After months of shaky-cam YouTube uploads from fans capturing unreleased material, paired with the kind of feverish rapture that usually accompanies UFO sightings, Belfast deep house duo Bicep finally release their debut LP, and it fitfully lives up to expectations. Built with the rounded corners of analogue gear rather than the planed-off shards of digital, the aesthetic is of vintage techno, both breakbeat and ambient (their nostalgia is unlined by Vespa, an interlude with impressionistic raver vox pops). Their fiendish melodic coherence is sometimes riveting, particularly on the the Caribou-esque rushes of Opal or adrenal spikes of Aura – one of the dance tracks of the year. Even the cheesily “exotic” vocal sample on Spring works when paired with a stern, exacting synth line. But it’s filled out with greige ballast, be it the Reich for Dummies of Drift or the tame trip-hop of Ayr and Vale.
