With incredible excitement - after purchasing the CD direct online from Japan, waiting three weeks for delivery, paying the additional £13 customs charge - we can now showcase the brilliance of 'Binary': the collaborative project from the New York City-based band, The Love Experiment, and Tokyo's, WONK.
It's been nearly a year since we were fortunate enough to secure time with Charles “Blvk Samurai” Burchell, band leader and drummer for The Love Experiment, and discuss their exquisite debut self-titled album. The band's innovative approach to music-making, the way they thrive off collobaration and live performances, makes the 'Binary' project the next step in their continued evolution.
As Burchell stated in 2017 regarding The Love Experiment's potential follow-up to their debut, the goals were clear even then: "Funkier, more soulful, more sonically adventurous ... the sound has changed a lot from this current record. We will definitely have a lot more production elements and will try to incorporate the full range of what our band can do sonically." It's not clear at this time whether 'Binary' was the project being alluded to but the stunning quality of the music on offer here have made his words no less prophetic.
So, enter WONK...
From Tokyo, Japan, WONK are themselves a relatively young band, with their first release having been unveiled in 2016 ('Sphere') but they also boast the distinction of having released their two follow-up records the very next year ('Castor' and 'Pollux') earning them a significant following as a much-respected future soul band in the same vein as their overseas collaborators.
For two bands with uniquely distinctive styles, the songs weave seamlessly together and with interchanging band lineups on each song and The Love Experiment's honey-toned vocalist Kim Mayo sharing lead duties with WONK's Kento Nagatsuka, the whole union over 15 tracks just seems effortless.
In our previous Love Experiment feature, we referred to the band as "exciting representatives for a new generation of progressive soul music". As relates to 'Binary' - an album with an inspired concept, masterfully executed - we're pleased to now bestow that distinction onto two incredible bands!
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