12 Girls Band is incredible... as always!!
Paul Mccoy | Clute, Texas United States | 09/08/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This awesome band just keeps getting better and better. I feel their sound is coming together now more than ever. Much of the credit belongs to their song writer and arranger Lian Jianfeng of course, but then this couldn't be done without the 12 (thirteen) Girls. This CD centralizes around a cultural and historical theme that is explained in the accompanying VCD which, essentually, points out that a historical Chinese location called Dunhuang was a crossroads for different cultures in the past. Knowing that gives this CD a deeper meaning. Nevertheless the music is great on it's own merits. One thing about 12 Girls Band CDs is, personally, I am never happy with the order of the songs. They never seem to flow the way I would like them to so I usually program my own song order and burn a disc from that that I can listen to. This is the order I prefer to hear on this disc:
Dunhuang
Ruten
Romantic Energy
El Condor Pasa
Flower
From Beginning Till Now
Whispering Earth
Carnival
Ihojin
Yangguan
Mogao Grottoes
Yueya Spring
Tang Court Ensemble
Ten-Sided Ambush / Lovers
River Shule
Fairies of Yarden
So that's how I like it anyway. You can try it if you want.
One highlight on this disc is Ten-Sided Ambush / Lovers. These two songs, which play like one song, were originally performed on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack. This arrangement is absolutely beautiful. I only wish it wasn't so short.
I would recommend an imported DVD/CD set of their recent live concert in 2005 (performed in Japan if I'm correct). I can't type a title because it's written in Chinese. Amazon doesn't sell it but if you try hard you can find it on the web. This concert video is from the ROmantic Energy tour and contains some of these songs, as well as other favorites."
Another Beautiful CD by the Twelve Girls Band
K. Rousseau | 06/05/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love this CD. I got hooked on the Twelve Girls Band when I bought their Eastern Energy CD back when it first came out. And I believe this CD of theirs might just be my new favourite of theirs. This set comes with a 17-track CD, a DVD with the music videos and making of features for Dun Huang and El Condor Pasa, and a karaoke VCD of two Chinese New Year songs.
The CD starts out with Dun Huang, an amazing track that has a great beat and is an amazing opening song. It then moves to El Condor Pasa, which is also really good. It doesn't have the same kind of energy as the first track, but it is very engaging. Ru Ten has an energy much like Dun Huang and is another great instumental and you can definately hear the drums on this track. Whispering Earth is a slower, more haunting song than the previous tracks and the instruments really seem to complement eachother quite well in this track. Romantic Energy is not too bad, though it soundsa bit too much like some of their other songs. From The Beginning Til Now is a lovely song that really seems to create a story, despite the lack of lyrics. The backing beat for Yang Guan sounds almost like it should be a song you dance too, despite the chinese instruments. Carnival starts out slow and then really gets going nicely, sounding quite beautiful and full of energy. Fairies of Yar Dan is a pretty haunting song and is probabally one of the most beautiful songs on the album. Yi Ho Jin is a great song, with a really great beat and I could listen to this track on repeat for hours and probabally not get tired of it since there's just so much energy to this song! Flower is a slow song but sounds a bit like some of their other songs. River Shu Le starts out similar to a couple other songs but then definately becomes it's own song, creating a nice beat and the instruments really shine in this song. Mo Gao Grottoes starts out like some other songs and, at times, sounds like some of their other songs. Despite that, it is still a pretty good song overall. Yue Ya Spring starts out like nothing of theirs that I have heard before and is a really good song. Tang Court Ensemble has good energy and a great song. My favourite song on this CD is, by far, Ten-Sided Ambush. The instruments shine the most on this track and this track sounds amazing, despite beign the shortest track on the CD. The final track, Lovers, is a beautiful close to the album.
All in all, this is an amazing CD with beautiful music. However, the price here on Amazon is a bit high so I would suggest doing what I did: find it elsewhere. I bought mine from YesAsia for a pretty good price and I'm sure this CD can be found in other places as well. REgardless, you should buy this CD!"
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1