This “Black Ships” is led by the two greatly talented warriors of the production team known as Tokyo Black Star. Based between Tokyo and New York armed with his high grade receptor antennae is the world traveling international French DJ Alex from Tokyo. His partner, Isao Kumano, operates from his studio-base in Tokyo as a multi-talented high-profile engineer and sound producer specializing in all musical aspects from mixing to mastering.

As Tokyo Black Star their ship has advanced through the galaxy, meeting fellow travelers along the way. Their encounter with Dixon influenced the start of Dixon’s label Innervisions, their encounter with the NYC based rising Japanese new generation painter Tomokazu Matzuyama on the “Still Sequence EP” produced the beautiful artwork of this album, and with the poet Rich Medina and his distinctive deep voice as one of the characters in this story, here is the declaration of the Tokyo Black Star state of mind!

This album “Black Ships” is at once Tokyo Black Star’s nonfiction travel diary, and at the same time a supreme fiction of traveling through the world of imagination. It can be described as the ultimate brilliantly executed electronic dance music novel within the modern club-oriented electronic dance music genre. The journey of the imagination begins with the exalted feeling of departure, sometimes steady, but also sometimes facing navigation trouble in times of emergencies.

A climax which happened twice, three times, and here comes another voyage…If you press the play button, the story starts…Is the beginning of this story to be found in a distant port, not shown on any map, where pirates are said to gather? Or does it begin in their own space station in a galaxy far, far, away? Kenji Hasegawa (gallery, Tokyo) December 2008