One what like a ‘Sundial’ does, Bicep’s final single before the release of their forthcoming album ‘Isles’, creates a time and a place for you.
Belfast-born duo Bicep (Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson) released ‘Sundial’, which stands apart from the rest of their discography due to its traditional Indian influence and the simplicity of its making.
The track features samples from a 1970s Bollywood film Raja Rani, without direct knowledge of the inspiration, the aura created by the track, including the title, is enough to immediately transport your mind to a celebration in Southern Asia. When talking about the addition of Jab Andhera Hota Hai, Bicep explained “In regards to the sampling, Indian music has always fascinated us since the blog days, discovering it was the possible birthplace of Acid house via Charanjit Singh’s Ten Ragas to a disco beat. Living in East London, Indian influence and music are everywhere and over the past few years, we’ve both become huge fans of Bollywood film scores, particularly the female soprano performances. The haunting melancholic epicness really strikes a chord with both of us. We feel we can relate to how similar it is to the Irish folk we grew up around from the likes of the Clannad.”
Although the aura was deliberate, the simplicity of the single was not, a faulty Jupiter 6 arp disfigured the original sound but the pair ultimately embraced it. They commentated, ‘ We actually loved what it had produced and wrote some chords around it, guided by the feeling of this recording.’ Proving that intuition is half the battle of creating a masterpiece.
‘Sundial’ is an effortlessly transfixing listen and a final taste of what’s to come from ‘Isles’ available on Ninja Tune on January 22nd.
