Glitch
Located in 2 routes
Glitch is electronic music made from digital errors, skips, clicks, damaged CDs, software artifacts, buffer stutters, bit reduction, fragmented samples, and machine malfunction. Its sound can be skeletal or lush: tiny ticks become percussion, corrupted loops become harmony, and broken playback becomes groove or atmosphere. The aesthetic turns failure into design.
History
Glitch developed from computer music, cracked media, turntablism, industrial editing, and post-rave electronic experimentation, with Oval’s CD-skip manipulations becoming a landmark 1990s reference. Autechre gave glitch complex rhythmic architecture, Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda pushed it toward austere digital precision, Fennesz fused glitches with guitar haze, Matmos made conceptual sample surgery playful, Jan Jelinek brought dubby micro-sampling, and Mouse on Mars kept a more elastic pop-electronic edge. Glitch influenced IDM, clicks & cuts, microsound, minimal techno, experimental pop, and mainstream production effects such as stutter edits and bitcrushed textures.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Mille Plateaux catalogues
- Kim Cascone essays
- AllMusic
- Discogs