Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Glitches, clicks and cuts


Glitch (also known as Clicks and Cuts) is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the late 1990s. It is produced by mixing and sequencing tiny samples of music with beats comprised of electronic pops, clicks and erm, glitches.

William Fields has been experimenting with sound since 1993. If your local HMV has it as a category, his work will be filed under 'Glitch' (incongruously snuggled between 'Garage Rock' and 'Gospel') but, in contrast to the majority of the music in this genre, Fields' compositions are exceptionally emotive, warm and melodic.

His use of looped samples bring to mind the ambient works of Brian Eno (especially 'Music for Airports') while the complex, unsettling rhythm changes have echoes of Drum'n'Bass and Jungle recordings.

A number of his pieces are available for free download at his site. 'Branches' and 'Asoka' are a good place to start. If you have a 20 minute journey some time in the near future, 'Twenty Four' (track 6 on Asoka) would make a marvellous companion.

Thanks to Conrad for bringing Mr Fields' work to my attention.
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