- A tour de force of neon euphoria.
- I wasn't blown away the first time I heard Bicep's self-titled debut album. The music felt too bright and poppy. Then I listened again. And again. I grew to love the record, won over not only by the big drums and melodies but also the intricate programming buried beneath the loud exterior. After years of dedicated blogging peppered with the odd hit, Bicep, AKA Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar, had created a refined, arena-sized sound all of their own.
And arenas it filled. Tracks like "Glue" and "Aura" joined "Just" as club and festival anthems, turning Bicep into headliners overnight. It helped that they had a proper live show: tons of gear, 20-foot visuals, army-grade lasers. The tables laden with hardware showed the world that Ferguson and McBriar were nerds and serious technicians, earning them comparisons to Orbital and The Chemical Brothers. Still, the show had its limits: not every track on Bicep worked in the live setting. So the duo got to work on their second album, Isles.
And then all the arenas shut. The pandemic left Bicep with ten new, purpose-built tracks and nowhere to play them. But Isles, according to McBriar, isn't a collection of fully fledged bangers. He says the LP is "the home listening version"—the live renditions, whenever they materialise, will be "much, much harder." Even so, it's a stretch to imagine listening to these tracks at a dinner party, let alone a lazy Sunday afternoon. The whole thing is drenched in neon euphoria. Fans of the first album will find a lot to love.
The main themes of Bicep's sound—breakbeats, dazzling earworms, bags of emotion—remain intact on Isles, but there's a freshness to the overall texture. New sounds, new energy, the colours louder in tone. This all hits you like a wave on the opening two tracks, starting with the soaring smash "Atlas," this album's "Glue." A modular earworm writhes in the blinding sunlight. The melody on "Cazenove" is another beauty, this time pacy and light. Even the beatless "Lido," a gorgeous purr of keys, pads and choral coos, carries heft thanks to the intensity of the sound design.
Bicep's deftness of touch is key to their handling of vocals, too. Ferguson and McBriar explore new and broad ground on Isles, working with two vocalists, as well as sampling Bollywood films, Malawian singers and a Bulgarian female choir in an attempt to capture the cultural richness of their beloved East London. Nearly all of it slaps. Take Clara La San's hushed turn on the glitchy "X." Or the haunting female sample, lifted from the 1973 film Raja Rani, on "Sundial." The strangest cameo is from former K-Pop-turned-electronic artist Machína, whose clipped mutterings, barely audible, pepper the album's quirky finale, "Hawk."
Not everything on Isles is a win—"Rever" and "Fir" dial the neon palette up a notch too high—but overall the album nails the tricky balance artists face when following a successful debut: similar enough to charm the old fans yet fresh enough to entice the new. Progress, but in moderation. The other tricky balancing act, which Bicep have excelled at again and again, is bringing flair and depth to supersized dance music. When live events eventually return, people are going to have a lot of fun raving to these tunes.
Tracklist01. Atlas
02. Cazenove
03. Apricots
04. Saku feat. Clara La San
05. Lido
06. X feat. Clara La San
07. Rever feat. Julia Kent
08. Sundial
09. Fir
10. Hawk feat. Machìna