounds. Some songs in the album were written using English lyrics while at that time most of Indonesian played sweet music and Indonesian lyrics. It was considered as “experimental” in the way the album was made. Right after the release of this album in 1970, the band performed frequent gigs in Indonesian big cities like Bandung, Jakarta (capital city), Palembang, and others. At the end of 1970, a tragic event occurred when Soman Loebis passed away due to traffic accident in Jakarta and Benny Soebardja decided to stop the band and all of its related activities because at that time it was quite difficult to find Soman’s replacement who could play keyboards as good as him. After approximately 6 months in vacuum, Benny Soebardja went back to rock music by mid of 1971 and formed a new band called GIANT STEP which was one of important rock bands in Indonesia during the glory days of 70s and 80s. At the end of 2006, “Ghede Chokra’s” which was originally recorded on January 2, 1970, was re-mastered at Pendulum Studio, Jakarta and was then issued by Shadoks Music (Germany) in 2007. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.