Andrew Bell – you’ve always been a hopeless romantic in our eyes. An exceptional songwriter and a wonderfully talented studio head (both as producer and remixer), those who don’t consider themselves avid fans (fools, basically) may not immediately recognise him as a powerhouse acoustic artist, too, but take it from us, All On You isn’t the only example of this guy doing the do unplugged.
“All On You” arrives with typically high expectations in its wake; we’ve been waiting some time for this and the contents do not disappoint. Both the original work here and the exceptional re-reading of Paris Angels’ classic pop-acid house smash hit ‘Perfume’ are incredible displays of imaginative repurposing, the latter being a particularly unique alternative version. But even Bell’s own tracks feel and sound different without the trappings of amplification. It all sounds rawer, and more honest, than many artists allow.
Andy Bell’s new single ‘Skywalker’ is out now and filmmaker Jean De Oliveira has made an incredible psychedelic colourburst video to accompany it. ‘Skywalker’ occupies the middle ground between Revolver-era Beatles and Neu! and is one of the highlights of Andy’s acclaimed debut solo album, “The View From Halfway Down”, which was released late last year. “It is dedicated to my daughter, Leia, who was named after the Star Wars princess,” explains Andy of the song. “It’s about being a parent, watching your children grow up, reach adulthood, and live their lives, and feeling unbelievably proud of them. It’s for all my kids, but inspired by my eldest. Musically, I was channelling Michael Rother and Neu! and the Roland synth reminds me of World Of Twist.”
The single includes a stripped down acoustic version and an incredible, euphoric banger of a remix by Pye Corner Audio,
During the #TimsTwitterListeningParty for Andy’s album, just after its release in October, none other than Luke Skywalker himself, aka actor Mark Hamill, got involved in the discussion about this track. No surprise, as the Force is strong with this one…Andy Bell has a new EP, a reworks 10″ and a limited 7″, all released between April and June.
“See My Friends” EP
Limited edition 10” vinyl version of the See My Friends EP, featuring two remixes by Pye Corner Audio and the two tracks from Andy’s debut single, Plastic Bag, remastered by Heba Kadry. Pressed on yellow vinyl. The sleeve is reverse board with an inside print.
Limited edition 7” vinyl version of the “All On You” EP, featuring four acoustic tracks originally recorded for radio sessions, including a cover of Paris Angels’ classic Perfume. Pressed on green vinyl. The sleeve is reverse board with an inside print.
Written and performed by Andy Bell (Copyright Control) except track 4: written by Paris Angels
Five tracks from Andy Bell’s debut solo album The View From Halfway Down reworked by Pye Corner Audio, with one re-edit by Andy himself in his Glok guise.
This week, Andy Bell, founding member of ’90s British shoegaze band Ride, released his debut solo album, “The View From Halfway Down”, and shared its first single, “Love Comes in Waves,” via a video for it. The album will be released October 9th on Sonic Cathedral. Bell began writing the album in 2016, but shortly after, Ride’s live reunion tour became a full time return, and the band released two albums and embarked on two world tours. When the pandemic hit, Bell decided it was finally time to work on and release his debut solo album, sharing the first single today on his 50th birthday.
“The View from Halfway Down” was engineered by Gem Archer and mastered by Heba Kadry. “Love Comes in Waves” is a heavily psychedelic song, with an accompanying video just as trippy.
Bell had this to say about the album in a press release: “I’ve always wanted to make a solo album, I’ve always said I would do it, although I never imagined it happening like, or sounding like, this one does. I’d been sitting on this pile of almost finished tracks, along with all the other hundreds of ideas that had fallen by the wayside since I’ve been making music. Lockdown gave me the opportunity to find a way to present it to the world.
“The album is not about song writing. There aren’t many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience.”
Ride reformed in 2014 to do some touring and finally released their first new album in 21 years, Weather Diaries, in 2017 via Wichita. That was followed by the 2018 EP, Tomorrow’s Shore and then 2019’s This Is Not a Safe Place.
After the initial run in Ride, Bell formed the band Hurricane #1 in 1997 and then was in Oasis for 10 years (from 1999 to 2009), as well as in Beady Eye (a band that featured many of the later members of Oasis, including Liam Gallagher, but not Noel Gallagher, from 2009 to 2014).
Now that the album is out we can share one of our favourite album tracks from it, six-minute long “Skywalker.” We have no clue if the song has anything to with Star Wars, but musically it’s got a bit of a Krautrock vibe reminiscent of Working For a Nuclear Free City. Then he shared its second single, “I Was Alone,” via a video for it. In a press release Bell described “I Was Alone” as “a Spacemen 3-influenced song about dealing mentally with solitude”
“The album is not about song writing. There aren’t many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience.”
Love comes in Waves, psychedelic raves, lost nights, found in days of volume, fuzz and delays. If you’re searching for meaning, or a secret worth revealing, and you’re missing the feeling of connection, a reflection back from above, you’re ready to ride the first wave of love. Love comes in Waves, give us a wave, I’m one step away, lost in the maze. If you’re searching for meaning, or a secret worth revealing, temptation is calling and your self control is falling, if your friends started stopping, but for you there’s no dropping off at all, and you’re missing the feeling of connection, a reflection back from above, you’re ready to ride the first wave of love.
The first single from Andy Bell’s debut solo album ‘The View From Halfway Down’, released on Sonic Cathedral on 9th October, 2020.
Ride guitarist / singer Andy Bell releases his debut solo album “The View From Halfway Down”. The product of a gradual, four-year process and finished during lockdown, the album was entirely written and recorded by Andy, Back in 2016, Andy was inspired by David Bowie’s death to be more proactive about finishing his songs, more confident about sharing them and to channel all of this into finally making a solo album. He laid down some tracks in former Beady Eye and Oasis bandmate Gem’s studio, but got diverted when Ride’s live reunion blossomed into a full return. A run of two albums, an EP and two world tours later, it would take a pandemic to give Andy the space to complete The View From Halfway Down.
Honing in on Andy Bell’s exacting song writing skills, ‘The View From Halfway Down’ packs eight songs into a mere 42 minute run time. ‘Cherry Cola’ is a fizzing delight, while opener ‘Love Comes In Waves’ is the sound of pure abandon.
‘Ghost Tones’ is playfully melancholy, with Andy Bell conjuring opaque ambient tones on spaced out closer ‘Heat Haze On Weyland Road’. A refined, contoured example of his song writing, he closed 2020 by releasing ‘Cherry Cola’ as a stand alone single, featuring a nimble acoustic take, and a typically searching Pye Corner Audio remix.
From the ecstatic psych pop of “Love Comes In Waves”, to the heady loops of “Indica” and deeply groove-led “Skywalker”, the eight tracks mix summery melodies with soundscapes and studio experimentation. The end result sits neatly between Ride’s widescreen shoegaze and GLOK’s textured electronics, variously inspired by The Stone Roses, Spacemen 3, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beta Band, Stereolab, Neu!, Can, John Fahey, The Kinks, The La’s, The Who and the United States Of America.
Andy Bell of Ride (and Oasis and Beady Eye), a solo album, The View from Halfway Down. This is Bell’s first under his own name, rather than his pseudonym, Glok, the culmination of finishing songs he had been tinkering with on and off for years. This doesn’t mean that The View from Halfway Down sounds like a Bowie or Ride record. It sounds like who Bell is as a person: unfussy and understated, go-along and get-along. You would be forgiven in thinking The View from Halfway Down is just like another Ride album based on the powered-up shoegaze vibes of opener, “Love Comes in Waves” or the dreamy “I Was Alone.” That idea is soon extinguished with the psychedelic strains of “Indica” the Stone Roses-esque warbles of “Skywalker” and the slow, bass-based “Cherry Cola.” He includes three instrumentals: the spare and beautiful, guitar-based “Ghost Tones” the experimental, indie-prog rock “Aubrey Drylands Gladwell,” and the IDM-ish album closer, “Heat Haze on Weyland Road.” Bell packs a lot into the eight songs on The View from Halfway Down, touching on a lot of styles in the process, and all of it works.
So there you have it. The near death of a cartoon anti-hero and the actual death of a music legend, feeling the calm within a global pandemic and a musical turning point halfway through life all add up to one glorious, technicolour whole Released October 9th, 2020 All tracks written and performed by Andy Bell.
We are proud to announce the release of “The View From Halfway Down”, the debut solo album by Andy Bell from Ride, on October 9th. There will be two limited-edition vinyl variants: blue, which will be available from shops, and a white and blue splatter which will only be available from Bandcamp. There will also be a CD version in a card mini-LP sleeve, plus a full digital release.
It’s an incredible record and the first single, the five-minute burst of psychedelic joy that is ‘Love Comes In Waves’, is out now on all digital platforms after being premiered yesterday by BBC Radio 6 Music. Watch the Vanishing Point-meets-‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ video by Chris Tomsett, aka Innerstrings. Not only does the release of a solo album signal a brand new chapter for Andy, some 30-odd years into his career, the announcement also coincides with his 50th birthday today (August 11).
The product of a gradual, four-year process and finished during lockdown, The View From Halfway Down was made by Andy, engineered by Gem Archer and mastered by Heba Kadry. The end result sits somewhere between Ride’s widescreen shoegaze and GLOK’s darkly textured electronics. “I’ve always wanted to make a solo album, I’ve always said I would do it, although I never imagined it happening like, or sounding like, this one,” explains Andy. “I’d been sitting on this pile of almost finished tracks, along with all the other hundreds of ideas that had fallen by the wayside since I’ve been making music. Lockdown gave me the opportunity to find a way to present it to the world.”
Love comes in waves, psychedelic raves, lost nights, found in days of volume, fuzz and delays. If you’re searching for meaning, or a secret worth revealing, and you’re missing the feeling of connection, a reflection back from above, you’re ready to ride the first wave of love. Love comes in waves, give us a wave, I’m one step away, lost in the maze. If you’re searching for meaning, or a secret worth revealing, temptation is calling and your self control is falling, if your friends started stopping, but for you there’s no dropping off at all, and you’re missing the feeling of connection, a reflection back from above, you’re ready to ride the first wave of love. The first single from Andy Bell’s debut solo album ‘The View From Halfway Down’, released on Sonic Cathedral on 9th October, 2020.
Ride handed the entirety of their highly acclaimed 6th studio album, ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’, to mysterious London act Pêtr Aleksänder, who stripped the songs back to just the vocals and added their customarily beautiful string arrangements, keys and synth textures beneath them. The results take Ride deep into the neo-classical / ambient territory. Happy release day to ‘Clouds In The Mirror’, the classical rework of ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ lovingly fashioned by Pêtr Aleksänder.
The concept for the collaboration was originally conceived in the early days of 2019 when members of Ride contacted Pêtr Aleksänder – AKA duo Tom Hobden (of Noah & The Whale) and producer Eliot James (Two Door Cinema Club) – after falling for the swelling strings, expansive sounds and gentle crescendos of their album, Closer, Still. A mutual appreciation of sweeping, cinematic post-rock was established and over a series of email exchanges a dialogue evolved around reinterpreting the tracks on This Is Not A Safe Space using only the vocals as a guide.
Andy Bell says: ‘Pêtr Aleksänder took our album’s vocal tracks and formed an entirely new album around them, and the results are inspired, often really beautiful, and at times, totally mental. They have crafted a delicate web of string and synthesiser arrangements which draws you into a whole other world than our version of the album. I love what they’ve created.’ Pêtr Aleksänder say: ‘Reimagining Ride’s album was a treat. We took a rather unusual approach: although fans of Ride in the first instance, we nevertheless resisted listening to anything other than each track’s main vocal before setting to work, beginning exclusively with string and piano arrangements inspired by the main vocal.
Focusing on the sentiment of the vocal and re-interpreting it with our own arrangements resulted in combinations of melody, harmony and emotion that would have been very hard to achieve via a more conventional song writing / composing approach. We even waited until the band had released the album before choosing to listen to the songs in their original state – a strange experience for us given that we knew our versions of the same songs so well by that point!’
Here’s the divine version of Jump Jet, as taken from the This Is Not A Safe Place rework by Pêtr Aleksänder.
‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ the new album from Ride out 16/8/19 on Wichita Recordings.
Legendary British shoegazers Ride have shared a new cut from their imminent new album, This Is Not A Safe Place, Like other tracks in Ride’s discography, “Repetition” is poppier than other shoegaze songs. Swirling guitars intertwine with jubilant synths, crafting a sunny single that sounds like if Kraftwerk were stripped of technological anxieties and linked up with Devo.
Frontman Andy Bell smiles throughout the track, encouraging listeners to embrace patterns amid substantial life changes. “Repetition is a form of change / So don’t be fazed if the backdrops change,” he chants encouragingly during the chorus. Per the track’s YouTube description, Bell writes that the track “succeeds in bringing me back to all of the things we were into and talked about when we were 18, but also being of the moment, in 2019.”
Ride reformed in 2014 to do some touring and finally released their first new album in 21 years, Weather Diaries, in 2017 via Wichita. That was followed by the 2018 EP, Tomorrow’s Shore. As with those two releases, Erol Alkan produced This Is Not a Safe Place. Alan Moulder mixed the album, the fourth Ride album he has mixed. The band came together at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. A previous press release said the band were influenced by “the Jean Michel Basquiat exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre and the post-punk sound of The Fall and Sonic Youth, for an album rich in their trademark shoegaze atmosphere, whilst simultaneously sounding rejuvenated and creatively ambitious.”
Band Members
Andy Bell,
Laurence Colbert,
Mark Gardener,
Steve Queralt
This Is Not A Safe Place is out on August. 16th via Wichita Recordings.
Ride opened a fresh chapter with 2017’s ‘Weather Diaries’, a terrific album that found the shoegaze band re-igniting their essential creative chemistry. Produced by Erol Alkan – a long time advocate for the band – it was followed by a lengthy international tour, including some landmark shows.
Recently hinting that they were once again in the studio, Ride have now detailed plans for their next album. Once again produced by Erol Alkan, ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ will be released on August 16th, through the band’s home Wichita Recordings.
New song ‘Future Love’ is the ideal comeback, a stunning, completely unguarded track that speaks of pure, unashamed optimism. Driven by the positive energy coursing through the band’s veins, this is pristine Ride, managing to recall their fine early work without emulating it.
On this day in 1990, Oxford, England shoegazers Ride unleashed their debut album, “Nowhere”, at the height of shoegaze, and it still stands up as one of the genre’s defining works. The word “shoegaze” became one of my favorite musical styles. “Nowhere” is the debut album by Ride, released 15th October 1990. Rolling Stone called the album “a masterpiece”,one of [shoegazing’s] enduring moments”. Ride had released three EPs, Ride, Play, and Fall, prior to the release of “Nowhere” .
Before the ear-splitting beauty of My Bloody Valentine, the sugary noise-pop of The Jesus and Mary Chain or the washed-out soundscapes of Slowdive,
“Vapour Trail,” though this string-filled ballad wasn’t quite full-on shoegaze like the remainder of the record, its swirling, transcendent energy and chiming 12-string guitars left me wanting more. I previously knew of the band’s co-lead singer and guitarist Andy Bell as the bassist in Oasis, but after I heard him sing on “Vapour Trail” with soft-hearted conviction, At the time theybecame my new favorite band—Ride.
The opening track, “Seagull,” I was met by a guitar assault, an unrelenting drone-like groove, breakneck drums and the harmonized co-lead vocals of Mark Gardener and Bell. Sure, This LP made me completely rethink the capabilities of musical transcendence.
I’d been exposed to uplifting romanticism and isolating sadness colliding in the same song before with artists like The Smiths and The Cure, but never with such extreme poles as Ride. On the eight tracks of “Nowhere”, Ride fired a distorted wash of piercing guitars, Loz Colbert’s vigorous percussion, bassist Steve Queralt’s clamoring melodies and Gardener and Bell’s angelic vocal harmonies. Songs shift from the soft wisp of “Dreams Burn Down” and “Vapour Trail” to the chugging chaos of “Decay” and “Kaleidoscope,” but more often than not, they incorporate both delicate allure and fierce annihilation within the same song.
Ride are a musical contradiction, and the best shoegaze music excels at contradiction. One of the things that kept pulling me back to Ride’s “Nowhere” and the rest of their discography and separated them from other shoegaze bands I love—was their refusal to obscure their harmonious vocals. If you were to transcribe the lyrics of bands like Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine, you’d probably get a different set of words with each attempt due to their washed out sound mix. But with Ride, they preserved their distorted onslaught of instrumentals while allowing their shimmery pop vocals a la The Byrds or Teenage Fanclub to remain fully audible. Its opening cut, “Seagull,” is a stunning exploration of strung-out guitar notes and elongated vocal textures; a mission statement, for what would be one of shoegaze’s most pristine moments. “Definitions confine thoughts, they are a myth” Mark Gardener muses, The Songs like “Seagull” and “Polar Bear” display the perfect fusion of Gardener and Bell’s vocals with their discernible Oxford tongue and even those turned off by their wall of sound would admit to being charmed by their vocal match made in heaven.
The discourse around shoegaze seems mostly to be structured around a Holy Trinity dynamic, with Slowdive, Ride and My Bloody Valentine making up the trio of essential bands within the genre. Ride, though, were never quite as exclusive to reverb and hushed vocals as the other two, tailing off into Britpop, the total opposite of shoegaze, territory far too often to be considered their greatest. “Nowhere”, though, was arguably the highlight of their discography—a cohesively immersive, stunningly crafted shoegaze coup.
For a brief moment in 1990, Ride defied definition—crafting one of the most mind-bending and utterly stunning records of the era. Leaving “Nowhere” out of any record collection is totally inexcusable.
I’ve since come to know and love the overwhelming disarray of My Bloody Valentine, the hypnotic spirituality of early Verve, the sprightly, quiet firestorm of Lush and the intricate shoegaze-pop of DIIV, but it all began with Ride’s Nowhere. I’m not sure I would be able to come to grips with the harsh underbelly of bands like those along with the ambient work of Grouper or the atmospheric dream-pop of Galaxie 500 if it weren’t for the noisy, divine abyss of shoegaze via Ride’s Nowhere. I view Ride and Nowhere as the essential connecting tissue between the jangle pop of The Stone Roses, the dream-pop of The Ocean Blue, the discordant haze of My Bloody Valentine and the machine-like krautrock of Toy.
Exclusively for RSD 2018,Ride release a limited edition double vinyl LP collection of remixes of tracks from their acclaimed fifth album, ‘Weather Diaries’.
The double LP includes remixes from the likes of renowned Berlin techno duo Barker & Baumecker, Stereolab offshoot Cavern of Anti-Matter, Oren Ambarchi (Touch, Editions Mego, Black Truffle), beautiful ambient mixes from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (with additional vocals from Maria Linden of I Break Horses), BartozKruczynski (aka Earthtrax) and a 25 minute opus from Babe Terror, amongst others.
Limited to 1000 copies for the UK and Ireland.
Tracklisting:
1. Lannoy Point (Bartosz Kruczynski Mix)
2. Charm Assault (Mogwai Remix)
3. All I Want (Glok Remix)
4. Home Is A Feeling (A Creamy Crambled Suite For A Ride)
5. All I Want (Oren Ambarchi Remix)
6. Weather Diaries (Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Remix)
7. Rocket Silver Symphony (Barker & Baumecker Mix)
8. Lateral Alice (Cavern Of Anti-Matter Remix)
9. Cali (Luke Abbott Remix)
10. White Sands (Lamplighter Remix)
‘All I Want’ remix by GLOK aka Andy Bell,
the Cavern of Anti-Matter remix of new live favourite, “Lateral Alice”. Cavern of Anti-Matter is the latest project of Tim Gane (Stereolab etc) and Joe Dilworth (Stereolab, Th’Faith Healers etc.) Here they strip “Lateral Alice” down to its vocals and then rebuild it as an organ-led, kraut-y, prog-y, psychedelic gem, as is their inimitable style.
Being made available alongside the release of the “Cali” video, the latest remix of a track from the new Ride album is by leading UK electronic producer, Luke Abbott. Luke has released records on James Holden’s BorderCommunity and Gold Panda’s Notown label, amongst others. Here he takes “Cali” on a haunting, psychedelic and somewhat twisted ride (no pun intended!), adding lush modular synths and heavily effected vocals to the sunshine bliss of the original.
The Fat Angel Sings 