Glitch (music)
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| Glitch (music) | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins |
Glitch developed in the 1990s
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| Typical instruments |
Hardware: circuit bending, Software: Ableton Live, Audiomulch, GleetchLAB, Jeskola Buzz, Max/MSP, Pure Data, Reaktor, Super Collider, and ChucK
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| Mainstream popularity | Very low with underground followings in U.S. and Europe, especially Germany[1] |
| Subgenres | |
| Microhouse | |
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. The origins of glitch music are derived from the failure of digital technology. The effects of failure in technology, such as bugs, crashes, system errors, hardware noise, skipping and audio distortion, can be captured on computers and provide the basic building blocks of Glitch music.[2] Often considered a sub-genre of electronica or 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. [3]
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 made up 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, Ableton Live, Reason, Audiomulch, Bidule, Super Collider, FLStudio, GleetchLAB, MAX/MSP, Pure Data, Usine, 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.
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[edit] History
Glitch originated in Germany with the musical work and labels of Achim Szepanski[4], who later gained popularity through the collaboration with Sebastian Meissner under the moniker "Random Inc."[5]. While the movement initially slowly gained members (including bands like Oval)[6], the techniques of Glitch later quickly spread around the world as many artists — including bands such as Kid 606 and Autechre — followed suit. Yasunao Tone used damaged CDs in his Techno Eden performance in 1985. 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.
Oval's Wohnton, produced in 1993, helped define the genre by adding ambient aesthetics to it[7]. Though the music of Markus Popp's band (Oval) 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 1970s; 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.
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 'n' bass.
[edit] Sub-genres
[edit] Glitch Hop
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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 groups of this genre include the L.A.-based production group The Glitch Mob, other artists include Prefuse 73[8], Machinedrum, Dabrye, Kid 606, Jahcoozi, BreakBeatBuddha and Edit, 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.
[edit] The Glitch and Shoegaze Overlap
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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, favouring more ambient forms. The general shoegazer style of pop rock melodies buried under layers of reverberation 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, from about 1992, demonstrated a pre-glitch sound. Later, in 2000, the band ventured 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, The Night Owl Cafe Killers, or Little Glitches for similarly ambient/glitch sounds.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Glitch", "All Music Guide"
- ^ Cox, Christoph and Warner, Daniel, eds. (2004). Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Continuum Books, 393.
- ^ "The glitch genre arrived on the back of the electronica movement, an umbrella term for alternative, largely dance-based electronic music (including house, techno, electro, drum'n'bass, ambient) that has come into vogue in the past five years. Most of the work in this area is released on labels peripherally associated with the dance music market, and is therefore removed from the contexts of academic consideration and acceptability that it might otherwise earn. Still, in spite of this odd pairing of fashion and art music, the composers of glitch often draw their inspiration from the masters of 20th century music who they feel best describe its lineage." THE AESTHETICS OF FAILURE: 'Post-Digital' Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music, Kim Cascone, Computer Music Journal 24:4 Winter 2002 (MIT Press)
- ^ "First championed by the ideological German techno figure Achim Szepanski and his stable of record labels -- Force Inc, Mille Plateaux, Force Tracks, Ritornell -- this tight-knit scene of experimental artists creating cerebral hybrids of experimental techno, minimalism, digital collage, and noise glitches soon found themselves being assembled into a community." All Music Guide
- ^ "Random Inc.", "All Music Guide"
- ^ "Glitch", "All Music Guide"
- ^ "Although Oval are perhaps more well-known for how they make their music than for the music they actually make, the German experimental electronic trio have provided an intriguing update of some elements of avant-garde composition in combination with techniques of digital sound design, [...]" All Music Guide
- ^ Sobolewski, John: Prefuse 73 Prophesizes, BC Heights, April 15, 2003; http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2003/04/15/ArtsReview/Prefuse.73.Prophesizes-417009.shtml
[edit] Further reading
- Sangild, Torben: "Glitch — The Beauty of Malfunction" in Bad Music. Routledge (2004, ISBN 0-415-94365-5) [1]
- Young, Rob: "Worship the Glitch", The Wire 190/191 (2000)
- Byrne, David. "What is Blip Hop?" Comparative Sound, 2002. [2]
- 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"
[edit] External links
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