Bicep – Isles

The entire LP could have been based on 'Raincry' by God Within: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TScsSJ6gyKg. Also 'Vegas' by The Crystal Method ‎is a good reference point. Bicep live? "Watching two men doing the ironing in front of disco lights?"

Hard to listen Ninja Tunes released nowdays, except Floating points, the rest are overhyped.

The broken beat version of Dj Metatron's "Loops of Infinity". Its sounds are problably more rooted into early to mid-nineties IDM, while Traumprinz' approach was more 4/4-oriented. Some parts of "Isles" immediately reminded me of CJ Bolland's "Electronic Highway", though with updated sounds. While "Isles" has its merits, I vastly prefer DJ Metatron: Even if both can totally exist side by side, Bicep's work pales by comparim, is a lot less focussed and sometimes a bit big roomy / too much for my tastes.

Due to postal delays, the triple neon vinyl still hadn't arrived with them, so they decided to take the decision to send me a free copy of the signed picture disc 2lp vinyl now, and they'll be sending me the copy of the neon vinyl 3lp set next week when they arrive. Thank you very much👍🏻

It looks like Atlas is only a highlight here. The rest is overhyped.

when Discogs reviews were about the actual music and not about what the limited edition translucent sapphire picture disc sounds like? Pepperidge Farm re.

Anyway... dare I say this album is something of a disappointment? Bicep must surely go down as the most influential electronic club act of the last ten years. Who else can we thank for spearheading the wave of '90s hybrid breakbeat-garage-sunrise throwback tunes so in vogue? And yet, as the 18 year old Gen Z producers of today catch up with tunes like Satisfy that Bicep were making seven or eight years ago, the boys from Belfast continue to move towards living room, festival circuit, sub-Orbital "home listening electronica", all the club grit sanded off and every shiny synth surface polished to sound immaculate on your expensive home hi-fi. The hard-hitting dancefloor versions of these tunes are being saved for the exclusive Bicep Live performances which will inevitably be toured on all the biggest festival main stages; the crowd a human sea and the duo high above, tiny "specks on their own landscape". In the process, all that grimy warehouse, rat-poison-under-your-shoes 6am intimacy has slowly seeped away, seemingly never to come back.

The sad part is the Bicep sound never needed much tweaking to sound as good at home as it did on the dancefloor. Give me a full LP of tunes like Nova, Dahlia and their remix of A Higher Level any day.