Asian Drums II

Kiyoshi Yoshida, ???, ?? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 4, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Pacific Moon [Alleg]
• ASIN: B00005NTSI
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,384 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Circle of Guilt

2. The Lucky Spirit

3. Flowers

4. Interlude

5. Duel

6. Summer Grass

7. Interlude

8. Mad Spider's Web

9. Obsidian

10. The Secret of Bamboo

11. Interlude

12. Wazawai

13. Midare Uchi

14. A Moment in Destiny

Editorial Reviews

Kiyoshi Yoshida’s follow-up to his extremely popular Asian Drums album. Once again, he creates a mesmerizing set of compositions using traditional Japanese “wadaiko” drums, skillfully blended with the synthesizer. Let this hypnotic energy resonate within you!

To enhance your enjoyment of the music, removable incense sticks are included in the spine of the CD jewel case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More mesmerizing fusion music w/ Japanese drumming, May 26, 2003

By 

Brianna Neal (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asian Drums II (Audio CD)

This album follows in the same vein as Yoshida's first "Asian Drums". Dark, driving, questing synthesizer compositions are underlaid by the deep pounding of accoustic drums. This time, the percussionists are the wadaiko drummers of the group Bonten, led by Masataka Kobayashi. Other instruments complimenting the drum and synthesizer soundscape include shamisen (a banjo-like instrument), shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), koto (a Japanese zither), dizi (traditional Chinese flute) and guitar. "Asian Drums II" is markedly similar to its predecessor in tone and style, but features the accoustic melody instruments a bit more. Both are great if you enjoy drumming music (and both smell nice too, as do all CDs from the Pacific Moon label, since the jewel cases contain sticks of incense). If you like Asian Drums, be sure to check out the work of another Japanese drumming group too--Kodo.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb percussion to the max. Turn it up!, July 2, 2007

By 

Dick K (Centreville, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asian Drums II (Audio CD)

I'm stingy with 5 star ratings, this is just short only because I would have liked the mic placement to have been a little less distant from the drums which to my ears are sometimes a little muddy. By contrast the strings and woodwinds are spot-on, clear and crisp. But that's a nit -- this is great stuff: well performed with a fascinating mix of traditional and modern. Generally this music is very upbeat, incense or not, this isn't music _I_ can relax to, I find it much too exciting for that; not music that I, for one, can sit still while listening. Oh, and I don't view that as a bad thing at all!!

I don't have the first of these but I've got a few others in the genre, including Kodo, and this fits right in but has a smoother, more polished feel probably because the drums aren't dominant on most tracks. Important, yes, dominant, no. Personally, I like both styles and if you've been exposed to something like Kodo and liked that, then I'd definitely recommend this to you as something equally good but just a little different.

Bottom line: recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good., April 23, 2007

By 

Yoiko - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asian Drums II (Audio CD)

This CD is really good. I have never listened to Kiyoshi Yoshida's work before this, and the only other thing I can compare it to is Uttara Kuru's East Wind, another new-age-type CD.
Burning the incense sticks that come with the album while you listen, is an extremely soothing experience. My favorite track is WAZAWAI which features nothing but drums. The other tracks generally have guitars, flutes, and traditional Japanese and Chinese instruments.