Hong Kong-based Hypno-tropicalia trio Blood Wine or Honey return with 'Tomorrow', a spirited, gleamingly reflective and instantly engaging future classic. It arrives alongside a rash of remixes from the BWoH vaults, created by Medlar, Biggabush, Fancy Cat and #normal. The EP follows the release of 'Brilliant Pebbles' — a track snapped up for Howie B's legendary Pussyfoot label's lauded relaunch compilation 'Space is the Plaice'.
Loosely referencing Ian Dury's 'Reasons to be Cheerful Part 3', Herbie Flowers' picked slap-back bass, Ethiopic jazz abstractions and a certain Chow Yun-fat classic, 'Tomorrow' is a rhythm-heavy, mantric tropical ritual dressed up in smooth city lights. Evoking super-bright LEDs drenched in monsoon madness and otherworld longing, the track's glacial cool melts into dance-floor heat with de-tuned drums, loved-up sax, big-mood vocals, and dream-like synths.
Then there's the quintet of genre-spanning remixes: ‘Undying Overrated (Biggabush remix)’, shows off Biggabush’s trademark dub-expressionism, giving the surreal lyrics space and pinpointing pops, echoes, and off-beat piano before erupting into a heavy heavy dub-club future-stepper; with ‘Orwellian Woman (Medlar remix)’ Medlar creates a synchro-synth-clap deep disco abstract banger; on ‘Peak Helium IV (Fancy Cat remix)’ the enigmatic Fancy Cat recalls Moodymann's avant-house auras and Blake Baxter's techno spirit. ‘Tomorrow (#normal remix)’
has skewed vocal clips and shimmering atmospherics kicking into huge drums, flipping the rhythm of the title track inside-out, along with bass weight and sampled snatches of vocal and sax refrain. Finally in ‘Loosefoot (#normal remix)' the usually anthemic 'Loosefoot' is transformed into a slow-burning spartan salutation with minimalist echoing percussion and vocal robotics, underscored by a reprise of the ruptured sub-bass of the original.
Blood Wine or Honey are: James Banbury (synths, bass, cello), Shane Aspegren (drums, synths, electronics) and Joseph von Hess (saxophone, percussion, winds). Together they create a witch’s brew of brazen sax themes, lo-fi/hi-tech electronics and motorik drums.
Previous press:
"Pretty damn sophisticated".........IGGY POP
"I’m catching a flight to Hong Kong with one aim — to see these guys".........GILLES PETERSON
"Post-punk sax mingled with ghostly choruses and lo-fi hi-tech electronics...this is a party worth joining".........MOJO
"Both smart and cool".........DJ MAG
"The brilliant Blood Wine or Honey".........TOM RAVENSCROFT
“A unique take on modern dance floor tropicalia...draws the line beautifully between Post-Punk, NY Disco Not Disco and Afro-Latin outernational sounds.".........DOM SERVINI
“Elaborate carnival percussion...riotous singalongs...celebratory brass elements”.........ELECTRONIC SOUND
"Blissful noise...sheer unbridled fun”.........THE 405
"A heady fusion of tribal rhythms, electro-psychedelia, and afrobeat”.........MIXMAG
"Thoroughly welcomes the listener into its samba parade carnival of interweaving drums, chants and saxophone”.........THE ARTS DESK
"Subversive, free-spirited experimentations” .........STAMP THE WAX
credits
released July 5, 2019
Recorded and mixed at Bellows and Component, Hong Kong.
Blood Wine or Honey hone their distinctive hypno-tropicalia sound in the industrial warehouses and hidden rural settlements
of Hong Kong, surrounded by the low-end throb of heavy machinery, the scent of CS gas and the humidity of the South China Sea.
Low-slung delirium, wonky tactics and party palpitations take notes from post-punk, tropical polyrhythms and the bass weight of the sound system....more