A pigeon, a camera, and three tracks that were never conceived as three separate videos. Bicep have given Gas, Ultra and Equarium to a single short film about pigeon fanciers. Behind the oddity of the gesture there is a method: the Northern Irish duo are announcing Slug, their first album since Isles (2021), due on 29 January via Ninja Tune.

Two triptychs, one film

The arithmetic is simple, and it already tells you something. Last month three titles landed in one go — 'Air', 'Lemonder', 'Viper'. On 21 October, three more arrive together, this time carried by a film: the second triptych from Slug. According to Jenesaispop (21 October 2026), six tracks from the record are already available on streaming platforms. It is a strange way to meet an album: in batches of three, months before release.

Official sleeve of Slug, Bicep's forthcoming album on Ninja Tune
Official sleeve for Slug, Bicep, Ninja Tune

The Spanish site sketches the outlines of those six tracks. 'Air' is the most streamed so far; 'Lemonder' is a looping lament; 'Viper' swings its hips a little more openly. From the new triptych, 'Ultra' slides towards trance and 'Equarium' belongs to the drum'n'bass school. Jenesaispop even calls it an "obra doble", a double work: a claim to treat with care, since our sources do not allow us to confirm it with the label.

A wider cast

On 'Gas' the duo are joined by Lauren Duffus and Soarr; 'Ultra' features Eartheater and Saskia; 'Equarium' invites Kehina. The record also carries contributions from Clark, George Riley and Sassy 009. These are not names lined up for the photo: taken together, they sketch an album that refuses to stay inside the narrow club perimeter where Bicep were expected.

Detail of a wall of modular synths and a drum machine in a studio
Official photograph of Bicep's studio: Ninja Tune

The title says something about the ambition in its own way: the contrast between a garden slug and the colours, shapes and patterns of its marine cousins. An unglamorous name for a record that wants to be many-coloured.

From video to serial

What really changes here is not the volume of footage but the way it is framed. Three tracks out on the same day would have been three rival videos, each angling for its own click. The film puts them in order: you stop grazing and start following. Dance album promotion, long a queue of standalone videos, becomes an episodic narrative in which each triptych relaunches the previous one — and in which the director's name becomes as identifiable as the band's.

There is a trade-off, and it is an honest one: a short film about pigeon breeders says little about how the tracks actually sound, and that may be the point. The image sets a mood, not a demonstration. Film first, record after — the order has been reversed, and the silence since Isles makes the return itself worth the attention.

Jenesaispop again notes that the new titles keep "a dreamy, ambient, evocative spirit" while shifting ground. That is exactly the kind of sentence a pigeon-fancying film makes credible without ever having to illustrate it: the mismatch between the film's subject and the music does the work.

Three entry points into the second triptych, judging by the published descriptions: 'Ultra' for the trance switch, 'Equarium' for the drum'n'bass lineage, 'Gas' to hear what Lauren Duffus and Soarr's voices do to the mix. Watch the film in one sitting.

Listen

Six tracks from Slug are already on streaming platforms (Jenesaispop, 21 October 2026); a direct way to make up your own mind before January. Everything else goes through Ninja Tune, the album's label.

We will not give a price range: at this stage our sources contain no information on physical editions, pressings or a possible vinyl run. Better to check the label's official page than read an invented figure — the gap between a standard pressing and a limited edition is enough, in any case, to change the bill.

Sources