Bicep

Album review

When it comes to house music, you don’t need clear sunny skies to be one of the best. It’s indeed in the damp greyness of Belfast that Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson sculpted their original soundtrack. Since 2008, the duo has managed the influential blog Feel My Bicep, the Bible for junkies of the finest house, Italo, disco and dancefloor music. Abracadabra: the blog of these two friends who met at rugby training when they were just 10 years old, has quickly morphed into a label on which they released their own productions. From major punches to federating DJ sets, the Bicep is indeed growing, to the point of this first album was anticipated to be one of the electro Holy Grails of 2017. And it is! McBriar and Fergusson were smart enough to imagine it as such. As an album, rather than a compilation of old personal mixes. Thus the album covers Bicep’s various influences, from the most obvious tunes capable of setting the clubbing world on fire, to 90s techno and, more subtly, drum’n’bass from the golden age (LTJ Bukem) or more experimental (Four Tet). Bicep strikes hard thanks to this wise blend of dancefloor hedonism and more cerebral compositions. © MD/Qobuz