Glitch
Ambient · 1995 · 90 to 140 BPM · also known as Glitch Music, Clicks and Cuts, Microsound
The error promoted to raw material: skipping CDs, stuttering digital buffers, clicks and artifacts composed as music in their own right. Oval opened the way in the early 1990s by painting directly onto CDs, Fennesz added melody to the approach, and Alva Noto brought rigor. Glitch has since infused everything from pop music, in Bjork's post-Vespertine work, to advertising sound design, proof that even an accident can be tamed into a style.
14 reference tracks
- Oval: Do While (1995)
- Aphex Twin: Windowlicker (1999)
- Fennesz: Endless Summer (2001)
- Ryoji Ikeda: Data.Matrix (2005)
- Alva Noto: Uni Acronym (2011)
- Fennesz: In My Room (2019)
- Oval: Improg (2020)
- Alva Noto: HYbr:ID Oval P-Dance (2021)
- Fennesz: Before I Leave
- Aphex Twin: Peek 824545201
- Autechre: Pen Expers
- Fennesz: Happy Audio
- Tim Hecker: The Piano Drop
- Fennesz: Got to Move On
At a glance
- Tempo: 90 to 140 BPM
- First appeared: around 1995
- Machines: Max/MSP, Native Instruments Reaktor, Ordinateur, Granulateur
- The sound: CD préparés et skips, Max/MSP et DSP, Granulation, Artefacts de compression
- Labels: Raster-Noton, Touch, Mille Plateaux, Editions Mego, Raster, Mego
- Key artists: Oval, Fennesz, Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Pole (versant dub)
Producing Glitch
Glitch splits into two poles: tempo-free in Oval and Fennesz, where artifacts drift over pads, and strict, rigid tempo in Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda, 120 to 130 BPM with clicks quantized to the sample. In both cases, the length of a looped buffer becomes a tempo of its own, repeat a fragment every 20ms and it becomes a pitch, every 200ms and it becomes a rhythm, this porous border between pitch and rhythm defines the genre. Build percussion out of errors: 1ms clicks, short noise bursts, sine blips, CD skips, and buffer stutters, made with Beat Repeat on a fine grid, buffer shuffling, or a Grain Delay pushed to a high spray, a short sample loop cut without crossfades does the job Oval got from a scratched CD.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Glitch?
The error promoted to raw material: skipping CDs, stuttering digital buffers, clicks and artifacts composed as music in their own right. Oval opened the way in the early 1990s by painting directly onto CDs, Fennesz added melody to the approach, and Alva Noto brought rigor. Glitch has since infused…
What tempo is Glitch played at?
Between 90 and 140 BPM.
Who are the key Glitch artists?
Oval, Fennesz, Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Pole (versant dub).
