Customer Reviews

Beautiful Energy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this age of Brittney/Ashley/Jessica/Vanessa/Christina/American Idol and an endless sea of other shallow, empty music driven by the 13 y/os of America, this is a breath of fresh air. Mind you, I am all for making money and if you can do so by exploiting yourself, go for it. However, anyone outside of the highschool girl demographic has undoubtedly been let down by 2004s female vocalist offerings, in general. Until now. 12 Girls Band takes the sounds of their ancestors and even the instruments and presents them anew in a format America has truly been missing. As a huge fan of Asian music, I find this to be a superb collection. As a man who loves music with heart, I find this CD to be in a class all by itself. Watching the girls perform and listening to the delicate yet powerful sounds they create is truly awe-inspiring. With the release of this incredible CD, music is getting back to its roots. They make music mean something. IN doing so, this album is sure to make the music of other girls in this generation pale in comparison.

12 Girls Band will be familiar to most in the US as the group that was performing Chinese music at the end of the Closing Ceremonies of the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004. The group performs on traditional Chinese instruments, the er-hu, the pipa, the dizi, and the zheng. The members are classically trained musicians who normally perform in traditional Chinese orchestras. Nevertheless, these musicians show their versatility and liveliness through their performance in the 12 Girls Band. Their fresh sounds comes from an updating of traditional Chinese music with a contemporary music sound and rhythm. Not only are they able to thus make Chinese music more accessible (and listenable) to Western ears, they also perform Western music (both symphonic and popular, including the jazz great Paul Desmond's Take Five) through a Chinese music prism. 12 Girls Band is tremendously popular in China, and through exposure, this group should rise in popularity here.

A slight correction to the previous review of this excellent group.

The Twelve Girls Band were not the ones performing at the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics in August 2004. They were in the United States at the time promoting the release of their US album, Eastern Energy. Coincidentally, on the day of the Athens closing ceremony, they were scheduled to play in Atlanta, Georgia -- a previous venue of the Summer Olympics.

The ones who performed in Athens were a group of dancers.

Otherwise, the previous reviewer A. Silverstone is right on all counts with regards the Twelve Girls Band's musical abilities.


Updated Reply To Region Code Issue:

John, as you're in the US, your code is Region 1. It is the same for Canada. Region 2 is for Europe, Japan, South Africa and Middle East. Region 3 Asia (except Japan, Indian sub-continent and Mongolia). Region 4 Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America. Region 5 is for Eastern Europe, Indian sub-continent, Africa and Mongolia. Region 6 is for China. Region 7 has been reserved for future use. Region 8 for international destinations e.g. airplanes and cruise ships etc. Region 0 or ALL is Region Free, meaning all Region 1-6 players can play the disc.

Apparently, this 12 Girls Band DVD is coded Region 6 (as indicated above) which explains why your region coded player cannot play it. Perhaps you could contact Customer Service now regarding exchange or refund.

Alternatively, although not an endorsement, I believe there are certain places and websites which do sell region-free and/or multi region DVD players in the US. These usually are of lesser known brands. And are also available here on Amazon from the looks of it.

Also, it seems that there are ways, if you do a search on the internet, to circumvent the region code issue, by pressing a few buttons here and there in a sequence on the player and/or remote control.

Anyway, only DVDs are region coded. CDs and VCDs are not.

Hope this helps.

I first purchased the CD in 2003 when I was in Tokyo Narita Airport. 12 Girls Band were huge sensation and popular in Japan by then. That was one year before they come over to USA. I was totally hooked by the music and 5 years later, the Beautiful Energy CD+DVD is still considered the Best and the most Classic among all 12 Girls Band CDs. Here is why:

1. This CD itself is the best selling CD - more than 2 millions sold just in Japan, then released in whole Asia. It topped in Oricon chart for 6 months. It's the first time for Chinese folk music artists and for just a instrument played CD in Japan music history.

2. The music in the CDs are totally classic - all the tracks are well chosen - it will last forever I guess. Here is the breakdown of the tracks.

12 GB original songs - Miracle, Freedom, Dream of the Girl, Hangrila, Forbidden Palace, No Words.. All these tracks are original wrote for 12 Girls Band. Miracle is very power and very Chinese. Freedom is very upbeat, arabic style. Dream of the Girl is very very pretty( with the bell, children's voice), Forbidden Palace is the song about Chinese Forbidden City in Beijing, is a very historic piece and you can definitely tell the back story of the song. No Words is my favorite - it's so soothing and mellow, only 4 girls played it - 1 Erhu, 1 Pipa, 1 Guzheng,1 Dizi. 12 GB played this song on their Miracle Live DVD if you want watch how beautiful it is...

12 GB Chinese Folk Songs - Alamuhan, Liu San Jie, Moutains and Rivers... Alamuhan is a folk song from Xin Jiang Province by Wang Luo Bing -The Father of Chinese Folk Song.. It's a very happy song about a beautiful girl named Alamuhan. Liu San Jie is a folk song from Guilin, Guang Xi Province. It's one of the most famous musical movie in China. Only 2 girls played this song -Du Xian Qin and Dizi.. Wow, if you ever get a chance to visit China, you must have known Gui lin. And this song is just as beautiful as the Guilin landscape. Moutains and Rivers also another classic piece from China - only Guzheng and Pipa were played for this track - it's very tranquail but powerful too, it's about Chinese qin, zen....

12 GB Japanese Songs - Flow of the River, Tokyo Love Story, Century Flower, Star On Earth. Flow of the River is #1 best song during the whole Japan music industry. It's almost like the Japanese national song - it's this song deeply touched Japanese audience. Star on Earth - a very popular TV seriou from NHK called Unsung Hero. 12 GB's performance is even better than the original Nakajima version and other instrument versions.
Century Flower is a very happy and extremely popular song in Japan by a boy band SMAP. 12GB's take a very good cover for it and made it even more widespread. Tokyo Love Story is another pop song for a pop TV show in Japan...

12 GB Western Cover Song - Take Five, orginally by Dave Brubeck. a very interesting oriental cover, Erhu subsitute the vilion, nice done. Hepbeat another 7 beat western Jazz style song, even better than take five..

So now you why this CD selling so much and such a huge success in Japan. All the songs are truly classic and
the CD is very commercialied in a very good way.

There're 3 versions I recomand: all CDs are the same but DVD is not.
The Japan CD+DVD version-definitely is the best quality version. DVD has Freedom mv and Miracle Live plus 12 girls each one's first interview in Japan.
Chinese version which is the one you saw the cover here. CD is the same but the DVD is actually only 5 piece track live from DVD Miracle Live. DVD format is PAL and region6, you have to have multi region player to make it work.
The Hong Kong version is the CD plus the 12 GB first Eibsu Concert. This concert is mini concert has 12 tracks originally for promote the CD. It has very good quality and DVD is NTSC can plays well on US palyers.

Good luck to get any copy of above CD+DVD and enjoy the 12 GB music as much as you can!

I have the Hong Kong version of the Beautiful Energy CD, in addition to the Shining Energy and the Romantic Energy CDs. I love every one of the songs. The music is beautiful and rich. Their music really open up a new experience to me. I hope they can continue to produce beautiful music for us. Highly recommended.

-unique
-highly artistic
-creative
-more credit to drummers
-beatifully polished

After purchasing both of these vd's and cd's. I found that I cannot play either of the dvd's. I receive a wrong area message.

I would like to know what area I'm in, and if I will be able to return these dvd's and receive correct ones.