Glitch Hop | Virtual Instruments Magazine

At first blush, gangsta rappers and computer geeks would hardly seem like folks you'd see hanging out with each other down at the club. But Glitch Hop has indeed become an active subgenre of Glitch (which itself is a subgenre of IDM), with recognized artists such as Matmos and Prefuse 73.

Rather than the cool minimalism of IDM or Glitch, this Glitch Hop sample collection produced by David Delaski overwhelms the senses with a combination of the crunching, head-nodding, lo-fi hip-hop beats overlaid the washes of power electronics. On the lower tempo songs, the results sound quaaludeinduced; as things speed up, the nihilistic flavor of industrial music seeps in. Several of the last few (higher "tempo") sets dispense with the drum track all together, leaving you in a sea of analog static and malfunctioning digital devices.

This library follows what has become the standard Big Fish layout. The $99.95 DVD contains WAV, Apple Loop-style AIFF, and REX2 versions of the sounds. The 16-bit 44.1kHz AIFF version weighs in at 1.14 gig; the 1.69 gig WAV version is preserved using 24-bit quality-a nice feature for studio-pure samples, but overkill for thses heavily-compressed lo-fi noisefests. Big Fish's license is pretty standard with no credit required; they use the disturbing language that by using their libraries your are creating a "derivative work" but in practce they give you full rights to craft your own songs without worrying about paying them royalties.

There are 34 song construction kits ranging from 75 to 110 bpm in 5 bpm increments. Most have their keys listed; some are atonal. Each kit contains a long demo track plus individual loops fo numerous synth layers as well as drum and occasional bass tracks. In addition to a full mix drum loop, you also get component loops such as kick, hi-hat, clap, and FX or snare. A hand full of one-shot hits is also usually provided in each kit, adding up to a total of 458 loops and hits. One thing I like about Big Fish is that they tend to provide longer loops, with 4 to 16 bars beeing the norm. That helps offset the lack of alternatives or variation loops provided.