Bicep

Aiming to deliver on their promise that the live versions of ‘Isles’ would be “much, much harder”, Bicep have just released ‘Meli (II)’, a track that has been a highlight of their recent live shows, including a closing slot at Glastonbury’s West Holts stage last weekend. It comes alongside news of their biggest UK show to date at Alexandra Palace on 3 December 2022, with tickets on sale from tomorrow.

Bicep: “‘Meli (I)’ was a beatless track on ‘Isles Deluxe’. Truth be told we just couldn't get a drum version right in the studio throughout the pandemic, there were many failed demo versions whilst we were working on ‘Isles’, it just never felt like it worked.

“We always knew there was room for this version though, hence naming the original ‘Meli (I)’. ‘Meli (II)’ was formed slowly on the road. Each week we changed the drums a bit, the structure and generally allowed the crowd to inform the process. It was great to grow the track in this way, it felt like a very organic way of working.”

The duo are also returning to tour North America for the second time in 2022, taking in festival slots at Primavera (Los Angeles) and Portola (San Francisco), with additional stops in Denver, Chicago, Austin and more, plus numerous arena shows across the EU including Zenith Paris, Lotto Arena Antwerp and UFO Velodrom Berlin.

The track was honed over the past year as Bicep returned to playing live at festival and venue stages across the globe. With ‘almost 1 million people having the chance to see them play live 2022’, including headline performances at Glastonbury, Primavera, Parklife, Wide Awake, AVA, Field Day; a sold-out UK tour that included three headline shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton; and sold-out North American shows at NYC’s Knockdown Center and The Warfield in SF.

‘Isles’ was released in January 2021 and debuted at #2 on the UK Official Albums Chart and #1 on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart, earning the duo two BRITs nominations — for Best British Group & Breakthrough Act — in the process.