It could be argued that the 1999 sci-fi/action film The Matrix, while derivative of earlier films, comics, and other literature, contributed much to modern American pop-culture. Without The Matrix Wuxiá cinema probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the renaissance it had on these shores (and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping certainly wouldn’t have gotten as many high profile gigs), there wouldn’t have been so many crappy “bullet-time” gimmicks in television commercials and other films, leather and rubber S&M-style outfits wouldn’t have been nearly as popular, and my good friend Emeyesi wouldn’t say there’s “a glitch in the Matrix” whenever things go inexplicably wrong. And while similar import can’t be claimed for so-called Glitch-Hop, a style of production where the stuttery edits, clicks and bleeps common to Drum-n-Bass, Micro-House, and laptop IDM are paired with crunchy synths and bouncy drum-programming, many of it’s proponents have in fact put their own “glitch” in the music industry “matrix” as it were.
The first breakout Glitch-Hop artist, and arguably the sub-genre’s biggest “star,” is Barcelona, Spain’s (by way of New York and Atlanta) alias-prone musician/producer Guillermo Scott Herren, perhaps better known as Prefuse 73. When he dropped his first full-length under the Prefuse moniker, Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives in 2001, a time when underground Hip-Hop heads were obsessively (and erroneously) calling anyone doing anything remotely different “abstract,” Prefuse’s music, all sharp, broken, shards of sound, wasn’t just a proverbial “breath of fresh air,” it actually sounded abstract, or at least cubist. His follow-up ‘92 vs. ‘02 EP, which was funkier and more melodic to me, was what really sold me on his work. But his subsequent full-lengths haven’t always held my attention. His new album Preparations is what I’d call a return to form. Replete with funky grooves, boom-box-ready drum-programming, beautiful melodies, progressive sonic textures employing both synths and live instruments, shred-edited samples, and robotic blips & bleeps, it may be the most well-rounded of his albums, and is in contention for the honor of being named my favorite Prefuse record to-date.
Listen to “Girlfriend Boyfriend”
Not too long after discovering Prefuse I was introduced to another “glitchy” producer, a Los Angeles-based musician called Daedelus (alias Alfred Darlington), thanks to Prefuse’s Eastern Developments label, when they released his exquisitely packages Household EP. Though Daedelus’ work retained many of the same electronic elements and predilections towards glitchiness as Prefuse’s, I found it to be far mellower, less angular, and based around a more attendant ear for melody and traditional song structure. Daedelus went on to release a pretty extensive discography after that, working with the likes of MF Doom, Busdriver and Subtitle among others, in the interim. He’s recently signed to stalwart “beats” label Ninja Tune, who have just released the five-song Fair Weather Friends EP. A collection of largely uptempo tracks, possibly aimed at the dancefloor, it couldn’t be more different from Household, but anyone following his evolution over the years shouldn’t be totally surprised. Although even I found myself taken aback at, then incredibly excited by, his sampling of the Ghost Town DJ’s Rhythm & Quad classic “My Boo,” one of my favorite club songs ever, on “My Beau.”
Listen to “My Beau”
I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock when people who manufacture glitches for a living prove themselves capable of throwing a glitch or two into their own “matrix.”
-El Keter
