Photo by Andree Martis
As a founder member of Ride, Andy Bell was part of a wave of early-nineties bands who pulled at the threads of sixties psychedelia and the burgeoning shoegaze scene to weave an electrifying wall of sound that catapulted them to the top. Over the past thirty years, he’s continued to be a mainstay in indie circles, playing in an array of bands connected to Creation Records, including rock giants Oasis, Liam Gallagher’s post-Oasis side project Beady Eye, and the Britpop adjacent outfit Hurricane #1.
Now, decades into his career, Bell has begun to incorporate his love of unwieldy guitars with minimal electronic music in his solo project GLOK, and the release of his new album Pattern Recognition. Recorded over lockdown, the record is a journey through hazy, chilled out beats, minimal electronica, and joyous tropical house. Featuring guest appearances from Irish post punk artist Sinead O’Brien, LA-based producer Shamon Cassette and more, Pattern Recognition is a debut album guaranteed to turn heads, despite the fact that Bell is unsure how to categorise it.
“People don’t really know what to call it,” Bell mulls as he chats over the phone from his North London home. “I think it’s my second one, because there was an album that came out before called Dissident. It was a compilation of tracks, but I think it counts as an album.”
In his Baker’s Dozen, Bell takes us through breadth of his career, from early days memorising Sonic Youth quotes with his Ride bandmates at university in Oxford, to the house records he tried to unpick as he began his journey making electronic music on his own. Though his list includes everything from Paisley underground bands to dub meets post-punk acts there is a central theme. “Looking at the list, a lot of them seems to do one thing,” Bell says. “It’s not like a greatest hits of my top ten bands. It’s more like, here’s some stuff that speaks to me.”
Andy Bell’s new album as GLOK, Pattern Recognition, is released on October 15 via Bytes. To begin reading his Baker’s Dozen, click the image of him below
