Description
BICEP return with SLUG, their eagerly awaited album following the critically acclaimed, BRIT-nominated Isles (#2 UK). Broadening their palette into new territory, yet still unmistakably BICEP, SLUG features collaborators including Eartheater, Clark, George Riley, KUČKA and more.
As an 18-track body of work spanning the full breadth of BICEP’s sonic DNA, ‘SLUG’ is firmly rooted in the unmistakable BICEP sound, while also seeing the duo broaden their musical palette, pushing the familiar into new territory. The sense of contrast runs through the record at a fundamental level. Clean drum patterns were distorted; pristine vocals pushed through analogue processing; soft synths placed against rougher textures. Long-standing BICEP hallmarks of melancholy, euphoria and emotional resonance were pushed further, with opposing sounds and feelings deliberately brought together rather than resolved.
“For this album we really wanted to massively broaden what we do. It felt like a new start for us. We wanted to make a much more varied album than our previous ones and push what people might expect BICEP to sound like. We just wanted an album full of surprises and contrast. We’ve always played with melancholy in our music and tried to combine feelings of happiness and sadness, but this album brings that into a much more fully realised world… It’s about putting conflicting feelings together because they become bigger and richer next to each other.”
Musically, the album’s 18 tracks move between rave, breakbeat, vocal-led material and ambient soundscapes, and BICEP describe ‘SLUG’ as a record intended to reveal itself differently depending on when, where and how it is heard.
