Bicep Slug Album Announced After Six-Year Wait

The Bicep Slug Album is officially on the way, ending a six-year wait for new music from the Belfast electronic duo. Bicep announced Slug, their first album since 2021, on October 21, with a release date of January 29, 2027 through the Ninja Turtle label. The record will carry eighteen tracks and features a wide cast of collaborators, signaling the duo's most ambitious project yet.

"We wanted to make a much more varied album than our previous ones and push what people might expect Bicep to sound like," the duo said of the new record. The guest list spans vocalists and producers including Lauren Duffus, Eartheater, George Riley, Clark and Sassy 009, a lineup that hints at how far the pair are stretching beyond their club-rooted origins. The full tracklist runs from the opener 'Gas' through closers like 'Honda', 'Xy', 'Rose' and 'Tides', with several songs built around featured vocalists.

The album's title came from an unlikely muse. According to the announcement, Slug was inspired by the stark contrast between the land slug most people picture and the extraordinary colors, shapes and intricate forms of its underwater counterparts. That image, equal parts ordinary and alien, captures what the duo seem to be reaching for: familiar electronic foundations reshaped into stranger, more vivid forms. It is a fitting emblem for a record its makers describe as an attempt to massively broaden their sonic soundscape.

Six songs are already out

Fans do not have to wait until January to hear where the Bicep Slug Album is heading. The duo shared three singles this past September, then dropped three more alongside the album announcement: 'Gasg', 'Ultra' and 'Equarium'. The early material suggests a restless record, with the September tracks and the new trio pulling in different directions rather than repeating a single formula.

As a follow-up to their 2021 project Isles, the new album arrives at a moment when electronic acts are leaning harder into the album format as a statement rather than a collection of singles. Bicep's choice to lead with six previews before the January release reads as confidence: they are letting listeners live inside the world of the record for months before it lands in full. For a duo whose reputation was built on meticulous DJ sets and slow-burn releases, that extended rollout feels like a deliberate change of pace.

The long gap between albums reflects how far the pair have traveled since their early days posting mixes online from Belfast. What began as a hobbyist blog grew into one of electronic music's most dependable live draws, with their self-titled debut and its follow-up turning the duo into festival headliners on both sides of the Atlantic. Six years is a long silence by modern release-cycle standards, and the scale of the Slug rollout suggests they intend the comeback to feel like an event.

Two huge 2027 shows announced

The announcement also locked in two major live dates for 2027. Bicep will play New York's Knockdown Center on March 21, 2027, followed by a London show at the Old Royal Naval College on July 31, 2027. The London date makes them the first act announced for Labyrinth on the Thames' 2027 series, a new open-air program on the Greenwich riverside.

Nick Castleman and Michael Dicks, the co-founders of Labyrinth Events, called the booking a bucket list moment. "We have been listening to BICEP almost obsessively from our earliest days in dance music and they have been an inspiration to us, they've constantly pushed the boundaries of live electronic shows," they said. That reputation is the duo's calling card: their live performances are known for blurring the line between DJ set and concert, with custom visuals and hardware-driven arrangements.

For fans, the practical takeaway is simple. The Bicep Slug Album lands January 29, 2027, and the two confirmed shows give the first chances to hear the new material at full scale, months after release. If the six preview tracks are any indication, the live versions are likely to sound bigger and stranger than the recordings. More dates may follow, but for now New York and London are the places to be, and as reported by Far Out Magazine, the announcement has already set off the usual scramble among electronic music fans. Readers tracking this season's album announcements can also catch up on Queens of the Stone Age's new record arriving this month and the Madoka Magica film's US theatrical release date.