BICEP Announce Third Album ‘SLUG’, With 18 Tracks And Two Live Shows

The duo are rolling out the record in three-track drops, each with its own short film, and have confirmed New York and London dates for 2027.

BICEP have confirmed their third album, ‘SLUG’, due 29th January 2027 on Ninja Tune. It runs to 18 tracks, and the duo describe it as a deliberate widening of their sound.

The title comes from a simple image. Most people picture a drab land slug, but their underwater cousins are all colour and strange, intricate shapes. “You think one thing, but actually there’s a whole world beyond what you initially perceive,” Bicep say, and that idea of contrast shapes the music itself. Clean drums get distorted, pristine vocals are pushed through analogue processing, and soft synths sit against rougher textures. The melancholy and euphoria that have always run through their records are left in tension rather than resolved.

The album is being revealed in three separate three-track drops, each paired with a short film. The second, ‘Gas / Ultra / Equarium’, arrives today with guests Lauren Duffus and SOARR on ‘Gas’, Eartheater and Saskia on ‘Ultra’ and Kehina on ‘Equarium’. Alex Takács, also known as Young Replicant, directed a film that follows a gang of pigeon fanciers on a heist. It follows ‘Air / Lemonder / Viper’, which featured Clark alongside Saskia and SOARR, and a film from Ryan Doubiago tracking two real UK free party crews from set-up to sunrise. A third film, on demolition derbies, is still to come. As Bicep see it, all three worlds are niche interests living outside the mainstream, each with its own mix of beauty, darkness and chaos.

The record also comes out of a period away from the usual cycle. After stepping off the road, the pair largely logged off and turned to their own studio and archive, revisiting demos and techniques from 10 or 15 years ago that they hadn’t been ready to finish. They describe the result as a “conversation with our past selves”. A new studio, complete with a custom vocal booth, led to a more collaborative way of writing, with tracks often ending up far from where they began. Their guest list is their longest yet, taking in Clark, Eartheater, Lauren Duffus, George Riley, SOARR, Saskia, Kehina, KUČKA, Sassy 009, Rowena Fysx, Julia Kent and Zosia Jagodzinska.

That hands-on approach extends to the visuals. Creative director Viktor H built the artwork around analogue film, printing and rescanning, partly as a push back against how clean and replicable digital work has become.

BICEP Live returns next year with two shows: Knockdown Center in New York on Saturday 20th March, and a London date on Saturday 31st July, with the venue still to be announced. Presale opens Thursday 29th October at 10am local time, with general sale the following day. Registration is open at bicepmusic.com/live.

'Gas / Ultra / Equarium’ is out now via Ninja Tune.

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