JOLT MUSIC 017:
Gloorp Life
Gloorp is the experimental electronic project of Philadelphia percussionist and producer Garrett Burke. Blending dance styles like footwork, bass, and club with impressive drumming chops, Gloorp’s sound is one of a kind; forward-thinking, textural electronic music with an inimitable edge that comes from Burke’s sharp knack for syncopation and his playful hand.
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Spotify
Burke spent time on the kit in art-rock ensembles Of Montreal and Mothers, before releasing his self-titled debut as Gloorp in 2023. It was his second album, Gloorp ‘Em Up (Jolt Music, 2025), that turned heads: Nina Protocol dubbed it a “Polyrhythmic electronic frenzy” while Hearing Things praised it as “the wildest drums you’ll hear all year.” A glowing review in Pitchfork followed, along with sessions on NTS Radio and dublab, and shows with a slew of sonically adventurous underground acts, including Ulrika Spacek, Photay, and Xen Model. These performances, among many others, provided the perfect testing ground for Burke to begin shaping material for his third album.
Determined to keep his sets dynamic during this surge of live shows, Burke began swapping in new sounds and transitions on existing tracks. In his home studio, he spent time tinkering with and building out a sound library through his signature process: routing MIDI notes through various filters in his Eurorack system and triggering them with a discontinued controller, the DrumKAT 3.5. The resulting textures–ranging from sludgy to metallic in timbre–were tested and reshaped onstage; refined night after night, the improvisations became more structured and patterned, eventually taking shape as a new body of recordings: Gloorp Life.
LISTEN:
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Spotify
Burke spent time on the kit in art-rock ensembles Of Montreal and Mothers, before releasing his self-titled debut as Gloorp in 2023. It was his second album, Gloorp ‘Em Up (Jolt Music, 2025), that turned heads: Nina Protocol dubbed it a “Polyrhythmic electronic frenzy” while Hearing Things praised it as “the wildest drums you’ll hear all year.” A glowing review in Pitchfork followed, along with sessions on NTS Radio and dublab, and shows with a slew of sonically adventurous underground acts, including Ulrika Spacek, Photay, and Xen Model. These performances, among many others, provided the perfect testing ground for Burke to begin shaping material for his third album.
Determined to keep his sets dynamic during this surge of live shows, Burke began swapping in new sounds and transitions on existing tracks. In his home studio, he spent time tinkering with and building out a sound library through his signature process: routing MIDI notes through various filters in his Eurorack system and triggering them with a discontinued controller, the DrumKAT 3.5. The resulting textures–ranging from sludgy to metallic in timbre–were tested and reshaped onstage; refined night after night, the improvisations became more structured and patterned, eventually taking shape as a new body of recordings: Gloorp Life.
What is Gloorp Life? The answer lies in many of its track titles: “Bali Mode,” “Jeggings,” “Swag,” each slightly outdated and borderline cringe, yet bastions of partying, leisure. Burke grew up in Hilton Head, an island in South Carolina, where northeasterners, many from Jersey and the surrounding tri-state area, flock in the colder months to play golf and tennis. Simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by vacationers wearing flip flops and t-shirts with chintzy slogans (think “Life is good”), Burke flips this script with Gloorp Life. It’s partially self-effacing and quite ironic–a goofy joke atop music that is just as serious and technically brilliant as it is rollicking.
Opening track, “Swag,” perfectly sets the tone: a flanged drum sample whines over thick, grumbling bass, its sound design leaning into a darker palette while its groove remains undeniably buoyant—impossible not to move to. “Hookah” too comes out of the gate head-smacking: a bright rototom buffed metallic by various Make Noise FX modules carries the track's rhythm, while a disembodied, deadpan vocal repeating the word “forever” fractures into glitches over it.
Opening track, “Swag,” perfectly sets the tone: a flanged drum sample whines over thick, grumbling bass, its sound design leaning into a darker palette while its groove remains undeniably buoyant—impossible not to move to. “Hookah” too comes out of the gate head-smacking: a bright rototom buffed metallic by various Make Noise FX modules carries the track's rhythm, while a disembodied, deadpan vocal repeating the word “forever” fractures into glitches over it.
As the album unfolds, its energy builds to a crest before slowly winding down. “Whatsapp” jitters with nervy hi-hats and samples that groan and buzz like a swarm of flies, underpinned by an echoing breakbeat—reminiscent of taking too much at a party and retreating into another room to nurse a headache. On “Jeggings,” an arrhythmic watery pulse locks into a propulsive rhythm, its scrambled percussion wails, tweets, and smacks. Both “Bali Mode” and “Gloorp Life” are dense and dynamic, their fragmented samples and shuddering hits grounded by thick, muscular bass. The last two tracks on the album act as its cool down. “Ice Bath” is mulchy and viscous, with Chasia Doko’s (Chemical) vocals flickering in and out of the mix before the track hardens into straight-up four-to-the-floor house. At 111 BPM, “Reality” settles into downtempo—the phrase “time goes by so slowly” circles around lush, ambient texture.
The record’s arc mimics that of a great DJ set, one with peaks that arrive in surprising and unexpected ways, yet remains danceable and uninterrupted for listeners. Gloorp Life traces the trajectory of an hour on the dance floor: something that, in ideal circumstances, is both irreverent and quietly transformative, requiring the listener to achieve a kind of freewheeling flow state to get there. Maybe that’s Gloorp Life.
PRESS:
Pitchfork- “feels like being transported via Tesseract-like portal to the best sound system in São Paulo”
Album Review (7.1)
Chicago Reader - “You can hear his playfulness in track titles such as “Swag,” “Jeggings,” and “Hookah”; the blipping notes of the latter rush back and forth with a delightful mania”
Stereogum - “post-Aphex, post-Matmos, post-Sophie, post-everything”
WXPN - “If Autechre started in the 21st century and just had a citywide, that’s what this feels like.”
TRACKLIST:
1. Swag
2. Hookah
3. Whatsapp
4. Jeggings
5. Bali Mode
6. Gloorp Life
7. Ice Bath (feat. Chasia)
8. Real Life
CREDITS:
Music & production by Garrett Burke aka Gloorp
Performed by Garrett Burke, Danny Murillo, and Gabe DeSanto
Co-produced, mixed, and mastered by Danny Murillo
Album art by Cooper Burton
Vocals on 7 by Chasia Dokos
Vocals on 3, 4, & 7 by Gabe DeSanto
Acoustic drums on 1 & 2 engineered by Lucas Knapp
Acoustic drums on 8 engineered by Dash Flach