Twelve Girls Band - Eastern Energy

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

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