With their highly anticipated second album Isles just a couple of weeks away, Bicep have shared one final single to add to the string of great ones already released. The final teaser is called “Sundial”, with the pair revealing:
“This is probably one of the simplest tracks on the album, it grew from a faulty Jupiter 6 arp recording. Our trigger isn’t working properly and the arp skips notes randomly. This was a small segment taken from a recording of Andy just playing the arp live whilst we were just trying to figure out what was going wrong. We actually loved what it had produced and wrote some chords around it, guided by the feeling of this recording.”
The simplistic structure of “Sundial” that Bicep mention forms the perfect framework for their instinctive use of sampling and melodies. The beat hits like a hammer, but doesn’t overpower the track, which is a delicate blend of sounds that invites you into a utopian soundscape. The special ingredient is a sample of “Jab Andhera Hota Hai”, taken from the 1973 Bollywood film Raja Rani, recorded by Asha Bhosle & Bhupinder Singh, and written by Anand Bakshi and R. D. Burman. On the choice of sample, Bicep say:
“Indian music has always fascinated us since the blog days, discovering it was the possible birthplace of Acid house via Charanjit Singh’s Ten Ragas to a disco beat. Living in East London, Indian influence and music is everywhere and over the past few years we’ve both become huge fans of Bollywood film scores, particularly the female soprano performances. The haunting melancholic epicness really strikes a chord with both of us. We feel we can relate to how similar it is to the Irish folk we grew up around from the likes of the Clannad.”
“Haunting melancholic epicness” indeed. Check out “Sundial” below.
Bicep’s new album Isles arrives on January 22 via Ninja Tune. You can find Bicep on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
