Bicep – You / Don’t

Label: Aus

Having sharpened their dance teeth running the keyed-in Feel My Bicep blog, the Northern Irish production duo cut a fierce mission statement with their excellent vinyl-only debut, $tripper, earlier this year, a powerful combination of big Jersey house sounds and an intensely sweaty groove. The pair, now based in London, were plucked early for Will Saul’s always-discerning Aus imprint, and on You / Don’t they’ve more than delivered on the hype, collaborating with a couple of fresh faces to create one of the summer’s first essential 12”s.

You

If their first single was particularly extravagant on the use of that big 90s house sound, this single is more acutely focused on drama. On the breathtaking A-side You, Bicep combine forces with Ejeca. Their sounds are cast onto a dramatic widescreen where sweeping synths introduce a pacing 2step rhythm, with an impeccably subdued array of vocal moans and tight blips ramping up the tension, all capped off by a cinematic scream. By the time the undulating lead vocal takes its position, you’ll already be sold on the magic of this track, an expertly structured and infectiously catchy cross-section of today’s UK bass scene that no DJ should be without. Panorama Bar resident Steffi offers a deep house rework of You that charms with bouncing vintage synths and big, bright synth sweeps, but her remix definitely lacks the drama and individuality of the two original tracks on offer here, resulting in a pleasant but missable addition to the two original tunes.

 

Don't

On the flipside Bicep team up with a different collaborator, Omar Odyssey to create a very different track that still holds on to the mood of You, with bouncing house sounds served up bristling and nervy. Don’t is an icy, far more stripped-down affair than the A-side, offering an irresistible stomp alongside an ominous rising synth progression and those well-chosen vocal snips that give way later in the track to a low-end that would clearly devastate any dancefloor when paired with a good soundsystem. Bicep have spent the best part of this year looking squarely at the top, and if they continue to put out releases as effortlessly cool, masterfully put-together and endlessly replayable as these two original tracks, they might just get there.

8.5/10