Hong Kong based hypno-tropicalia duo Blood Wine or Honey create a heaving, heady brew of brazen sax themes, lo-fi/hi-tech electronics, densely layered cello inflections and motorik drums. Written and recorded during 2020-21, their new album ‘DTx2’ looks ahead to an uncertain future, drawing deep on their experiences and influences and welcoming a host of co-conspirators; including KT Tunstall, Preservation, Zoë Brewster, Janice Lau and Paul Morley. DMCWORLD checks in…
Hello, thanks for speaking with us. For anyone not familiar with you, please introduce yourselves and what you do.
We are Blood Wine or Honey: Joseph von Hess (vocals, clarinet, sax, percussion) and James Banbury (synths, bass, percussion, cello). We live in Hong Kong and we write, record and produce music.
How would you describe your music? What are the elements that you feel make it distinctive?
Our music isn’t indescribable but it is maybe a bit hard to categorise. We get described as all sorts of things… post punk, jazz, stuff like that, and *that* word, ‘eclectic’, comes up a lot. The music does take in a lot of different elements, all sorts of areas of interest for us, including ’80s electronics, tropical sounds, middle eastern music, disco, sound system scorchers and wonky pop. We like to think our music is distinctive because of that range of ideas and influences that are going in, all based on our diverse and at times slightly odd experiences in music, both as musicians and listeners.
Album link: https://bastardjazz.fanlink.to/dtx2
Please talk us through your new album DTx2? What inspired you to create the album?
We wanted to improve on our previous work and sort of refine what we were doing. We had an idea of just creating club tunes, with a bit of a jokey mantra of ‘disco dancing in the rave scene’ but as we went along and this pandemic happened, it kind of changed and went in two directions: firstly a bit more next-door to dance music, more adjacent, more experimental you could say, and then at the same time more like ‘songs’, with actual words and chord progressions and that. We’re a duo these days so the challenge for us was to see what that was, what it could be.
How did you hook up with KT Tunstall for ‘Attraction’?
She and James are friends from a while ago (before she was famous!) and last year he did a mix for her KT Rave thing on Instagram and put in a song of ours, Anxious Party People. KT absolutely loved that track and she was very enthusiastic about doing something with us. We thought she was going to play a bit of flute or something on an instrumental we’d made (she plays flute as well as guitar and singing), but next thing we knew she’d written words, named it Attraction and done the vocals and everything!
Who else features on the album?
We have some interesting people involved. Paul Morley, journalist, critic, author, who people might know from ZZT, Art of Noise, Frankie etc etc… We teamed him up with Laujan, from Hong Kong band David Boring. She’s a great vocalist and she did a spoken word declamation based on Paul’s ideas and Joanna Russ’ writings. Who else is there? On Testing Time we have Zoë Brewster singing, she’s quiet about it but a bit of a legend on the Hong Kong music scene. Plus Kamal, London wunderkind signed to Dave’s management and the Neighbourhood label—we got him to play some funky keys for us in 7/8! Then we have another friend, Preservation, aka Jean Daval, who’s primarily a producer and has worked with a who’s-who of conscious hip-hop including Yasiin Bey, RZA, MF Doom, Aesop Rock, Ka, KRS-One and Mach-Hommy. He was with us for ‘Messenger’.
If money was no object, what instrument/item of studio equipment would you buy?
Joseph: probably I’d get an actual decent clarinet and sax, instead of the entry level shit I’ve been on for years. It would probably be like getting out of a Ford Focus and stepping into a Ferrari. And I’ll have one of those amazing curved Mongolian clarinets as well. And maybe more of a proper percussion ‘array’! And some drum pads. And more mics. And a lava lamp.
James: A grand piano (presumably if money was no object, there’d be enough space for it) or some lovely big mid-field monitors. A Roland System 100 or an EMS Synthi. A Hammond B3 and Leslie Speaker.
What have been the biggest influences in your music career so far?
Joseph: impossible to narrow down really but just off the top of my head, Ivo Papasov, Yiorgos Mangas, Ian Dury, Kakai Kilonzo and Kilimambogo Brothers, John Zorn.
James: The Human League, Public Enemy, Bernard Herman, Art Blakey.
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Joseph: Exaggerate, but don’t be a dick about it.
James: Adjust the channel gain level in solo before moving the fader. Put a tambo on the snare. Then relax.
What are three new tracks/albums you’d recommend someone to listen to?
The latest Dego album, Negative Positive. He’s the best producer I can think of for that kind of thing. Also Voy Pa Allá by Semblanzas del rio Guapi, a vocal/percussion group. I don’t understand the words, it’s all in Colombian Spanish, but it doesn’t matter, it’s brilliant and powerful. Bubble by Redders and Sam Binga. Great fun, 2-step revival madness.