Bringing chaos, sensuality and ecstatic motion to her productions and selections, Manuka Honey circles club music's most compelling fringes. In just a few short years, she's cultivated an idiosyncratic sound that's shuttled her from continent to continent, assembling a tight catalog of EPs, remixes and singles that harness the energy of Latin-American and Caribbean dance sounds, infusing it into radical new structures. A DJ, producer, multi-disciplinary artist and professional astrologer, Marissa Malik was born and raised in the US before she relocated to London, bringing her hot, humid aura to rainy England. She's animated by the complex alchemy of the dancefloor, and as likely to reference experimental sounds as she is cumbia or dembow.
Her debut solo release 'Industrial Princess' was released in 2021 and immediately established Malik as a force to be reckoned with, balancing unhinged futurism with heady nostalgia. 2023's well-received 'Machete / 777' took her sound even further, featuring guest appearances from Florentino, who also released the EP on his own Club Romantico label, and Grammy-winning vocalist La Favi. But Malik's recent '3Eternities Beneath You' is the most magical example of her mode so far, a syrupy set of hybrid bangers led by the cheekily titled 'Sinner's Dirge'. Low, slow and sultry, it's a moonlit introduction to Manuka Honey's dreamworld, brimming with psychedelic, serrated synths, bouncy bass and rattling percussion. Malik has also put her unique stamp on a handful of remixes, turning SWAN MEAT's 'PERFECT CHERRY BLOSSOM' into a fast paced dembow-hardstyle shuffler, and GLOR1A's sci-fi tinged 'Running Man' into a lurching blend of global club rhythms and noisy scrapes.
Malik's skill as a DJ netted her a residency on the prestigious BBC Radio 1 in 2023, and she's already maintained a four-year residency on London's Rinse FM, inviting artists like Ana Luisa, BEARCAT, Mun Sing and TEYKIRISI to dive headfirst into the unknown. But her spirited, passionate performances have to be experienced in person. Performing everywhere from the Netherlands' Rewire Festival to Panorama Bar in Berlin, she spritzes kinetic sounds from the diaspora - like Venezuelan turreo and shatta from Martinique - with stormy, industrial pressure. As a live performer, Malik has developed the ambitious 'Desenterrada del fuego', a sonic ritual in collaboration with Safety Trance that invokes the work of Palestinian-American academic Edward Said, decolonizing the art of divination with lectures, soundscapes and tarot readings.
