Andy Bell of pioneering shoegazers RIDE is parking his Space Station in low Earth orbit to take the GLOK-mobile for a spin to a venue near you this October. GLOKtober offers a rare chance to see Andy performing live as his electronic alter ego, where he brilliantly weaves together throbbing dubbed-out acid, levitational psychedelia, Balearic, ambient, techno, Kosmische, shoegaze, art-rock and Compass Point-style post punk, with his virtuoso guitar playing and musicianship to the fore.

GLOK as a live entity was born in 2022 with a mindblowing session recorded for Electronic Sound magazine, followed by two festival appearances at the Optimo/Ransom Note shindig Watching Trees and Convenanza, the gathering of the acid house tribes in France started by the late Andrew Weatherall.

All of these performances featured visuals by Innerstrings, who will also be joining Andy for the UK tour. Andy has reworked tracks from his acclaimed albums Dissident and Pattern Recognition, alongside unreleased tracks, with a similar improvised, one-man band approach to when playing under the Andy Bell Space Station name, but this time with an emphasis on the dancefloor.

The announcement of the tour coincides with the release of a remix EP featuring reworkings of tracks from Pattern Recognition by kindred spirits: A Love from Outer Space’s Sean Johnston (under the Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown guise), Richard Sen and Tom Sharkett from synth-poppers WH Lung (who is signed to Optimo’s label as a solo artist). The EP is available digitally on March 10 and as a limited edition hand-stamped white label 12". The ink stamp of the GLOK logo is the basis for the tour artwork.

Originally using the name GLOK to keep his identity secret, wanting the music to be judged on its own merits, Andy released several tracks online anonymously, with Pulsing catching the ear of Bytes, who released these tracks as Dissident in June 2019, first on cassette, then followed by two vinyl pressings due to demand. The Dissident Remixed compilation followed in 2020, featuring interpretations by Jay Glass Dubs, Maps and Andrew Weatherall.

Pattern Recognition, Andy’s first “proper” album as GLOK, was released in October 2021 and featured collaborations with Sinead O’Brien, Simone Marie of Primal Scream, Shamon Cassette and Chloé ‘C.A.R.’ Raunet. It received rave reviews and reached No 1 in the official UK Dance Charts.