Tokyo Black Star - Kagura

So first off the reason why I haven't been posting much over the past few days is that Blogger was blocked on the network that I use, but after a few frantic e-mails all is restored and I'm free to type more random bollocks, there is a loser in all this but I'm just trying to work out who.


Tokyo Black Star is the result of the musical relationship between Alex From Tokyo and Isao Kumano who some of you may remember from a couple of releases on the sadly defunct Japanese label Flower Records. They've been making music together for a while but have really stepped up since 2005 and have released work on Sonar Kollektiv, Deeply Rooted and Innervisions and the releases have been as eclectic as Alex's DJ sets, which truly do run the full gamut of electronic music - he was the one DJ that I really wanted to book for Kumo but by the time the opportunity arised we had already packed it in. Have a look at Alex's playlist here to get an idea of what the little magician plays.

The first time I came across a Tokyo Black Star release was when they re-jigged a Tony Allen release on P-Vine at the turn of the century and they've made everything from deep house to minimal techno but for this release they've entered the world of ambient and from what I gather it'll be on their forthcoming album Muting The Noise. This is definitely one of those records that sucks you in and has that cinematic feel that was so popular when clubs still had chillout rooms back in the mid-90s, except this one is just the right side of the Jean-Michel Jarre rubbish that I put up with when I was taking a break from dancing my socks off at various haunts in Cape Town at the time. This isn't as instant as some of the records that I've posted on here and is probably crying out for a kick drum but for here and now this works for me and then some.

Tokyo Black Star - Kagura