“On an album, you want loads of detail for people listening at home,” Bicep's Andy Ferguson said in a press release for the Belfast duo’s second LP,
Isles. While Bicep presciently forecast popular dance music’s return to rave years ago, it’s less likely the guys knew that home would be the only place where people could listen to their new project upon its release.
Whether through clairvoyance or luck,
Isles meets the moment. It’s intricate, moody, nostalgic, introspective and emotional, with melodies (“Atlas”) that swirl somewhere between euphoria and melancholy and fidgety synths and percussion (“Fir,” “Sundial”) that bypass the feet in favor of cerebral stimulation. The star of the album (out via Ninja Tune) is its vocals, whose sample origins span the globe from Malawi to Bulgaria to Bollywood, alongside original contributions from the UK’s Clara La San. Every contribution is united in its atmospheric unease: a looming, almost transcendent presence that makes