Bleep

The Citadel EP is the latest release from GLOK, the electronic alter ego of Andy Bell from shoegaze legends RIDE. The four-tracker commences by giving centre-stage to the late, great Andrew Weatherall. Weatherall’s flip of ‘Cloud Cover’, a track from GLOK’s 2019 LP Dissident, is a testament to Weatherall’s unique command of rhythm and sound. The skyscraping ambience of the original is transformed at Weatherall’s hand into a hugely evocative track which operates in the zone between Detroit electro, psychedelic house and dubwise techno. Hitting sweet spots of melody, harmony, rhythm and texture all at once, Andrew Weatherall’s ‘Cloud Cover’ flip reminds you of just what a supremely unique talent he was.

Further on we find a trio of versions by Andy Bell himself of ‘Pulsing’, another cut which originally appeared on Dissident. Two of the remixes are dancefloor-focussed, and both of these versions work the channels of kosmische synth, Italo-disco and tech-house to deliver sharp mid-tempo numbers - think Kraftwerk, Flight Facilities and Marco Passarani. The final entry on the EP is an ambient version of ‘Pulsing’ which, in its shoegaze-inspired atmospherics and wistfully beautiful electronic tones, harks back to Bell’s work in RIDE.

GLOK’s The Citadel EP is a multifaceted masterpiece delivering outstanding techno-adjacent club electronics, shoegaze-inspired ambiences and a superb remix from Andrew Weatherall.