Aimachi

[gottalovit]

I see your Aimachi and raise you a Yokohama ROBINS ! The 1996 Phantom Regiment of Japan! (with better drill :sshh: )

WOW!!!!!!

That is awesome!!! I like their arrangement a little better than Phantoms, and that is some amazing drill. I would love to get a dvd of that show!!!!Is that a competition that there would be a dvd available like DCI? and if so, anyone know how one would order it? What the name of that competition is, etc?

And while the Aimachi show isn't quite as good as SCV 99, I really loved that one as well.

If they conformed to DCI rules, I think these groups could easily place top 12.

[Eddie]

edited....... found other information

The shows are from the 2002 WAMSB World Championships in Chiba, JP.

The magazine I have of Aimachi doing this show at Nationals is from Feb. 2001

hmm.... I'm so confused here now...

Edited June 15, 2006 by bari_benzo

[raphael18]

Eh, they're okay - I'd say its a good start in the right direction, but I won't be giving up my SCV or Regiment recordings anytime soon.

The Robbins arrangement seems to have some real transition issues, and the impacts just don't seem to hit. Though, the drill isn't anything amazing that I haven't seen before, I give them credit for doing it on a floor without much in the way of markers. If I saw this from a BOA group, I'd be very pleased (though, I'd prefer to clean it up a bit), but if I saw it from a corps...not so much.

As for Amachi - the Indian thing is a bizzarre thematic interpretation, and there is at least one baritone/trombone that is using the ultimate laser tone for about the last minute or so of the show.

And no, these groups would have a hard time making semis, let alone finals, as is...and that's being optimistic. Seems that either you think they're that good, or you think a lot of the 13-16 place groups here are that bad.

EDIT: Just read the post above me, didn't realize they still had 5 more months to work on these shows - so I take back my performance comments.

Edited June 15, 2006 by raphael18

[Eddie]

EDIT: Just read the post above me, didn't realize they still had 5 more months to work on these shows - so I take back my performance comments.

Actually, I'm not sure if that's correct or not now.... made an edit to my previous post

[raphael18]

Either way, I will say that its awesome to see a very strong marching program in another country. Perhaps it won't be too long before DCI becomes truly international. Hey, it's a thought.

I've competed with groups from Canada and Taiwan, and seen a Mexican band at a parade, but it'd be really cool to see groups from other countries like Japan and England make their way over. I've also heard of great band programs in Thailand (we had a band director volunteer with us in 2003).

[Eddie]

Here are recaps from the 2002 WAMSB World Championships

http://www.wamsb.org/index.php?actionID=aw...howPage&pID=128

Info On Aimachi from WAMSB

http://www.wamsb.org/index.php?actionID=BO...=showAward&ID=2

For the 2002/03 season here, Aimachi did a show titled "The rising sun".... so I'm thinking that the "Native American" show was recycled specifically for the WAMSB World Championships that year... but I don't know... just a guess.

But Aimachi did win the Japan Nationals in 2003 as well. And they performed in Exhibition at the 2002 Japan Nationals with the "Miss Saigon" Show.

and...

The show in the Yokohama Robins Video (again, August 2002 I believe) is the same show they performed at the 2003 Japan Nationals (January, 2003).

Edited June 15, 2006 by bari_benzo

[billparlan]

The Aimachi Native American show was recycled for WAMSB. They first performed it in the season which went from September '00 to January '01 and won the championships. Their performance at the All Japan Championships in '01 was much much better than the WAMSB video shows.

The WAMSB was thrown together with very little rehearsal time. Probably less than a third of what a drum corps has here. The WAMSB was a diversion for Aimachi as it happened well before their competitive show for THAT season was on the field so they brought out an old show and had the new members learn it quickly.

Interesting to note: Their are members marching in Aimachi who've been in the band for decades... yes decades.

AS for bizarre interpretations, I'll just say that it doesnt seem the least bit bizarre to the Japanese I talked to. Neither did the Africa show they did the year before (2000) with the entire ensemble in African costumes and blackface. Japan has a very different culture than the US and many things are different and appear very bizarre (did you see Lost in Translation?). On the other hands, they often remark about how bizarre aspects of US culture appear that seem completely normal to us.

Finally, if they dropped the trombones, they would easily make semi-finals after a summer touring in the US. Easily. Most likely a finalist in the 8-10 range. Maybe higher. Guard, drums, visual all competitive in the 7-8 range and brass a bit lower- again without daily rehearsals of the full ensemble.

[keymodf]

there's a few indoor brass lines in the US, of course not as involved or as large or as good as that. I know that blue knights have a winter brass program, and here in michigan there is a division in the mcgc (michigan color guard circuit) for indoor bands. we had two of them this year. one larger group with a clarinet, some trumpets and trombones, a few saxophones, and i think a mello, and 4 colorguard, maybe close to twenty members total. and a smaller group called eos brass, they had two trumpets, a mello, baritone, euph, and one sousaphone (booo) they also had three pit members at finals (i had heard they had 4 or 5 earlier). for such a small group they were very mature players and marchers. at state finals the smaller group absolutely trumped the larger group with a score of 77.0 over a 65.1 or something. eos did a show of all original music while sabotage performed stuff by the band chicago. now i don't want this to turn into a rave about those two groups, or rather eos, but it is completely feasible to have drum corpesque ensembles competing indoors during the winter. i think these two groups are in it for the long haul, and i'd like to see more new ones soon. i heard from an audience member at one of the shows that 3 or 4 of the 6 members in eos hornline had marched corps somewhere, but i can't remember what corps he said. and two of the three pit members were marching this coming summer someplace. sounds to me like the members are trying to bring drum corps to the gym floor. eos is already pretty close, just lose the sousaphone, maybe grab a few more members, i think they will be the start of something big.

Edited June 15, 2006 by keymodf

[Russellrks]

Interesting to note: Their are members marching in Aimachi who've been in the band for decades... yes decades.

I was very impressed with the quality of these two Japanese ensembles. I was assuming that they were high school or college aged performers though.

So is this an all age activity in Japan or is there an age limit like we have with DCI?

[billparlan]

I was very impressed with the quality of these two Japanese ensembles. I was assuming that they were high school or college aged performers though.

So is this an all age activity in Japan or is there an age limit like we have with DCI?

No Age limit. Aimachi has fathers marching with sons or daughters or both. Their former drum major was in the band 30 years or more I'm told.