London-based duo Bicep includes Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson, they will release their hotly anticipated second album, “Isles”, on January 22 on Ninja Tune. They describe “Isles” as “a snapshot in time” of their work in this period, with the tracks designed to evolve in their different iterations from record to live show and beyond. “This is definitely the home listening version,” says Matt, “the live version will be much, much harder”.

On the title, “We have strong mixed emotions, connected to growing up on an island” they say, “wanting to leave, wanting to return”. For two natives of Belfast, any talk of islands, communities and identities will also have other, more domestic connotations, and has always been an aspect of their lives they’d been reluctant to talk about. “It’s always been an unquantifiable topic for us” says Matt. “We’re not religious, but we’re both from different religious backgrounds. There was always a lot of interest in us talking about those issues, but we always felt that one of the things we loved about dance music was that freedom it gave you to be released from talking about those things.”

“You’d enter the club and it would be people from both sides of the tracks and they’d be hugging” says Andy, referring to massively influential Belfast club Shine, where both cut their musical teeth. “And the following week, they’d be with their mates rioting. It felt like the safest place but, on paper, it should have been the most dangerous”. Musically, too, they find echoes of those days in their work. “It was like being smacked in the head with a hammer” Matt says, of the tunes that defined that scene, and which find expression in “Isles’” most raw and energetic corners. “It was either very intense, in-your-face Italo tinged electro or really aggressive techno”.

Bicep are also ambassadors for Youth Music, a charity working to change the lives of young people through music and music production. Both take an active role in mentoring young people coming through YM programmes, reflecting their own eagerness to give back as musicians who themselves received industry support when they were coming up.

For more information please see https://www.youthmusic.org.uk/what-we-do

Bicep
Isles
Tracklist
Ninja Tune

1. Atlas
2. Cazenove
3. Apricots
4. Saku (feat. Clara La San)
5. Lido
6. X (feat. Clara La San)
7. Rever (feat. Julia Kent)
8. Sundial
9. Fir
10. Hawk (feat. machìna)

Bicep
2021 Tour Dates:

18-Feb – Triannon, Paris, FR
19-Feb – Triannon, Paris, FR
09-Mar – AB, Brussels, BE
26-Mar – Telegraph Building, Belfast, UK
02-Apr – District 8, Dublin, IE
03-Apr – District 8, Dublin, IE
05-Jun – Primavera Sound, Barcelona, ES
30-Jun – Roskilde, Roskilde, DK
02-Jul – Down the Rabbit Hole, Beuningen, NL
03-Jul – Rock Werchter, Leuven, BE
09-Jul – BBK Live, Bilbao, ES
10-Jul – Field Day, London, UK
28-Aug – Creamfields, Daresbury, UK
30-Oct – Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht, NL
04-Dec – WHP, Manchester, UK
TBC – O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
TBC    – Electric Brixton Afterparty, London, UK
TBC    – O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
TBC    – SWG3m Glasgow, UK
(All dates subject to change)