We can’t talk about electronic music without talking about Bicep. Techno, but also house. Not only classic, but also current and even futuristic sounds. Experimental details. Garage details. Also italodisco and electro sounds. And even with a small dose of psychedelia. Busting dance floors, whether in clubs or at festivals, is what this duo is able to do. They dare to remix anyone; they have demonstrated it in the course of the recent years. But who has had the fortune to remix them? Only the biggest ones. Now, it is the turn of Four Tet.
Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar are friends since they were very young. In 2009, they created their own blog Feel My Bicep, where they were used to publish their edits of classic Chicago House, Detroit Techno, Italo and Disco hits. Together, they created Bicep, a name that, over the years, has been growing and growing in the Northern Irish, first, then British, and finally European scene. It didn’t pass too much time for them to create their own label, also called Feel My Bicep, and to use it as the perfect platform to release original tracks produced by them in their studio.
At the same time, the duo remixed some other artists’ music, such as Isaac Tichauer, Blaze, Brassica or Aster. In 2017, Bicep published their first self-titled album with 12 tracks and finally approached the live performance, achieving a huge approval by the overall music scene. It seems that they turn everything they touch into caviar. On the contrary, it is not really common that someone has dared to touch their original product and when it happens it is always an important occurrence.
Kieran Hebden, better known by his alias Four Tet, is a good friend of Andy and Matt. British, like them, he knows perfectly the underground industry of the island and he has always been able to fit within the music wave of this country (Floating Points, Ben Ufo or Joy Orbison are clear examples). ‘Opal’ has been the chosen track. It is the eighth one of the album. A very modern original tune. Considerably experimental, this track is characterized by complex and sophisticated basis, by some sharp elements spiced and filtered with mastery and by a central theme, the melody, deeply evocative, melancholy and exciting.
Four Tet has been able to transform ‘Opal’ into a pure dance hit. Many of the tracks of the album are actually more suitable for listening than for clubbing. Four Tet releases a track in which the melodic component does not lose any apex of prominence. In fact, we could say that it is the only truly remarkable ingredient during the first 90 seconds of the song. That’s when percussive elements appear much more closer to the clubbing standards. The loops generate a feeling of “drop-coming”, something that the audience always appreciates. A very delicate first bassline warns us and, after almost three minutes of climbing, we finally put our arms up to the air while mysterious distant voices speak to us, in a fantastically warm tone.
Float walks towards wonderland. A trip to the most pleasant place you can imagine. And yes, also a trip to the past, to that time in which the word underground really meant something. That’s ‘Opal’. And that is what Four Tet has managed to achieve with his version of ‘Opal’. Before him, very few artists had worked with Bicep’s songs. One of them was the great John Talabot, who in 2014 edited two times ‘Satisfy’, a track that Brassica, from Bicep‘s own label, also retouched. Furthermore, the Dutch Steffi was one of the first pioneers. In 2012, he took ‘You’, produced by Bicep together with Ejeca, and accelerated and turned it into a succulent product for after-hours deejays.