20 Truths About Toto Asia: Busted
The Band Toto Asia
Toto was expanding its production facilities overseas, and was doing business in France and Germany, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan, Thailand and the People's Republic of China. The company considered North America as a growth market for Washlet bidets and toilets, in contrast to its "base" markets of Japan and China.
Dhaniram Toto documented Toto words to ensure that the future generation could understand them. However, many words were being replaced by foreign words, such as dui from Bengali for verandah.
Origins
The company was founded in 1917 and its early years were a mirror of Japan's economic growth. In the first half of 1917, Toto manufactured products to meet the demands for modern, contemporary urban housing. It was the first tunnel kilns in the country to continuously produce ceramics. It also pioneered the use of automation to control production, which allows for more efficiency and consistency.
In the latter half of the 1980s, the company began to expand overseas to benefit from sales and new markets. It created the Cera Trading Company, importing and selling other products of manufacturers to complement its own lines of plumbing fittings and sanitary earthenware. This strategy helped increase sales and expand the firm’s global market share.
In the late 1990s, Toto had shifted its focus on research and development of household appliances that are water-related. It also upgraded its system of distribution to better serve customers and boost profits. The company embraced a just-in time method of managing supply chains, and it used the same methodology in its sales strategy. This resulted in a greater degree of customer satisfaction.
Toto continues to invent toilet technology. The latest toilet from the company features an environmentally friendly, powerful tornado flush. The company makes use of recycled water for its manufacturing process, and has a green buying policy. Toto also manufactures faucets, bathtubs and hand dryers that have higher energy efficiency than conventional models.
The first museum of the company opened in 2015 and features exhibits on Toto's seminal products and their evolution and its group companies (all that deal with ceramics), history of plumbing and products like bath units and, in a different gallery, Toto products sold around the world. The museum has a bathroom with a washbasin and other toilet innovations.
Before the formation of Toto members of the group performed sessions with various musicians. Boz Scaggs' album Silk Degrees featured keyboardist David Paich and guitarists Mike Porcaro & Steve Lukather and drummer Jeff Porcaro & Steve Lukather. They also played on records by Steely Don, Seals and Crofts and Sonny and Cher.
Discography
You might expect a band with a name like Asia to be a prog rock group however, it's actually a pretty straightforward rock group. The group was formed as four-piece, and released two albums: 1979's self-titled debut and 1980's Armed to the Teeth. The group has a diverse musical background but their biggest success was in 1982 with Toto IV.
The album was a huge blockbuster, however it did not come without its share of problems. Record companies put the band on position with the order "give us a hit record or we'll take you off the market" and the pressure was on to meet the deadline. Luckily for Toto, they did with the help of the smash hit single "Africa."
Toto's musical mastery owes a lot to their previous experiences, as the band members were session musicians for artists like Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, and Seals and Crofts before starting the group. Their sonic signature has become the norm for '80s pop, and has influenced many modern artists.
This album starts off hard, with songs such as Running Out of Time and Unknown Soldier showcasing the bands ability to write great AOR songs that slowly get their hooks into your. The album also has some slower, more jazzy tracks, like The Little Things and Chinatown. The album concludes with Great Expectations, a song which combines folk and distorted AOR and could sound totally wrong, but is incredibly effective.
After Toto IV The band's fortunes took a turn for the worse. David Hungate left the band to pursue a solo career. The band had a variety of drummers. In 1984, Bobby Kimball left the group due to drug charges. The band remained with Michael Porcaro, Steve Lukather and Michael Porcaro.
Toto released Isolation despite the turmoil. It wasn't as popular as IV. However, the band still had a successful chart-topping album in 1992 with Kingdom of Desire. This album marked the conclusion of the original Toto lineup and was the first album featuring the new singer, Simon Phillips.
Tours
The band has performed all over the globe to an audience of millions, with sold-out shows across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and New Zealand. The band's repertoire is huge and their catalog has amassed over a billion streams on streaming services worldwide. The band's music has influenced generations of fans.
Steve Lukather and Joe Williams have forged a deep, colorful friendship that thrives professionally on a worldwide basis. In relevant web site celebrated 40 Tours Around the Sun with a massively successful global tour. The album of the same name debuted at 5 on the Billboard 200. The band's latest tour includes their greatest hits and rarely-performed live deep cuts, and a selection of songs that come from Lukather's and Williams individual catalogs.
TOTO has a customer satisfaction rating of 20 based on its Net Promoter Score, which measures how likely its customers are to recommend the brand. Promoters are those who give a high rating to the company and encourage others to use its products or services. Detractors are those who judge the company poorly, and might even actively discourage others from using their products or services.
Join Toto to experience a unique cultural encounter in Asia. This highlights tour features luxurious accommodation, a day on a deluxe junk on Halong Bay and an exploration of Angkor Wat, a mystical temple that is what the French called Indochine. You'll also spend one night in the charming town of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage city that will delight the senses. This is a excursion you should not skip!
Line-up
The band's third album, Turn Back, marked an reversion to the classic sextet style of previous albums. It was a more ferocious, constant effort with an edge that was more pronounced than Hydra. Its more punk-rock sound reflected the maturation of the group, with drummer Bobby Kimball's increased ability on the drums and an improved, mature vocal delivery from singer Joseph Williams. David Paich's keyboard playing was as well more refined, more precise, and less derivative on earlier efforts.
After touring to promote their album, the group recorded an Amsterdam live concert that was released by Eagle Records as a 2-CD set titled Falling In Between. The studio album came out a few months later, and the band embarked on an extensive world tour to promote the album. During this period keyboardist Greg Phillinganes replaced Paich and bassist David Hungate quit the group to spend time with his family.
In 1998, Paich and Lukather started searching through old demos and tapes in search of a new record featuring songs that had never been recorded before. The album was released as a double album titled Then And Now in 2001. It was the band's first album that did not contain one single track titled "A". The album also contained an previously unreleased track titled "Kari-Anne".
By 2003, Toto had begun to decline in popularity. The group's fourth album, Old Is New was a commercial failure and vocalist Williams was suffering from laryngitis, which limited his singing ability. In addition, Hungate returned to Nashville as a drummer, and Leland Sklar was replaced by Shem von Schroeck.
Downes along with the other members of Asia--Wetton, Palmer, and Howe--convened a meeting in England in early 2006 to discuss the possibility of restructuring the band. This lineup, minus Howe (who was working with Yes at the time) was eventually referred to as Toto XIV and toured extensively.
In 2010, the band reunited for another reunion tour with a slightly different line-up, including guitarists Mike Porcaro and Steve Lukather, drummer John Pierce, bassist Shannon Forrest, and multi-instrumentalists Warren Ham and Dominique Taplin. The group also had an appearance by singer Michael McDonald, and a backing singer named Mabvuto Carpenter.