I’m proud to present to you ALL the first Afromonk.com exclusive! Stephan Jacobs asked me if I’d like to feature two of his new tunes on the blog! It is an honor to have one of my favorite producers ask me to exclusively host two of his new tunes.
Both of the tracks are remixes by Stephan. The first tune is a remix of Bluetech’s Leaving Babalon. This track creates such a vibe and adds such a deep element to the already hypnotic original. The second one on this release is a remix of James Zabiela’s Human. This is one sexy late night tune that can’t imagine anyone not loving it.
I’m telling you right now Stephan Jacobs is a rising star that you’ll all come to know. His up and coming releases are MASSIVE! Much love and respect goes out to him!
Ben Samples is back again with a new release. This time it’s packed with 4 glitch hop club bangers. The first track Boss absolutely slays crowds. I’ll never forget how it went off when I dropped it at Get Low in Miami when I played it. The other tracks are serious pieces of work and also includes Nano Puppy the collab track with Stephan Jacobs.
Who know what we’ll hear from Samples next. He’s taken the glitch hop scene by storm and has an arsenal of new tracks ready to drop. One thing is for sure whatever this man touches you’ll hear some serious crunk bass to come along with it.
Much respect to my home Samples.
Looking forward to playing along side with him in NY in August!
Stephan Jacobs is becoming quite the legend in my book. Along with some of the biggest names in the west coast Stephan had to releases yesterday. His house tracks along with some dubstep tunes were released on his latest EP, Square 1. The EP features remixes from Sugarpill, Jupit3r, and Ruff Hauser. I’m telling you one thing and being serious about this. Stephan Jacobs isn’t going anywhere and remember to stay on top of this guy. His recent tunes have been stellar and have heard clips of the new ones ahead. Another next level sound producer. Truly an inspiration.
Stephan and Ben Samples had teamed up awhile ago on a fresh tune Nano Puppy. Samples EP was releases as well but worth mentioning this one track in this post. It’s one hell of a glitch hop track. These two working together is like getting pineapple and mango in one fruit, pure bliss. Shout out to homie Sugarpill on this one as well since he mastered the tune.
R/D has released his new EP just now, Face of God. Just got the e-mail minutes ago and totally feeling this. Glad to be awake for this. First track is absolutely banging and has some fresh production behind it. R/D is definitely making a name for himself and these new tunes are an example of his unique take on the whole west coast glitch vibe going on out there. The future of bass is upon us and this next level EP is a prime example of where production and live performers are going to be doing till the next big thing. Big up to R/D for this release and including a free tune along with this.
Go buy R/D – Face of God EP! It’s cheap and seriously an all around great piece to add to any music collection.
If you want to just preview the tracks check them out below =D
Pixelord and +verb have officially teamed up on a hella of a collaboration. American and Russian producers working together on a tune, got to love the internet! I was graced with a message the other night about posting a blog post about this track late at night. Ended up openning it first thing in the morning since homie +verb always sends over fresh tunes. Notice the collab with Pixelord and wonder what the two producers have put together. BLISS is what they’ve done. This track is what I’d call Future Garage meets Glitch Hop. It’s got a chill garage feel yet elements of hip hop and funky glitch groove. These two producer are on the way to the top. +verb has 3 EPs about to drop on different labels and Pixelord has just put tons of new goodness on his Soundcloud so expect some new ish from him as well.
Chris B recently has blown my mind. He is part of the Big 3 Ive created in my mind: Sugarpill, Stephan Jacobs, and Chris B. These guys are the biggest dudes in the West Coast coming up. They’ve all worked closely together and are on their way up to the top. Chris B is totally rocking out and putting out sexy sexy tunes. I have the honor of actually opening up for him while I’m in Vegas for Defcon 18.
You absolutely have to check out this mans tracks. The first time I heard Redshift I immediately turned the volume up as loud as possible on my headphones. This tune is absolutely breathe taking. His other tracks with Stephan and Sugarpill are nothing short of stunning either. Make sure you remember the name Chris B because out of all the talent in the left coast his sound is pure.
I’ve decided to start my first Soundcloud group. I spend many countless hours searching the internet for tunes that will make me dance around, cruise while driving, and dance floor bangers. I’m all about sharing with everyone the latest tunes when I play out. Take serious pride in supporting my producer friends. Time to create something for them to unite and share in on location along with all the other groups.
I will be moderating the tracks that get posted in this group. I love all the groups on Soundcloud that I’m part of but sometimes all the tracks don’t have that crunk glitch hop feel to them. This is what I’ve created where you can unleash the maddness and rage. I’ll most likely be putting together another group if this goes well where it’ll be surrounding more of the downtempo chill glitch feel.
Psymbionic is John Burcham. The man is doing it big in Texas and making his way on the national circuit. He’s definitely on his game right now. He recently rocked out Wakarusa & Sonic Bloom this year. John’s constantly hard at work banging out tunes, running a blog, playing out, and staying on top of the music. This guy has some serious love for this and truly welcoming dude. There is a possibility that I might be moving to Austin and he’s been nothing but helpful and making me feel like this giant move will go smoothly if I end up out there. The best part of doing all this is meeting and connecting with up and coming producers but also getting to know some good people in the process.
Check out some of his tracks and LIVE mix from Wakarusa.
Tracklist:
Siren – Summertime in Oakland
The Beatles – Eleanor Rigby (4Centers Remix)
Ben Samples and Stephan Jacobs – Nano Puppy
NiT GriT – Hyphycide
Masia One – In Di Streets (Ill.Gates+Meesha Instrumental)
Reso and Vent – Rumble
Mimosa – The Unseen
Vibesquad – Janitor
Siren – Stunna
Knight Riderz – Bring It
Eprom – Bubble
Bassnectar – Bass Head
Opiou – Nun Cha Ka
Deadmau5 – Ghosts N Stuff (ProBiotiK Remix)
Tipper – Ton of Bricks
Sound Tribe Sector 9 – EHM (Psymbionic Remix
Ill.Gates – Sweatshop (Subvert Remix)
Akira Kiteshi – Boom N Pow
Bassnectar and Jantsen – Blast Off
Devo – Whip It (Mochipet Remix)
Omega – Ultima Ratio Regum
Stagga – Timewarp (Akira Kiteshi Refix)
Spor – Knock You Down (Eskmo Remix)
Freddy Todd and Elfkowitz – Rage Cage
NastyNasty – Knife Play
Heyoka – Flying Dub Sauce
The Chemical Brothers – The Salmon Dance (Psymbionic Remix)
I’ll be honest I don’t think there is a correct answer to this question nor is there for any genre of music. At the end of the day music is music despite the label or genre. There have been many names for “Glitch Hop” such as lazer bass, crunk bass, etc… The question you probably want to know is what defines a track as glitch hop.
The beauty of Glitch Hop is that it’s not really a genre with specific rules or BPM. I like to consider Glitch Hop the type of music that incorporates glitchy effects like beat repeaters and sweeps. The tempo of the music doesn’t really matter at all. The genre of Glitch is where it falls into because of this. When Hip-Hop/Crunk samples are added with all these effects the result is… Glitch Hop! Yup that’s basically it.
Glitch Hop has really started to take off within the past year or two. The Glitch Hop Forum has appeared and helps unite the community of fans, producers, and Djs. Glitch.fm was started and specializes in this sound. Acts like Pretty Lights and The Glitch Mob are headlining festivals all around the world.
I don’t think it has been documented where the term was actually phrased but it most likely has ties to Prefuse 73, Dabrye, Funkstorung, or edIT. Glitch and IDM had been around a good while before Glitch Hop started to appear. It was around 2001 where the sound really started to take shape with the early works of Prefuse 73 on Warp Records. 2004 was when things really took off when Conartist turned into edIT and released Crying Over Pros For No Reason.
Another thing that is worth mentioning about Glitch Hop is that it’s for the most part it’s played Live. This means that most people who play this music use controllers and actually manipulate and create these sounds on the fly. Essentially technology has allowed us to use all sorts of fun toys to create these live glitch remixes. There are many producers and DJs who actually create songs as they play with extended amounts of loops they’ve created before hand. There’s more of a performance element when it comes to glitch hop.
I’ve asked some people who play a major role directly or indirectly with the sound of Glitch / Glitch Hop what they thought Glitch Hop is. These are direct replies when I asked them “What is Glitch Hop”
“It’s bigger than just a music genre it’s an artform, yourself as the beat maker is turning digital sound techniques such as clicks / bleeps / bit crush reduction and many more methods into music.”
- Mussck
(Pioneer in the Glitch sound)
“To me Glitch Hop is just another term for the latest form of evolved hip hop. Glitch Hop seems to be regionalized to the west coast of North America, and it is also quite popular in Australia. Other geographical locations have their own take on the sound. In England & LA they call it Wonky, In Scandinavia they call it Skweee, etc. Really it’s all just music, by labeling it we make it more accessible to those who don’t know about it. If a new artist emerges with a new sound that doesn’t quite fit in any existing (sub) genre, a journalist will come up with a name for it in their attempt to describe it. This is the same way the term Glitch Hop came about, as well as most genre titles from Rock to Dubstep.”
- Dewey Db
(Founder of Glitch Hop Forum)
“Glitch hop get its roots from hip hop, obviously looking at its name. It’s a kid or a man- not a rap star or his ego- doing whatever the fuck they want with a what-would-be hip-hop beat. It’s taking the swagger of a rap beat and glitching / stuttering / repeating the shit out of it in an intelligent OR unintelligent way. It’s taking hiphop vocals and mashing them through a blender. It’s NOT tailoring a specific beat for kanye or jayZ, rather to embrace a dancefloor, impress your friends, or just for your own 2010 glitchy satisfaction. And oh yeah, it’s also about the bass. ”
- Freddy Todd
(Up and coming Glitch Hop Producer)
“‘glitch hop’ seems to be the most common name for a genre of music which involves electronic production, loud synthetic bass, a hiphop/crunk feel and often (but not necessarily) includes edgy music production techniques which are normally heard in IDM.
although predominantly heard at festivals and underground parties on the west coast of North America it has been gaining popularity in Europe, Australia and Asia lately.”
- ill gates
(Master Glitch Hop Producer)
“Glitch is taking what most people would consider an error or a mistake and working it into something great sounding. Like distortion is to an electric guitar, glitch is to electronic production.”
- Kraddy
(Master Glitch Hop Producer / Former member of The Glitch Mob)
“In a very narrow sense, the term “glitch-hop” could be interpreted as ‘mid-tempo, twisted hip-hop beat with distorted, heavy bass and acapellas’, but I rather see it as a tentative name which somehow stuck and is now wide-spread (relatively at least). It is rather directed outwards to encompass various music styles sometimes also referred to as: acquacrunk, turbo crunk, lazer bass, future blap, future beatz, street bass, heavy bass, wonky, hyphy, usually falling within the broader categories of IDM, EDM and recently, quite often flirting with dubstep”
- Docktor Krank
(Runs highly respected Glitch Hop Blog)
“Glitch-Hop is like Hip Hop stuck into a blender whipped and then poured over layers of Bass lasagna and topped with a good heaping of Rave Synth Sauce and some 8-bit samples of Chucky Cheese Parmesan”
- Mochipet
(Producer / Founder of Daly City Records)
“Glitch hop is hip hop based IDM, music heavy with bass and rich in provocative melodic contortions, chopped up samples and artfully designed combinations of ancient drum beats and futuristic sounds. Largely rejecting traditional instrumentation for erroneously produced noises not found in nature, glitch hop is the brash back-talking ethos of HELL YES, I’m pushing buttons- and look what it does to my dance floor. It is the musical representation of the post-modern void of a world in which we live that could end any second with the press of another kind of button. Glitch hop symbolizes the failure of technology and the debunking of the myth of progress. Progress will not save us- but dancing just might.”
- Shilo
(Runs one of the most well known Glitch Hop/West Coast blogs on the web)
“I think glitch-hop in the most basic sense is just a geeky take on hip hop… splash some slowed down IDM patterns on some bass and add some weird sounds that someone might bob their head to and you’ve pretty much there.”
- Sugarpill
(Up and coming Glitch Hop Producer)
“It’s slutty imo” “Well I’m drunk at some ho’s house. Write that down” “Glitch hop is about banging groupies till sunrise”
- Ben Samples
(Up and coming Crunk Producer)
“I think Glitch-Hop is definitely more than just “bass” music by the very fact that it’s prefaced by the term “Glitch.” To me this genre has taken influence from a sort of “Glitch Design Philosphy,” which I interpret to be the act of exploiting any technology available for artistic gain; usually in ways different from the intended use of a particular technology being used. By virtue of the fact that this genre is explicitly influenced by Hip-Hop music, it is then only natural that it is also bass music.
For example, today I was browsing some tutorials from Tom Cosm that one of our bloggers, Binary Ally, had posted about how to make really fast rhythmically-sequenced pseudo-random fx automations. Even though Tom was accomplishing this through Ableton, I would say the techniques he used were clearly hacks in the sense that he exploited several routing/chaining features in a highly inventive way. He didn’t just go in and automate everything by hand, which would have probably taken on the order of days to accomplish, but instead accomplished this similar effect on the order of minutes. It’s truly boundary pushing stuff.”
- Scott Novich (Great Scott)
(Founder of Glitch.fm)
Here are some clear examples of what Glitch Hop sounds like. BOOM!
The Glitch Mob are coming back to Miami! You have no idea how excited I am to announce that The Glitch Mob is coming back for a solo show!!!
I’ve spent months trying to bring the Glitch Hop sound to Miami and show people something different. The Mob is one of my main influences and loves. I got to see them live not long ago at Lightning in a Bottle. They clearly have a new sound. I wouldn’t say it’s a good or bad things but I do believe it will appeal to a broader audience.
Def Owl is behind this glorious event. It’s great to know that there are people out there who know about The Glitch Mob and invested in booking such a big act. It’s extremely risky to bring these guys in this hood. I hate to say it but people here need to go witness more live music. Boreta, edIT, and Ooah are truly talented musicians who pour their soul into the music and rock out hard. They’ve recently incorporated drums, keyboards, and guitars into their shows along with their Lemurs.
I promise you Miami/Fort Lauderdale you haven’t seen anything like this. Def Owl were behind bringing Pretty Lights and I was blown away by how well it was received. They’ve taken it to another level in my eyes with booking The Mob. They are doing amazing things for South Florida with their bookings. Pretty Lights, Orchard Lounge, Black Violin, and now THE GLITCH MOB!
Afro Monk
August 18th by Afro Monk 
Tags: Bluetech, Glitch Hop, James Zabiela, Stephan Jacobs, Stephan Jacobs Remix
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