GLOK / Timothy Clerkin - Alliance Remixed (Green Vinyl)

For its first release of 2026, Bytes revisits the impeccable 2024 collaboration between Andy Bell (RIDE/Oasis), recording under his electronic alter ego GLOK, and the producer and Insult to Injury label boss Timothy Clerkin. Along for the ride are an impressive cohort of musical talent — bdrmm, Richard Sen, Tom Sharkett (WH Lung), Legowelt, Xylitol and FROID Dub — who all deliver exceptional and unique interpretations of the tracks.

The original album reached No 3 on the Dance Album charts and was lauded across the music press. It saw the pair working in perfect harmony with their freak flags flying, in an environment where nothing was off limits. The remixers have tapped into this freewheeling spirit for an eclectic collection of tracks that are more than worthy of the source material.

Kicking off proceedings, the Paris-based duo FROID Dub (Ransom Note) bring their blend of dub and wave to the mighty ‘Empyean’, resulting in a dubtastic soundclash between the Mad Professor and Hardfloor on a nitrazepam bender. Jordan from nu-gaze heroes bdrmm tears into ‘AmigA’, upping the ceremonial pace with some clattering breakbeats and an acid- spattered denouement, while Tom Sharkett taps into the melancholy at the heart of the wayward pop banger ‘Nothing Ever’, making Du Blonde’s vocal seem even more thwarted over a shuffling indie-dance beat reminiscent of Kylie’s ‘Justify My Love’. The genre-blending DJ and producer Yu Su strips back the fizzing folk stomp of ‘Scattered’ to its jagged guitar licks and acidic pulse, isolating Andy’s disorientated spoken lyrics for a track that evokes Forest Sword’s stark Dagger Paths or a lysergic take on Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western soundtracks.

Richard Sen returns with his third re-rub for Bytes, following his hugely popular remixes for GLOK (‘Dissident’/’Dirty Hugs’), increasing the psychedelic funk of ‘The Witching Hour’ with lashings of bongo and Kosmiche flourishes. Danny “Legowelt” Wolfers brings sleazy squat-rave energy to the blissed-out ‘E-Theme’, delivering basement haze and cosmic escape in equal measure. Closing the album is a sinister rework of ‘Nothing Ever (Reprise)’, where Xylitol (Planet Mu) channels the yearning spirit of Harmonia and Cluster, drawing away from the early Factory Records/electro vibe of the original towards ambient jungle territory and the layered breaks of DJ Crystl, while retaining its dark soul.

The original artwork has been remixed by the Nottingham-based illustrator Nick Taylor, with the geometric yet soulful cover image influenced by the record sleeves of the abstract artist Josef Albers, as well as Andy’s request that it should be “the opposite of AI”.