Indonesian Great Prog Rock Bands: Shark Move

Indonesian rock pioneers Shark Move started playing in Bandung, Indonesia in 1970 and was founded by Benny Soebardja, who plays lead guitar and sings. The group combined rock music and English lyrics with traditional harmonies and progressive sounds. While other bands at that time were still playing sweetened pop music, this was really an experimental recording for the time and place it was made. 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 (which might come out soon on Shadoks music). Ghede Chokra's is a very complex prog album which is as strong as many good UK albums of the same period, with that little something extra that makes this album unique and great. Source: Shadok

Guruh Gypsy

Guruh Gipsy is basically a collaborative effort between Guruh Soekarno Putro – the fifth child of Indonesia’s first President, Soekarno – and Gipsy. Guruh was born in Jakarta, 13 January 1953 and since his childhood her mother (Fatmawati) reckoned that he had strong passion for art and strong sense of accomplishment. Unlike his sister, Megawati, whom later became Indonesia’s President, he pursued his dreams in art including music and choreography. He later established his own dance and music group called “Swaramaharddika” which was very famous in the 70s and 80s.While Gipsy was basically a music group which its members are Nasution brothers: Gaury, Keenan, Odink, and Deby. It was previously established in 1966 under the name of Sabda Nada with members: Ponco Sutowo, Gaury Nasution, Joe-Am, Eddy, Edit, Roland and Keenan Nasution. They were very familiar with Balinese music and they ever did a gig at Bank Indonesia combining western with Balinese music with gamelan group led by Wayan Suparta Wijaya. In 1969 the band renamed themselves as Gipsy and the new line-up was established: Onan, Chrisye, Gaury, Tammy, dan Atut Harahap. They did cover for 70s groups like Procol Harum, King Crimson, ELP, Genesis and Blood, Sweat & Tears. In 1971 the line-up changed again: Keenan, Chrisye, Gaury, Rully Djohan, Aji Bandi, and Lulu. With this line-up the band played a gig in New York, USA.
This collaborative effort called GURUH – GIPSY was made possible due to Guruh strong passion for combining ethnic music of Bali based on pentatonic notes and western music which is based on diatonic notes. The effort took such a long time as it required sixteen (16) months of recording time. The elapsed time was used by Guruh for various complex activities, i.e. financing the project, scheduling with the only studio available at that time with 16-track system (Tri Angkasa), composing the music with Keenan Nasution (drums), Odink Nasution (guitar), Abadi Soesman (keyboards), Roni Harahap (piano/organ), and Chrisye (vocal). Actually, total studio days was 52 days. Source:Progarchieve

Giant Step

One of legendary Indonesian progressive rock acts of the 70’s, their music showed influences of the greats of prog rock, but still managed to deliver originality. They started in early 70’s, went through a series of line-up changes with the “keepers of the flame” being Benny Soebardja and Albert Warnerin, and managed to release several albums before finally breaking up in 1986. Their best prog albums (as recommended by Denny Sakrie of M97FM) are Giant On The Move (produced by Nova Record Bandung), Kukuh Nan Teguh (Nova Record Bandung), and Persada Tercinta (Irama Tara Record). Source: LastFM