Search - Yoshida Brothers :: Hishou

Soaring

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 07/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is just a perfect CD. The Yoshida Brothers have gotten some international acclaim, largely due to their being featured on commercials for Nintendo's Wii, but aside from this minor celebrity status they are amazing musicians with a beautiful and original take on a classic instrument.



This is not "rock shamisen" by any means, but nor is it the silent plucking and yelping that many associate with the instrument. Playing in the tsugaru-jamisen style of Northern Japan, the brothers play with a heavy percussive sound and with rhythms that vary in tempo from lighting fast to achingly slow, often in the same song. Unlike some other Yoshida Brothers CDs, "Hishou" (meaning "flying" or "souring" in Japanese) does not make use of background instruments like synthesizers and drums. This is just pure shamisen virtuosity.



I was fortunate enough to see the Yoshida Brothers on a recent tour, where they pretty much played "Hishou" from start to finish. As amazing as this CD is, their live performance is so much more so, and one cannot help but be astounded by their dexterity with the instrument."

A World Music calling card

M. E. BURNS | Minneapolis, MN USA | 05/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first came to know the Yoshida Brothers when my host parents allowed me to listen to their album Ibuki. Like their fellow countryman Hiromitsu Agatsuma, they are tsugaru shamisen players with a foot firmly planted in traditional music and another slipping into more Western song structures and tones. Agatsuma has worked on various albums with Western instrumental backgrounds and styles to varying degrees of effectiveness and success depending on where you stand regarding traditional shamisen music and the East-meets-West blend - if you find the former plain and the latter inventive and relaxing, or if you find the former powerful and the latter gimmicky.



Other Yoshida Bros. albums I am told tend to go more the way of Agatsuma's albums, but this one splits the difference: where they move away from a pure traditional sound the attendant background instrumentation is kept light; the song Time of Sand surprised me with its Western melody, for example, but the new-age synthesizers that I expected to bleed in never arrived, and the end result was uniquely lovely.



Many of these songs are originally from Ibuki, but have been rearranged for this album, so it isn't like buying Ibuki a second time, and I was surprised to notice the audio fidelity isn't as sharp here as it is on the former album. Irregardless of if you are into shamisen music for the traditional songs or the modern ones, there is something in Hishou for you, and subsequently I can recommend this album without reservation (though it is not replacing my copy of Ibuki any time soon)."

Jazz and Classical fans will love it, but I did expect a les

John P. Thiel | Astoria, Queens, New York City | 10/29/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yoshida Kyodai were a big hit for playing fresh, contemporary shamisen music, so of course I thought all their CDs were at least half composed of these innovative new arrangements. But not so with this album.



While Hishou represents that newness that made Yoshida Kyodai famous, it's not at a level people unaccustomed to hearing shamisen will recognise as anything but traditional.



Still, anyone who really appreciates a high level of musicianship presented in a way that doesn't sound gratingly experimental will love this album, as will the listener who just wants something to mix up their collection a bit and/or chill out to.



This is not background music to shut out the world by. This is music to listen to and appreciate."