The Yoshida Brothers were a mainstay on my "Transglobal Underground" Pandora Station (why does saying that feel make it feel like Pandora was so long ago?). I did some more research on them: they were trained in the minyo-shamisen and Tsugaru-shamisen styles. Their first album sold more copies than either of them had imagined, and now they're entertaining people all around the world with some highly addictive, electronica-inspired tunes. "Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix)" is a song that has gained international popularity by being the background song for Wii commercials. It was actually the first song of the Yoshida Brothers' I ever heard, and it is quite unlike most other songs i've heard. The rhythm is consistent and foot-tappingly catchy, and the melodic theme is predictable, but the listener is kept on their now-tapping toes by the interplay of the shamisens and electronic music. Namely, the shamisens continue the theme as bass beats fade in and out, rendering a surprising and explosive quality each time the two instrumental groups play together. Because of these quick mood changes throughout the piece, I see how it would be difficult to dance through it (in fact, I have with one of our troupes, and it was slightly confusing). But I will still declare that if one were to memorize the song well and maybe not zill through most of it, it would be an awesome fast ATS piece. Or a super-dramatic dramatic slow. I'm not sure, but it's hard to pass up a solid 4/4 beat that's accented so naturally by triplet patterns already in the music. ATS-er's, how would you dance to this song? To all the myriad dancers out there, how would you use this song to really make a choreography shine?
