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Guitarist and songwriter Benny Soubardja’s first group where he was the guitarist was The Peels in 1967. Being tired of covering other bands
(Cream, Beatles, Hendrix), he left to form Sharkmove. Occasionally he
also joined God Bless and GPL (Group Pecinta Lagu) around 1972. When one
band member of Sharkmove died, the group disbanded. Benny Soebardja
then joined Giant Step, while his personal band was called Lizard. In
the beginning the history of Giant Step and Lizard were a bit mixed. Two
third of the first CD shows also a more electric grooving band just
like Giant Step. Some members were similar (Giant Step was going to be
reissued some while ago by Psychedelic records, but they didn’t have a
good picture of the front cover so that it didn’t happen yet). During
the Lizard years you hear how the English songs mattered more and more
and the style went from a rockier side to a more ballad side, with use
of acoustic guitars too. British poet Bob Dook guided the English
lyrics, so that they got their own qualities. During the whole period
Benny also distinguished himself as a good electric guitarist. On the
first CD there is a good proportion of Cream. All other tracks have some
form of interesting electric breaks. There has also been very much
attention to the arrangements and production. The 24-track studio of SM
recordings provided the best quality for musicians, and Benny also
received all the time he needed to make each song work perfectly.
Although there are the two mentioned general lines in the music,
occasionally they try another sort of additional arrangement. A couple
of tracks have a powerful female backing group, which was called the
Philosophy Gang. There are organ arrangements, a few Tull-like flute
improvisations (especially on the early tracks). Here and there are
different vocal arrangements ; a few tracks in Uriah Heep style, one
track, (track 4), has a slightly electrified harmony vocals like
Beatles. A few of the ballad track have more worked out acoustic guitar,
with the electric band always nearby and for some passages taking over.
Just a few tracks have very good rhythmical changes and theme changes,
with a very progressive vision.
For two full CD’s it is odd that in fact there was no weak track, all sound as if done to perfection
very well. After two hours of listening it only became just a slightly
tiring near the last track until the conclusive track made a good
surprise again with more experimental electric guitar solos mixed with
some piano. A talented band in a universal style, perhaps this time it
is a bit more English. Most tracks were only released on tape before.
Original master tapes weren’t kept in the studio, but the label did
their best to find first generation tape pressing copies, which were
directly taken from the master tapes, so that the quality still is very
good. The quality of the reissue is a better example of how reissues
should look and sound like. This one comes with a 36-page booklet.
Style: Classic Rock