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Steve Queralt & Michael Smith

Sun Moon Town EP - 2025 Repress

    Steve Queralt, bass player of pioneering shoegazers RIDE, and the writer and film-maker MIchael Smith have joined forces for a stunning four-track EP. Over Steve’s exceptional electronic soundscapes, Michael provides spoken-word vocals in his lulling Hartlepool tones, distilling excerpts from his new book to fit with the music.

    The duo were introduced by Joe Clay from Bytes during lockdown, when Steve revealed that he was looking for vocalists to work with on some music he was putting together. Joe had met Michael when he collaborated with the late, great Andrew Weatherall, who composed a soundtrack to accompany Michael reading melancholic musings from his 2013 novel, Unreal City. Joe felt that Michael could be the perfect foil for Steve and after an experiment on Vespertina, a track that had previously featured sample dialogue from Penélope Cruz, they realised they had something special and decided to work on a full release together - four tracks in the classic RIDE EP format.

    “Michael’s voice has so much depth and character and I love his eye-rolling, withering view of the world,” Steve reveals. “The subject matter seemed to glue itself effortlessly to the music as if we’d been together writing in a studio working towards some grand concept.”


    TRACK LISTING

    1. Vespertina
    2. Glitches
    3. Chaldean Oracle
    4. In A Wonderland

    GLOK / Timothy Clerkin

    Alliance

      RIDE’s Andy Bell, recording under his electronic alter ego GLOK, and the producer and Insult to Injury label boss Timothy Clerkin have joined forces for Alliance, a brand new seven-track album released by Bytes on November 8. The collaboration finds Andy and Tim with their freak flags flying, working in a freewheeling environment where nothing was off limits, with influences ranging from Death in Vegas and Boards of Canada to James Holden and New Order.

      They already knew there was chemistry — Andy and Tim were introduced by Bytes when the label suggested Tim as a participant for the Dissident Remixed album, which was put together in 2019. Tim delivered a killer rework of ‘Projected Sounds’, turning the Neu!-meets- SteveReich original into a tripped-out, slo-mo acid house wonder; ‘Voodoo Ray’ for the shoegaze generation. They later met in person at the funeral of Andrew Weatherall (whose influence can be heard in every groove of the album) and kept in touch.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. Empyrean
      2. AmigA
      3. Nothing Ever
      4. Scattered
      6. The Witching Hour
      7. E-Theme
      8. Nothing Ever (Reprice)

      GLOK is the electronic alter ego of Andy Bell; best-known as the guitarist in venerated shoegazers Ride, alongside stints in other famous groups, with a noteworthy solo career too. This October his first album proper as GLOK – ‘Pattern Recognition’ – is released via Ransom Note Records’ sister label Bytes.

      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.

      TRACK LISTING

      A1 DIRTY HUGS
      B1 CLOSER
      B2 THAT TIME OF NIGHT (FEAT. SHIARRA)
      B3 PROCESS (FEAT. SHAMON CASSETTE)
      C1 MEMORIAL DEVICE
      C2 MAINTAINING THE MACHINE (FEAT. SINEAD O'BRIEN)
      C3 KINTSUGI
      C4 ENTANGLEMENT (FEAT. C.A.R.)
      D1 DAY THREE
      D2 INVOCATION


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