Glitch (music)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2007) |
| Glitch (music) | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Musique concrète, techno music, industrial music and ambient music |
| Cultural origins | Glitch developed in the 1990s |
| Typical instruments | Hardware: circuit bending, Software: Ableton Live, Audiomulch, GleetchLAB, Jeskola Buzz, Max/MSP, Pure Data, Reaktor, Super Collider, and ChucK |
| Subgenres | |
| Glitch Hop, Nu Gaze, Microhouse (complete list) | |
| Regional scenes | |
| US, Sweden, Germany, UK | |
Glitch (also known as Clicks and Cuts from a representative compilation series by the German record label Mille Plateaux) is a genre of electronic music that became popular in the late 1990s with the increasing use of digital signal processing, particularly on computers. Often considered a sub-genre of intelligent dance music, Glitch eschews traditional instrumentation, preferring instead the use of mechanized and non-natural sounds. Though rhythm is a central focal point of Glitch, the style's various sub-genres range from the ambient to the dance-oriented.
Glitch is often produced on computers using modern digital production software to splice together small "cuts" (samples) of music from previously recorded works. These cuts are then integrated with the signature of Glitch music: beats comprised of glitches, clicks, scratches, and otherwise "erroneously" produced or sounding noise. These glitches are often very short, and are typically used in place of traditional percussion or instrumentation. Skipping CDs, scratched vinyl records, circuit bending, and other noise-like distortions figure prominently into the creation of rhythm and feeling in Glitch; it is from the use of these digital artifacts that the genre derives its name. However, not all artists of the genre are working with erroneously produced sounds or are even using digital sounds.
Popular software for creating Glitch includes trackers, Reaktor, Super Collider, Ableton Live, GleetchLAB, MAX/MSP, Pure Data, and ChucK. Circuit bending -- the intentional short-circuiting of low power electronic devices to create new musical devices -- also plays a significant role on the hardware end of Glitch music and its creation.
History
It is generally accepted that Oval's Wohnton, produced in 1993, was the first proper Glitch album. Though Markus Popp's (Oval) music may be the first in which the techniques of Musique Concrete were applied to the subtleties of Ambient, Glitch is also informed by Techno and Industrial music. Turntablist Christian Marclay had been incorporating the use of scratched or otherwise damaged vinyl records into his sets since the 1970's; it is the rapid advance in technology and expansion of thought behind music that has allowed Glitch to adopt this "broken" sound and use it as a stylistic marker.
Glitch originated in Northern Europe with Oval's work, but quickly spread around the world as artists such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, and Yasunao Tone — who used damaged CDs in his Techno Eden performance in 1985 — followed suit. Trumpeter Jon Hassell's 1994 album Dressing For Pleasure — a dense mesh of funky trip hop and jazz — features several songs with the sound of skipping CDs layered into the mix.
As artists continue to experiment with different aspects of Glitch music, the use of the computer to create music has increased significantly. Perfect timing, repeats, and perfect symmetry within the music, all of which were at one time humanly impossible, are now possible through the use of computers. As a result, Glitch music generally continues to express a love for logic, patterning, and order having taken to a digital movement. Within the last few years, artists such as Evol Intent and Ewun have produced several records combining Glitch with hardstep Drum and Bass.
Notable artists
Sub Genres
Glitch Hop
Glitch Hop is a relatively new sub variant of the glitch form and shares the name Click Hop, Blip Hop, Downbreaks and Break Hop. Aside from the obvious lineage of hip hop and glitch this genre tends to borrow from the IDM and Minimalist genres as well. The music is marked by the DSP laden sonic tapestry and twitchiness of glitch with a more hip hop style framework. The beat tends to follow hip-hop's break-derived conventions, falling into a range between 85-100 bpm. Instead of using just traditional drum kits, Glitch Hop's "nerdified drums" are augmented with clicks, bent circuits, and sometimes the cut up vocals of the MC.
Notable artists of this genre include Prefuse 73, Dabrye, and Kid 606 who published glitch hop tracks as part of larger glitch albums. The first full length album was Electric Ladyland: Clickhop Version 1.0 from the Mille Plateaux label in 2002. It can be argued that certain tracks on the album veer away from a strict interpretation of the genre's stylistic markers. Cex and MC Lars also sometimes perform glitch-hop material. CanopyRadio.tv is a well-known collaborative project that mixes jungle and glitch-hop together into podcast form.
The Glitch and Shoegaze Overlap
Some artists have mixed the occasionally harsh noise aspects of glitch with what is often referred to as shoegazer music. Artists on labels such as Morr Music fall into this category and maintain a focus on IDM beats and pop-rock melodies and song structures. The two-disc Morr Music compilation Blue Skied an' Clear is a perfect introduction to this stylistic overlap; the shoegazer band Slowdive has its songs reworked by Morr artists on the first disc.
The overlap between glitch and shoegazer music also includes some artists that have moved away from the song structures and defined beats mentioned above, favoring more ambient forms. The general shoegazer style of pop-rock melodies buried under layers of reverb and distortion is combined with the precise programming capabilities of digital signal processing. Fennesz and Tim Hecker are two notable artists that have received critical praise for their compositions done in this style. The looped constructions of lovesliescrushing circa 92, demonstrated a pre-glitch sound. Later, in 2000, found the band venturing into the computer realm by translating their signature four track guitar damage into an iMac to produce glissceule and voirshn, dubbed glitch-bliss. The duo Belong has also released music of this nature. In addition to comparing them to other ambient or electronic musicians, reviewers and fans also tend to mention the similarities to My Bloody Valentine (arguably the most highly regarded band of the early 1990s shoegazer movement). The primary point of similarity is the emphasis placed on the texture of the music; it appears to play as important a role as the melodies themselves. Also, see Labradford and Little Glitches [1] for similarly ambient/glitch sounds.
See also
References
- Cascone, Kim: "The Aesthetics of Failure", Computer Music Journal 24.4 (2000)
- Sangild, Torben: "Glitch — The Beauty of Malfunction" in Bad Music. Routledge (2004, ISBN 0-415-94365-5) [2]
- Young, Rob: "Worship the Glitch", The Wire 190/191 (2000)
- Byrne, David. "What is Blip Hop?" Comparative Sound, 2002. [3]
- Collins, Nicolas. Editor. "Composers inside Electronics: Music after David Tudor." Leonardo Music Journal. Vol. 14, pgs 1-3. 2004.
- Bijsterveld, Karin and Trevor J. Pinch. "'Should One Applaud?': Breaches and Boundaries in the Reception of New Technology in Music." Technology and Culture. Ed. 44.3, pg 536-559. 2003.
- Noah Zimmerman, "Dusted Reviews, 2002"