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Eastern Energy

 
Album Review: Eastern Energy

  • Artist: Twelve Girls Band
  • Rating: StarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: August 17, 2004
  • Type: Enhanced CD-ROM
  • Genre: Rock

Review

The CD with packed-in DVD format is perfect for the flashy Twelve Girls Band, the band that plays Western pop with traditional Chinese instruments. Before the album hit, late-night television was filled with ads for the group. The nearly inescapable ads featured a breathy announcer singing the mystical and enchanting praises of the band. On tracks like the gentle "Liu San Jie" and the wistful "A Girl's Dream," they are enchanting, but Twelve Girls Band excel when it comes to excitement. Their uplifting version of Coldplay's "Clocks" is the big selling point, but it's the driving "Freedom" that really showcase's the band's tight, fast playing. The late-night ads also play up the blending of Western and Eastern musics, but Eastern Energy is more about Western music being played on Eastern instruments than any sort of blending. It works to the listener's benefit since these women are obvious lovers of Western pop; it comes through in their enthusiasm. A Western-based orchestra backs their 12 traditional instruments, and there's not a dissonant speck of noise to be found. Packing in the DVD gives you just enough video of the band's live show, a Riverdance-styled spectacle. It's an exciting enough video to buy tickets when they come to town and the audio portion makes a nice souvenir. The television ads and press releases throw their hyperbole at the thin mystical side of the band, but they would've been on-point if they just had said "thrilling". ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide

Tracks



CD 1

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Miracle Jianfeng Liang Twelve Girls Band (2:45)
Clocks Chris Martin Twelve Girls Band (5:00)
Liu San Jie Twelve Girls Band (4:42)
Earthly Stars (Unsung Heroes) Miyuki Nakajima Twelve Girls Band (5:22)
Freedom Jianfeng Liang Twelve Girls Band (4:05)
Shangri-La Jun Ma Twelve Girls Band (4:50)
Reel Around the Sun Bill Whelan Twelve Girls Band (5:02)
A Girl's Dream Jianfeng Liang, Peng Tian Twelve Girls Band (5:01)
Forbidden City Yuheng Liang Twelve Girls Band (4:42)
The Great Valley Yuheng Liang Twelve Girls Band (5:05)
Alamuhan Twelve Girls Band (3:07)
Mountains and Rivers Twelve Girls Band (5:08)
Only Time Enya, Roma Ryan, Nicky Ryan Twelve Girls Band (3:39)
New Classicism: Symphony No. 40. In G Minor First Movement Molto ... Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Twelve Girls Band (5:38)


CD 2

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
[DVD] Twelve Girls Band

Credits

Yasuhiko Matsubayashi (Engineer), Franky Hung (Mixing), Quan Zhang (Keyboards), Peng Tian (Arranger), Yinpeng Zhao (Drums), Robert Gandara (Product Manager), Vagabonde Suzuki (Bass), Bin Qu Liao (Dizi), Shangyou Ma (Keyboards), Echo Cheung (Mixing Assistant), Peng Tian (Keyboards), Na Fang (Guoqin), Bin Qu Liao (Xiao), Jian Nan Zhou (Gu-Zheng), Koji Inomoto (Photography), Hideo Yamaki (Drums), Jianfeng Liang (Keyboards), Lin Liu (Guitar (Electric)), Kymm Britton (Product Manager), Ying Lei (?), Ting "Tina" Sung (Erhu), Takeshi Taneda (Bass), Tom Dolan (Art Direction), Jianfeng Liang (Producer), Jianfeng Liang (Guitar (Electric)), Jing Jing Ma (Yang Chin), Tatsuya Nishiwaki (Arranger), Isao Kikuchi (Mastering), Kenny Pedersen (Product Manager), Bao Zhong (Pipa), Yuan Sun (Hulusheng), Yuanzhen Zhou (Voices), Tatsuya Nishiwaki (Keyboards), Takahisa Ide (Photography), Jianfeng Liang (Arranger), Kun Zhang (Pipa), Yan Yin (Erhu), Kezo (Engineer), Jin Jiang (Erhu), Yun Jie Liu (Engineer), Bin Hong (Synthesizer), Yigang Sun (Product Manager), Bin Hong (Keyboards), Ling Zhang (Bass), Quan Qui (Programming), Takashi Uetsuki (Mixing), Anthony Leung (Mixing Assistant), Jun Ma (Arranger), Zhi Wen (Assistant), Shuang Zhang (Pipa), Songmei "Maggie" Yang (Yang Chin), Takanobu Masuda (Synthesizer), Yuheng Liang (Arranger), Yuan Sun (Dizi), Christian Rocha (Art Direction), Jun Li (Engineer), Jun Li (Mixing), Yong Huang (Wood Bass), Bin Qu Liao (Hulusheng), Takashi Masuzaki (Guitar (Electric)), Ying Lei (Erhu), Hideaki Matsunaga (Liner Notes), Quan Zhang (Programming), Yuan Sun (Xiao), Jianfeng Liang (Chinese Drums), Luobin Wang (Arranger), Jianfeng Liang (Guitar (Acoustic)), Tomoko Naoe (Coordination), Koutarou Takada (Mixing Assistant), Yuheng Liang (Guitar (Electric)), Takayuki Hijikata (Guitar (Electric)), Ray Cooper (Product Manager), Masahiko Sato (Engineer), Henrietta Tseng (Coordination), Jonathan Schute (Art Direction), Ran Ji (Engineer), Li Jun Zhan (Erhu), Jianfeng Liang (Bass), Kazuma Tomoto (Executive Producer), Funky Sueyoshi (Drums), Zhang Jian (Keyboards), Zhang Jian (Synthesizer), Tohto Arai (?), Yasuhiko Terada (Remixing), Xiaojing Wang (Executive Producer), Gun Ma (Keyboards), Jianfeng Liang (Guitar (Nylon String))
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Wikipedia: Eastern Energy
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Eastern Energy
Studio album by Twelve Girls Band
Released 2004-08-17
Label Platia Entertainment
Professional reviews

Eastern Energy is an album by Twelve Girls Band. It consists of fourteen songs in a sort of modernized Chinese form on one audio CD and a DVD featuring the video for the song "Freedom" and other material. It was released on Platia 72438-64515-0-7 in 2004. This album is also considered as the debut album in USA. It debuted at #62 on the Billboard 200.

The track "New Classicism" is a modern-day melody of Symphony No. 40 in G Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven, and the overture to The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini. "Freedom" is a remake of Santuri Ethem Efendi's Şehnaz Longa. "Clocks" is an innovative version of the Coldplay song of the same name and "Only Time" a cover of the single by Enya. "Reel Around the Sun" is from the Riverdance dance performance particularly popular in the late 1990s.

Track listing

  1. "Miracle"
  2. "Clocks" (cover of Clocks by Coldplay)
  3. "Liu San Jie" (based on a Chinese story of a girl who became a fairy)
  4. "Earthly Stars (Unsung Heroes)"
  5. "Freedom" (Santuri Ethem Efendi: Şehnaz Longa)
  6. "Shangri-La" (from James Hilton's novel and the city of Beijing)
  7. "Reel Around The Sun" (Riverdance)
  8. "A Girl's Dream"
  9. "Forbidden City" (From James Hilton's novel and the city of Beijing)
  10. "The Great Valley"
  11. "Alamuhan"
  12. "Mountains and Rivers"
  13. "Only Time" (cover of Enya's Only Time)
  14. "New Classicism" (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 5 & Ludwig Van Beethoven : Symphony No. 5 in C Minor)

 
 

 

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Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eastern Energy" Read more