Category Karate, Youtube Video
On Ibuki, Kodo worked with Bill Laswell to pump out an album of intense Taiko drumming, as usual. This time around, they reworked a few pieces that had been done on previous albums, including a piece from the soundtrack to The Hunted and “Zoku” by Leonard Eto, which shows up here and there in the Kodo collection. The driving force behind Kodo is the perfection and precision of all of the drumming taking place. This is what separates the drum troupe from your average hippie drum circle. Usually, with this many percussion instruments collected together, any piece of music quickly transforms itself into a sloppy, roundabout loop of mushed patterns. With Kodo, however, every stroke on every drum and every vocal or hand clap that takes place is carefully planned out and executed crisply. The end result is what you can hear on Ibuki: pure ecstatic drumming. The beats can easily move a person to move themselves, through the sheer energy driven through the speakers (even better is seeing Kodo live). Any aficionado of world music or percussion should already have the full Kodo album lineup in their collection, but those outside the loop could

  • Original Release Date: January 28, 1997
  • Label: Columbia
  • Copyright: 1996 Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.

Biography

Kodo is a Japanese group that has become an international phenomenon, based on the island of Sado, that has taken the world by storm with their new stylings on semi-traditional taiko drumming. Founded in 1981, the group’s name has dual meaning; according to the group, it translates both to “heartbeat — the primal source of all rhythm,” and “children of the drum, a reflection of Kodo’s desire to play their drums simply, with the heart of a child.” The group spends one-third of an average year touring in Japan, one-third touring the rest of the world, and one-third in rigorous workouts in their village on Sado. They have toured in all continents except Antarctica in their attempts to spread world peace via the messenger of music. Among their projects, aside from straightforward taiko performances, are a collaboration with new age synthesizer genius Isao Tomita for Nasca Fantasy, instructing the über-eclectic Cirque du Soleil in taiko for their own performances, the soundtrack for The Hunted, and a yearly “Earth Celebration” festival on Sado for percussionists from around the world to attend. They are ambassadors of peace through music and the current top bearers of the living art form of taiko drumming.

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