14 thoughts on “Lookin’ for some thunderous Taiko drums…”

  2. I was going to wax eloquent over a Toronto group called Suwa Daiko, but apparently they are no more. But! Some of their members have continued in a new group called Isshin Daiko. It’s a fairly non-trad group in that it has a good balance of male and female performaers. Other than that, pure wondrous thunder.

    …. I can’t find any reference to their having recordings for sale. Heh. Sorry, Howard! 8P

  3. Kodo: Heartbeat Drummers of Japan, Sheffield Lab CD-KODO, direct transfer from “unedited two-track digital master tape”.

    Also, you might check into D’Cückoo‘s eponymous CD on the Aisle of Women Productions label, if you can find a copy. It’s a very unique and quite indescribable blend of all kinds of things; all four women in the group have studied taiko, and they use it in their music. They do have a guitar and a bass, but every other instrument they use, including their drum pad kits, they made themselves using pieces of mouse pads, piezo-electric sensors, and home-grown MIDI circuitry. Industrial bands like Skinny Puppy can talk about cyberpunk, but these girls are DOING it.

    1. Further info:

      D’Cückoo here; they describe themselves here as a “cybertribal world-funk ensemble”. Downloads are available.
      Kodo on Amazon.com here. There’s only one copy there, though, and the seller wants $100 for it.

      I tried checking GEMM, but they don’t have either one. GEMM is often a good place to search for hard-to-find music, though. (And if you use that link to get to them, we get a commission — 5% or so — on each sale.)

      1. Er …. disregard the download link on that D’Cückoo page. The dcuckoo.com domain is apparently being squatted, which probably means D’Cückoo is defunct.

    2. Oddly enough, not 20 minutes ago we were chatting with friends about Kodo. They’re incredible live, but the CDs are rather disappointing in comparison: – few hifi setups have woofers big enough to physically move you.

      1. Especially in these days of low-budget home theater where “speakers” means an overdriven eight-inch “subwoofer” and several clusters of little tiny 1.5″ satellites.

        My front-channel speakers are custom-built four-way units with 12″ polypropylene bass drivers and ceramic supertweeters, backed up by a Kenwood subwoofer. They reproduce everything. The Sheffield Lab disc still isn’t as good as a live performance, but it comes over pretty well.

        On a pocket unit with earbuds, though …. I don’t know.

  4. Not sure if this is exactly hat you’re looking for, but I like A href=”http://www.amazon.com/Kiyoshi-Yoshida/artist/B000APPLI6″>Kiyoshi Yoshida’s “Asian Drums” album.

  5. Seattle Kokon Taiko

    A local Taiko group in Seattle is the Seattle Kokon Taiko. They play festivals and the like, but I don’t think they’ve put out a CD. It’s like really good didgeridoo music, the best performers don’t do very many CDs. SKT did do one CD, but it looks like it’s out of print.

    Checking iTunes, there’s Soh Daiko with an album for $3.99, and San Jose Taiko with an album for $9.90 and the snippets I listened to sounded great!

  6. This is a second on Seattle Kokon Taiko. They rock my fuzzy socks. I have only heard them live, though I may just have to see if I can hunt down a disc now. I would class them as semi-traditional, they are mixed gender and quite willing to try new stuff. They do a piece I love that makes use of those plastic tubes you whirl around to produce chirrupy/froggy/crickety noises.

    Looks like their CD is only available at concerts, if it is available at all any more. I will go hit one of their shows and see if I can rustle up a couple of CDs. If I can, I’ll send you a copy Howard.

    While my speakers are not quite as good as unixronin’s, my Infinities do run to 18″ of polypro and are backed by an Energy powered sub. I can definitely do Taiko. 🙂

    Interestingly enough, my neighbors haven’t complained about my stereo once. Must be my incredible taste in music. Or else I just have it turned up far enough that I can’t hear them whine. 😀

  7. Hmm, looking at SKT’s homepage: http://www.seattlekokontaiko.org/ and I notice that we have a Taiko Jam coming up on the 11th at Benaroya. I do not know it I have the money, but that sounds like fun. I can’t tell if SKT will be performing or not.

    If not, then it looks like 9/9 is the next opportunity. We’ll see what happens.

    I am glad you brought up Taiko Howard, it has been a while.

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