Born out of friendship, obsession, and a shared love for forgotten records, Bicep have evolved into one of the most distinctive and emotionally resonant acts in contemporary electronic music. The Belfast duo (Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar) have spent more than a decade refining their sound, shaping a musical language that bridges nostalgia and innovation, underground roots and global acclaim.
The story begins in the mid-2000s, when the pair launched Feel My Bicep, a blog dedicated to rediscovering and archiving obscure house, techno, Italo, and electro tracks. What started as a private exchange between friends quickly became an influential hub for crate diggers around the world. “We were just obsessed with discovering old records and sharing them,” they’ve said in past interviews. That obsession with texture and history would later define the essence of Bicep’s own music. Always referencing the past, but never bound by it.
Their early productions emerged from this culture of discovery: dusty samples, chopped breaks, and melodies steeped in 1990s rave melancholy. By the time they signed with Ninja Tune and released their self-titled debut album in 2017, Bicep had already established themselves as curators as much as producers. Tracks like ‘Glue’ and ‘Aura’ captured a particular emotional weight—music that could move a festival crowd yet felt deeply personal, almost cinematic in tone. “We’ve always been drawn to that sense of euphoria mixed with sadness,” they explained. “The kind of feeling that’s hard to describe but instantly familiar.”
Their follow-up, ‘Isles’ (2021), expanded that emotional range. Written largely during a period of isolation, it channeled the duo’s cultural duality, Belfast’s raw intensity and London’s cosmopolitan depth, into a body of work that felt both introspective and communal. “Ireland is much more techno, trance, melodic… London is much more deep, with more influences of world sounds,” they once reflected. That interplay became central to their identity: a sound that felt rooted in the club yet transcendent of it, suspended somewhere between memory and motion.
As their audience grew, so did their creative ambitions. Their live shows evolved into fully immersive audiovisual experiences, pairing intricate sound design with striking, synchronized visuals. It was this evolution that led to their latest venture, CHROMA: a new label, live platform, and creative identity. Conceived as both a return to their club roots and a step into more experimental territory, CHROMA reflects their instinct to keep moving forward. “We’re always looking for new ways to challenge ourselves,” they’ve noted. “To keep the energy and the curiosity alive.”
Yet, at the core of Bicep’s success lies something more elemental: a lifelong fascination with rhythm, melody, and the invisible connections that music can build. Their process remains rooted in exploration, whether it’s sampling toy instruments, recording field sounds, or digging through archives for textures that spark emotion. “Every single day we’d set ourselves the challenge to listen back to everything we recorded and record new stuff,” they said of their studio sessions. “We’re constantly trying to find that sound that feels both new and familiar.”
Today, Bicep stands as a rare act capable of uniting underground credibility with global resonance. Their music embodies a paradox: sophisticated yet raw, introspective yet communal, nostalgic yet forward-thinking. It’s not just a sound. It’s a feeling, distilled through years of curiosity, discipline, and trust between two lifelong friends.
As they continue to expand under the CHROMA banner, Bicep remain faithful to the ethos that shaped them: never static, always searching. Their journey, from Belfast record collectors to architects of modern electronic emotion, is proof that evolution doesn’t mean abandoning your roots. It means constantly rediscovering them, one broken beat at a time.
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