GLOK is the solo project of musician and producer Andy Bell, best-known as the guitarist in venerated shoegazers Ride. He has announced the debut album called Pattern Recognition which will be out on October 1st via Ransom Note Records’ sister label Bytes. We already shared “Maintaining The Machine“; “Closer” is the new excerpt.

According to the press release, Although usually renowned for purveying the finest quality jangle, drone and general guitar-based magic, Bell’s foray into dance music should come as less of a surprise than immediately meets the eye. There are parallels between the genres within the sonically-deep layers, hypnotic sound and trance-like headspaces, or, as he puts it more succinctly: “GLOK is all about the push and pull between electronic and psych in my music.”

Although not a full-blown concept album, ‘Pattern Recognition’ has a loose thread which takes in a week of life, from weekend to weekend, with each of the vinyl’s four sides capturing different mindstates across that transition. Each side has a distinct feel that’s different to the last but inherently cohesive – much like the changes an individual goes through over 7 days.
Across the album with loving craft Andy weaves together throbbing dubbed-out acid, steamy jack trax, levitational psychedelia, sparkling Balearic, techno, Kosmische, shoegaze, art rock and Compass Point-style post punk – with just a hint of ambient, new age and contemporary classical too.
With GLOK previously an instrumental affair, on ‘Pattern Recognition’ he has branched out to working with vocalists, with guests including the Irish punk poet Sinead O’Brien on ‘Maintaining the Machine’, who he approached having fallen in love with her single ‘Most Modern Painting’.
Other voices include friend and Ransom Note labelmate Chloé ‘C.A.R.’ Raunet on ‘Entanglement’, the interstellar futurist MC Shamon Cassette (Bon Voyage) on ‘Process’ and his wife Shiarra on ‘That Time Of Night’, while Primal Scream’s Simone Marie plays bass on ‘Maintaining The Machine’.