Andy Bell announces debut album proper under GLOK alias, shares single 'Maintaining The Machine'

GLOK is the electronic alter ego of Andy Bell, not the Erasure frontman nor the former Anne Clark keyboardist but the guitarist in the shoegaze act Ride. This October his first album proper as GLOK – “Pattern Recognition” – is released via Ransom Note Records’ sister label Bytes.

While GLOK was formed as 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 Ransom Note labelmate Chloé ‘C.A.R.’ Raunet on “Entanglement”, MC Shamon Cassette on “Process” and his wife Shiarra on “That Time Of Night”, while Primal Scream’s Simone Marie plays bass on “Maintaining The Machine”.

Most recently Bell contributed a GLOK track “Tories in Jail” – alongside Daniel Avery, Roisin Murphy and Nitzer Ebb – for ‘The Gun Aid’ collection, which was released to raise funds for the Hackney drinking establishment of the same name that took a serious financial hit due to lockdown.

Here’s the single “Maintaining The Machine”.

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