Is Glitch Dead?

[Xnah]

Or maybe I misunderstood the question, and it's not about glitch as a (your) musical style, but as a possible commercial market for your FX plugins??

My plugins have a market?! Double ha! You're a riot. My FSU FX commercial demographic consists of approximately 10 people my friend.

So there are 9 others? .

I agree that glitch and blues are not comparable... but still... many of us at kvr seem to be driven by artistic motives, not by the existence or alive-ness of a genre...

[laputa_sync]

Q: how many times can you shock the monkey until he doesn't even feel it anymore?....

A: Until its dead

[John Vulich]

Sadly, most new music genres are basically driven by fad and fashion. Note that people don't normally ask questions like this about Jazz, Rock and Blues. There are countless hydrocephalic-pinhead-morons constantly creating new and absurd sub-genres of Techno, every minute of the day, in a futile attempt to keep the genre fresh. It's just the nature of the vapid and idiotic times that we live in.

[rachmiel]

> Glitch ... Blues ... One goes for shock, the other empathy

i'm beg to differ but in my home countries glitch makes grown men to cry like babies locked in dark pantry with aging meat patties and blues makes for epilepsy seizure in pregnant womens or traumatic stress attack on big muscle mans.

[JerGoertz]

I just don't think that Glitch is an analog for Blues insofar as musical genres are concerned. The two rely on entirely different methods for captivating the listener. One goes for shock, the other empathy. But how many times can you shock the monkey until he doesn't even feel it anymore? But the monkey will always be a monkey, dig?

I don't really think any music done purely for "shock value" will have any lasting value.

However, I don't believe glitch is properly characterized as such. To me, glitch can be expressive of things like: off-kilter moods, sterile mechanicness, decay, etc. As a technique used within a composition (as opposed to being the composition's primary focus), it can impart a nice jolt to the listener.

I think it's still valid. However, as has been noted, it's all too easy to just "let the glitch effects run wild" without putting any compositional thought into it, and that's probably what should be avoided. Although it's entirely possible to glitch-mangle a bunch of stuff, record the resultant .wav's, and then come back to them to cull out and arrange the good bits (i.e. sampling your own stuff).

[jackson]

Sadly, most new music genres are basically driven by fad and fashion. Note that people don't normally ask questions like this about Jazz, Rock and Blues. There are countless hydrocephalic-pinhead-morons constantly creating new and absurd sub-genres of Techno, every minute of the day, in a futile attempt to keep the genre fresh. It's just the nature of the vapid and idiotic times that we live in.

No there aren't. Seriously, the ridiculous over-genre-isation of electronic music (not your deliberately and incorrectly named "techno") slowed right down a few years ago.

[JerGoertz]

Just one other thing to add:

Bad (lazy, ill-conceived, formulaic) music exists in all genres.

Yes, including The Blues.

[ouroboros]

I like the energy and different textures in glitch. That said, the stuff I enjoy listening to time and again still demonstrates some reasonably traditional notions of rhthym and melody and structure. (with no idea of genre, I may have missed the point again)

With the proliferation of tools available and ease of production, it seems like there are more people making glitchy messes, which means there is more of it available that I don't particularly esteem much. Glitch isn't dead, it's just aped more?

[tetraplan]

What is called "glitch" is an approach, a method. What Kim Cascone called "the aesthetic of failure".
As new technologies appear, so do the mistakes/errors that come with these technologies. So does exploiting these.

All I can say is: enjoy the artefacts. They are beautiful.

Groet, Erik

[tetraplan]

What is cal


Ha! Glitches rock.


utiful.

Groet, Erik

[JackDark]

I would say the biggest difference between blues and glitch is that glitch is an aesthetic, not a baseline. That's why there are "Glitch in a Box" plugs, but you don't see "Muddy Waters in a Box" plugs. The sound of blues cannot be personified in a single effect type, whereas glitch can (and has been, numerous times). Because of that, glitch can become dull, and without being able to evolve beyond, say, pretty "artefacts", then it is only a fad, and everyone knows that fads run their course, then die.

[ouroboros]

I think glitch as an aesthetic then, will survive because it can be called on in any genre. Glitch as purely soundscape experimentation will always be plagued, as is the nature of experimental music, by the fact that the experiment has been done once already. It is the tyranny of history. As a kind of synthetic ambient plastic, it will probably remain popular amongst a smaller cadre of artefactophiles.

What do you like to listen to, JD?
have the "look, I made a glitch" threads worn on you? I don't know of any commercial glitch acts, never having listened to Autechre - (I have listened to the Venetian Snares, since they release free sets on their site, though )

[dover666]

there's this thing called a psychedelic experience.
it doesn't f**king matter some stupid genre.there's more important things to worry about. call it "mood" music. it's not a game. there's power in sound and truth in perception. i will continue eating my own tail until the end of time.

[JackDark]

What do you like to listen to, JD?

My top 10 bands of all time thus far would probably be:

AIR, Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Depressed Mode, Gary Numan, NIN, Pig, Schneider TM, Towa Tei, Two Lone Swordsmen

So far this year, I haven't bought a whole lot of CDs, but here's what I have actually shelled out cash for this year:

Darkel - Darkel
The Knife - Silent Shout
Mr. Nogatco - Nogatco Rd.
Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel To Anything
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel
NIN - With Teeth*
The Soft Pink Truth - Do you Want New Wave or Do you Want the Soft PInk Truth?
Damien - L'art Du Disque
Thomas Dolby - The Sole Inhabitant
Scott Walker - The Drift
Ellen Allien/Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles

*Bought due to sheer nostalgia factors. I wish Trent would grow up already and make an album about being in a disgruntled middle life crisis... with actual lyrics like his earlier work instead of the Cat In The Hat bullshit of the last two albums.

Have the "look, I made a glitch" threads worn on you?

If you mean the "look I made a teeny tiny "glitch" SE plug just like the last five I made" threads, yes, they have. If you mean actual music releases, then no, they haven't.

I don't know of any commercial glitch acts

Actually you hit the biggest nail on the head with Venetian Snares. I am actually surprised how far Aaron Funk has been able to make his Octamed experimentation last. I have much respect for the man due to his methods and variety... with only the cover art usually serving for shock factor. More respect than I have for say Otto V Shirach or Jimmy Edgar.

[aMUSEd]

Sadly, most new music genres are basically driven by fad and fashion. Note that people don't normally ask questions like this about Jazz, Rock and Blues. There are countless hydrocephalic-pinhead-morons constantly creating new and absurd sub-genres of Techno, every minute of the day, in a futile attempt to keep the genre fresh. It's just the nature of the vapid and idiotic times that we live in.