KVT – The Delicious Beat of Kyoto Drums

KVT’s feet are still tapping to the Japanese Drumbeat invasion

When the Japan Foundation comes up with the goods they’re always top quality

But first of all I guess I have to give a huge thanks to this year’s festival in Hue because this week we got few tastes of what they’ll have on offer down there…and one of the delectable entertainment dishes in the Nguyen Dynasty city will be BATI-HOLIC.

Once upon a time at the Youth Theater when international shows with a jumpy beat and ferocious tempo were playing… at about three quarters of the way through the gig a generous portion of the audience were standing and bouncing until the whole place was awash with flying sweat….and, back then, most of the musicians that had audiences dancing in the aisles and shimmying in their seats weren’t a patch on BATI-HOLIC….

At least on Wednesday night all the little kids whose parents couldn’t catch hold of them were jumping frantically in front of the stage…they almost had regular mosh pit going a going!

Seriously though, I thought that the youthful Vietnamese full house were far too staid …they clapped earthquakingly loudly and yelled the requisite OOH OOH OOH responses on cue, but their bums were super glued to their seats Not a good sign I thought for an up and coming generation whose revolutionary grandparents got up to dance at the first twang of a guitar.

Back to the grandkids…..I guess if mobile phones etc hadn’t been banned they’d all have been busy taking photos and posting them on Facebook.

But …at last…after the BATI-HOLIC came back for an encore, the lead musicians encouraged everyone to their feet and the theater looked really BATI-HOLIC, as it should have been for the previous half hour…most of the audience gyrating to the beat of drums.

It was a suitable grand finale for a fabulous concert…and despite the cemented bums of the reserved younger set….it certainly was just that….Fabulous!

If you were turned on by handsome young men with biceps perfectly developed (all that pounding on drums for hours on end!) then you were into BATI-HOLIC. If you were a fan of traditional Japanese fabric and costume then BATI-HOLIC would have made your day…particularly when worn by those handsome young men. If a stage full of traditional Japanese drums was part of your dreams then you wouldn’t have wanted to wake up. If you like music that is fuses rap to a dynamic world beat then you’d have loved BATI-HOLIC.

There was nothing not to like – the lights and lighting plot was excellent and the sense of mystery emanating from the stage was alluring.

Not that BATI-HOLIC is all drums. There’s a large gong, a bamboo flute and two traditional stringed instruments (plus two tiny cymbals that added an occasional tinny but dramatic flare) and some excellent rap vocals

Here’s part of a Japanese review that I wholeheartedly agree with: BATI-HOLIC creates catchy compositions shaped around specific phrases, resulting in a dynamic performance that brings the audience to their feet every time. BATI-HOLIC‘s varied performances span a range of emotions, from frenzied excitement to calm introspection. Their drive, energy and sheer joy for what they create is completely mesmerizing.

The group formed in 2004 when learning to play drums at an art school in Kyoto and found they were addicted to the instruments. Their repertoire apparently includes a variety of traditional dances and songs which are integral to Japanese culture through to their own contemporary compositions…the type we were feted with at the Youth Theater.

The group has been a hit in Japan, Holland, South Korea, Taiwan…and Vietnam and if I wasn’t already booked to go to the Central Highlands I’d be off to Hue to catch them there…hopefully to an audience that will do them sweat poppingly proud.

THANK YOU JAPAN FOUNDATION….YOU”VE DONE IT AGAIN!