âBIG SCREENS AND GOOD SPEAKERS ARE RECOMMENDEDâ was the all-caps advice that Bicep posted to social media ahead of their second global stream on Friday night. The show was filmed at Londonâs world-famous Saatchi Gallery after a three-month stint of rewrites on their Number Two album âIslesâ, and it doesnât take long to see why the Irish dance duo â aka Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar â want this audio-visual performance to be experienced in the most fitting way possible.
Lockdown has proved that it can be difficult for dance music to translate well across a screen â as acts attempt to recreate the energy of a rave for people watching on a laptop, thereâs always danger of the result feeling flat and joyless. Thatâs certainly not the case for this 90-minute gig (plus an opening DJ set of house, acid and disco pumpers from their Feel My Bicep label signee Hammer). Instead, Bicepâs intricate and emotive club soundscapes transcend the realms of physicality.
Created with close collaborators Black Box Echo, itâs clear a lot of thought has gone into the streamâs visual aesthetic. Before weâre even transported to the gallery space, thereâs immediate VHS-style nostalgia thanks to neon lines that spell out BICEP LIVE as their synonymous logo rotates centre screen. With the anticipation built, two shadows appear, both bodies lit in infrared as they stand in front of a mountain of electronic equipment.
While the galleryâs white walls present a blank canvas, flashes of glitchy technicolour blocks and illusionist imagery soon get the blood racing. Itâs been filmed to ensure every possible camera angle and screen dimension is utilised; close-ups of hands twiddling synth pads has never looked so compelling.
The use of colour adds to the character of their gradually building electronic monuments, too. During âAtlasâ, the screen flashes to black in time with the heartbeat-like drum, before the kaleidoscopic creature that adorns the âIslesâ artwork wraps itself twists across its human inhabitants.
Just when you think it couldnât get any more technically impressive, fan favourite âOpalâ comes with a shape-shifting double-take visual thatâs made up of the Bicep boys manipulating their equipment in real time while the pumping intensity of closing track âAuraâ is matched by strobes that flash eerily across the galleryâs hallway and up its staircase.

The whole performance is not just extremely innovative and boundary-pushing: itâs also the closest thing weâve experienced to a proper rave throughout a year of lockdown. If Bicep carry this detailed level of artistry through to their live shows this September, the events will be nothing short of game-changing for the electronic music world.
Bicep played
‘Lido’
‘Siena’
‘X’
‘Atlas’
‘Meli’
‘Opal’
‘You’
‘Cazenove’
‘Saku’
‘Sundial’
‘Glue’
‘Apricots’
‘Aura’
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