GLITCH BEATS

Attention grabbing stutters, micro-edits and malfunctions

Experimental individuals have long been pushing noise-making devices and techniques beyond their intended uses, or creatively exploiting the flaws and malfunctions (‘glitches’) exhibited by digital equipment. The IDM movement of the ’90s saw Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Autechre explore extreme stuttering, time-stretching, breakbeat-slicing and other mechanised techniques within the parameters of House, Breakbeat and Techno. Circuit benders inventively reconfigure the electronics inside digital toys and synths, creating new and unusual noises and timbres. The avant-garde ‘glitch’ genre is dedicated to the creation of music using noise artifacts, errors, pops, clicks and other digital flaws. These effects and techniques all operate within the confines of an ‘organised chaos’ aesthetic, marrying the anarchic characteristics of malfunctioning machines with the rhythmic and melodic constraints of music.

Glitch effects take many forms: from emulating the repetition and stuttering of skipping CDs and the bitcrushing of early digital samplers, through to the sudden chops and cuts of MPC sample-triggering, quirky delay effects, metallic filtering and more. Often, these effects will be alternated between in a fast, unnatural sequence, serving to stun the listener with a flurry of contrasting processes over the course of an unnaturally short time period.

However, as we’ll explore here, glitch effects aren’t just for the eccentric or experimental musician. The use of such techniques within more commercial modern genres – Electro House, Minimal House/ Techno, Dubstep, Complextro and EDM amongst others – has brought glitch-style tricks and techniques to the forefront of mainstream culture; stuttered beat bursts, bitcrushed synth chops, pitchshifted vocal