Bicep release new single ‘Atlas’

Having been teased in numerous DJ sets over recent months – and predictably leading to much excited anticipation among their fans online – Bicep announce their new single ‘Atlas’, available today digitally and on 12” from April 3 on Ninja Tune. Their first new music since 2018’s Rain EP.

“It would’ve been unthinkable to foresee the circumstances this track would be released in when we were making it. Our frame of mind was so positive then, fresh off the back of our live tour, full of excitement for the next phase. ‘Atlas’ was our attempt at summing up some of the euphoric moments we experienced on that tour across those two years. It feels like those moments are very far away for all of us right now, but we hope this serves as some form of distraction amidst all this chaos.” – Matt & Andy (Bicep)

Recorded in their new studio space, ‘Atlas’ is 6 minutes of unmistakable Bicep. With synth lines that ebb and flow across broken percussion and ethereal vocal snatches, the track was conceived as they toured their immense live-show across the globe. Learning and experimenting – often on-the-fly – with how the elements of each track work in a live setting has given them a new way of approaching their workflow back in the studio. “What we enjoyed most from playing tracks live is how flexible it was,” they explain. “For instance how an element from a track could be interpreted in many different ways and not be reliant on the rest of the original tune. Having the songs broken down in this way means we can really perform them in a drastically different way, based on the setting”.

Bicep’s eponymous 2017 debut – which reached top-20 in the UK album charts – was lauded by the likes of Pitchfork, Stoney Roads, Purple Sneakers and Mixmag, who picked it as ‘Album of the Year‘ and put them on their front cover. It achieved that rare balance, working as well at home as it does on the dancefloor. A series of well-received singles, including ‘Glue’ – a track and video that would become certified touchpoints in electronic music that year – ‘Rain’ and ‘Vale’ reinforced their ascendance and a remix of ‘Opal’ by iconic producer and DJ Four Tet made for one of the year’s big dance 12”s. A subsequent live-tour took them around the world, across revered festival stages such as Glastonbury, Coachella, Sonar and Primavera. The band also hit Australian festivals such as Pitch Music & Arts, Days Like This, Lost Paradise and Let Them Eat Cake, as well as a number of sold out headline shows, most recently packing out Manning Bar in Sydney and 170 Russell in Melbourne.