UKGH Return to Silver Bullet this September...

Silver Bullet was the venue for our hugely successful UKGH Best of 2014 Awards night at the start of the summer.

September 11th will see the return of residents William Breakspear, K.L.O. (Kursa, Lonedrum & Osmetic), Your Niece, Terrorbyte and Raptus for an end of summer, post festival knees up!

Flyer and more info coming soon!

Silver Bullet Website

You only have a few more days to make your vote count this May - in the Best of 2014 UK Glitch Hop Awards!  

Then join us in London on Friday 8 May to find out who's won, as we celebrate three official years of glitching. Good times guaranteed, whatever the outcome of the day before...

Vote for Glitch Hop!

There's just 1 week left to vote for your favourite tunes, remixes, artists and releases of 2014. Make your voice count this May and VOTE HERE!

Awards Party @ Silver Bullet, London, 8th May 2015

Join special guests WBBL, K.L.O. + UK Glitch Hop residents for our birthday day knees up. FREE B4 11PM, £3 AFTER!  GIG INFO

UKGH Radio Archives

Hey UK Glitch Hoppers!  Been a minute since our last blog post, but there's plenty going on over at UK Glitch Hop HQ… more news coming soon about our new club night for London, the new format for our Glitch.FM radio shows and releases & gigs from your favourite UK Glitch Hop labels.

Our radio archives are available on Soundcloud, and now Mixcloud too!  Over the last 2 years we have smashed out over 110 shows.  Whether from the Morbidly Obese Midget, Colony Productions, Skanky Panky Records, Wonk#ay Records, Beta Test, Mouldy Soul, Your Niece or a whole host of other guest DJs the shows have always been full of killer jams and info about your favourite genre.

You can listen again to most of the shows on Soundcloud, and we try to keep this playlist updated with all the latest shows!  Most of them can be downloaded too!


Due to popular demand, our latest shows are now also available on Mixcloud by clicking the image below…

Don't forget you can listen LIVE to UK Glitch Hop on www.glitch.fm every Wednesday night from 10pm - midnight UK time of course!  Big ups!

Review: The Glitch Mob / Opiuo / Your Niece @ The Forum, Kentish Town, London, 30 May 2014

Mike Wabro (glitchrate) reports on The Glitch Mob's Love Death Immortality Tour from a sweat-soaked Forum. Opiuo and our kid Your Niece in support.

We arrive at The Forum just in time to catch the end of Your Niece’s first opening set of the night. It seemed like he had set a great tone for the night’s events.

London goes mad for Opiuo

Kiwi glitch-hop don, Opiuo was next to hit the stage and was greeted with a huge reception from the crowd. Boasting a new live setup replete with laptop, controller, mixer, fresh drum-pad & his big orange drum-sticks, he began knocking out the beats live over his set - moving swiftly into, and mixing seamlessly between, some of the new corkers like 'Clumpy Cider', 'Snorkle' and 'Misty Digit' from his latest album, Meraki. His staple crowd favourite remixes of Koan Sound and Ray Charles got the, now nearly full, dance-floor vibing, bums shaking to his infectious stage energy. As ever, he kept his set diverse and fun - effortlessly spanning between tempos and styles - yet always with that trademark, cheeky, super funked-up Opiuo sound we have grown to love so much. After a set filled with more funky fun than you can shake a glitchy stick at, the whole place was buzzing with anticipation of The Glitch Mob.

Mike & Donna during Opiuo’s set

Your Niece got his second sneaky 15 minute set of the night on after that, whilst the stage was set for the mighty Mob, starting with Boards Of Canada’s 'Dayvan Cowboy'. The dancefloor started cramming fuller than a sardine can. As I was pressed hard against the front side wall of the live mixing desk area, I realized then that the dancefloor had not actually been full at all until that point. I wondered again why they chose The Forum over Electric at Brixton- as they did on their last tour. Crowd dispersion, sound system, & room acoustics all seemed to suffer somewhat at The Forum.

The lights dimmed. That sudden feeling of being at a massive rock gig- crowd screaming with all hands in the air as Ooah, Boreta & ediT walked onto the stage. As the stunning lazer light show began, the mysterious cover was drawn away, to reveal the massive silhouettes of their awesome new drums- looking like an HR Geiger inspired fusion of a jumbo jet engine and a Kyoto Drum. Each of them had the same setup in front of them, with the massive drum behind them, another electronic kit below that, & a pillar in front with 4 ipad-like screens in each, angled down facing towards the crowd- on which they played most of the riffs live, in divided colour quadrants that lighted up each time they did.

The energy was immense as they began pounding their drums with explosive visuals to the tune of the epic, ‘Drive Like You Stole It’, from their previous album, 'Drink The Sea'. Surrounded by such a diversely eclectic array of people, made for an electrically inclusive atmosphere. Their grueling schedule of almost a show in a different country every alternate day, had clearly done nothing to hamper their energetic spirit and passion for their sound, and the love for their fans.

I must confess that by that stage, the rounds of beer & shots in-between in celebration of my extended birthday, had started taking effect as the specifics of which track was which, became somewhat blurred- especially since they were mixing tracks into one another. All the epic bangers: the old & a lot of the new off their latest seminal album, ‘Love Death Immortality’. I was fully enveloped in their performance. I remembered the contrast of seeing them in their very early days on their first ever UK visit in 2008- in the very shanty surroundings of the Rhythm Factory. That was like sitting on a couch in someone’s over-sized living room, watching a bunch of guys having fun mixing tunes up all-over each other on one controller. This, in contrast, was like an extremely tight and flawless extravaganza of sound and visual orgasm! The Glitch Mob are undeniably a powerful force now, entirely unique with their own take on that infamous big West Coast Lazer Crunk Metal sound- yet always relevant & nodding to the current sound.

twitter.com/theglitchmob

After their last song, it did not take long for them to be screamed back on stage for an encore, dropping one of my favourites, 'We Can Make The World Stop' - which seemed like a climax for the crowd- with extra high crowd jumping & fist pumping action. They ended with the new rework of 'West Coast Rocks' - to huge standing applause and Glitch Mob finger signs. They seemed so happy, taking a moment to take a bunch of selfies against the backdrop of the crowd, while Boreta took to the mic & confessed how much it meant to them to have so much love & appreciation from the UK crowd- as all their influences came from UK.

facebook.com/theglitchmob

This was my third time watching The Glitch Mob preform over the years; and they certainly didn’t disappoint. I had to buy a T-shirt this time- purely on the basis that my T-shirt was utterly sweat-drenched.

Mike & Lizzy after the show

To round things up, Your Niece took back to the decks, keeping the remaining crowd moving to some fresh ghetto bassy trap and dubstep. A brilliant night all-round.

By Mike Wabro (glitchrate) for UK Glitch Hop

UK Glitch Hop takeover at Noisly

We're super-stoked to be playing the main stage at Noisily Festival this summer - just check out this line-up!

Let's reclaim the glory of Glade 2012!!

HEADLINERS ANNOUNCED!

Noisily Stage

Max Cooper / Slam / Gaudi
Phaxe / Symphonix / Far Too Loud
Neurodriver / Joe Ford / Solid Snake
Skope / Nanoplex / Atomic Drop
Kursa / Pena / Krymes / Vent
Hamish / Disprove / Your Niece / True Lies
Tongue & Groove / Teho / William Breakspear
Morbidly Obese Midget / Audley / Ans / Bedouin
Freefall Collective / Jasper / James Harely / Fuzzy logic
Aliji / Llamaleaf / Geo / Rupes

Liquid Stage

Tristan / Masterblasters / EVP / Ott.
Avalon / Scorb / Sonic Species / Lucas
Antispin / Hedflux / Psymmetrix / Slackbaba
Beardy / Shane Gobi / Hypnocoustics / Neuroplasm
Bad Tango / OOOD / Brainiac / Dala / Killerwatts
Liquid Ross / Lifeforms / Alex Story / Future Frequencies
Re-Creation / pHibian / Nigel Shiva Valley / Nimbus / Ben Coda
Monk3ylogic / Sacha / Sinerider / Chameleon / Ipcress
Nick Interchill / Wicki / Eden Sessions / Miley Psyrus
Morph / Lurk / Broken Eye / Outerloperz
Niquid / Wobbly Squadron / Miles

The Tree House Stage

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (DJ Set)
Session Victim / Greg Wilson / 2562/A Made Up Sound
Real Nice / Groove Assassin / Panda / Low Steppa
Magnier / Seascape / Dave Maslen / Eliphino
Sean McCabe / Croz / Kenny Keys
Benedict Jackson / House of Disco Djs / Daffadam
Nick Duffy / Lizzle

Set deep in the rolling hills of Leicestershire at the heart of rural England, Noisily Festival of Electronic Music and Arts lies in one of the most beautiful wooded valleys in the country. Totally contained amongst the trees creating a safe haven where hedonism and escapism can flourish and thrive, Noisily Festival 2014 will play host to some of the most exciting musical talent from the UK and abroad, along with a plethora of performance, innovative installations and mind bending visual arts.

You can expect to hear an extremely diverse collection of music; ranging from Electro, Glitch and Breaks, through House and Disco, via the Noisily mainstay of Progressive Techno, to the considerably beefed up Psychedelic line up with the traditional Psychedelic Sunday now including Friday and Saturday as well.

2014 sees the expansion of the site and arrival of the infamous Liquid Stage; after a decade at the sorely missed Glade Festival, Liquid Records has found a new spiritual home amongst the kindred spirits and like-minded ravers in sunny Leicestershire.

Across 3 main areas and a smattering of nano stages; below vast ceilings of woodland décor pulsing to the sound of kicking basslines, shredded in two by laser beams and shards of light; amongst the sound of laughter and a sea of smiles, boredom will be a word soon forgotten.

Super Early Birds sold out / Limited 1st tier available here >> http://noisilyfestival.com/tickets
Official Video from 2013 >> http://goo.gl/4v7By1 

http://noisilyfestival.com/
http://www.facebook.com/noisilyfestival
https://twitter.com/NoisilyFestival

UK Glitch Hop Guide to Boomtown

Boomtown Fair is the place to be this summer. Here's our guide to the glitch. We'll fill in set times as we get them, let us know what we're missing!

Itchy & Skratchy DJs

Thursday  8.30-9.30pm - Spaceport

Friday 9-10.30pm - Leisure Centre

Friday  9-10.30pm - Alan's Happy Ending [Chinatown] 12-1

Sunday 6-8pm - Boombox 

Sunday  11-12 - ASBO Disco

Riddim Fruit Takeover

Friday- the Boombox stage (times tba)

 Cut La Vis B2B Dropsteady Freddy 6-8pm
Dance Off 8-9.30pm
The Allergies 9.30-10.30pm
Dephicit B2B Hidden Riddim 10.30-midnight
Jayglo & Mr 50 (Live) midnight - 2am

Reso
Friday 12 midnight - Circo Baile

Wolfie Razzmatazz

Friday 12midnight – Espectaulo Esqueleto

Saturday 11pm – The Ballroom

Sunday 8pm – Madame Electrifie’s

Tryptich
Friday night/Saturday morning 1-2am - Dissocia
Saturday night 10-11pm - Alan's Happy Ending in Chinatown
Saturday night/Sunday morning 5-6am - Silent Disco @ Chai Wallahs
(Breaks & Techno set b2b with Mise)
Sunday afternoon 5-6.30 -Spaceport terminal 2

 YOUR NIECE

 Friday night 1.30-3am - BANK

Koan Sound

Sat eve - Circo Baile

Krossbow Time

Saturday 10.30-11.30pm (tbc)  - the Boombox stage 

Dephicit (with live saxophonist)

Sunday night 6pm - Spaceport

Kursa

Sunday 10pm - Spaceport

Wonk#ay Records Takeover featuring Bunkle / Duskky / WattKnot / Koian & Get Matsui
Sunday 8-11pm - Alan's Happy Ending Cinema (in Chinatown)

Culprate feat. Maskim

Time TBC - The Boombox stage

Freq Nasty

Time tbc - Arcadia

Glitch.FM #66 - YOUR NIECE - A - Z Of UK Glitch-Hop

Kendrick Lamar - M.A.A.D. City (EPROM Remix)
K Theory - Watch Me Kill It
Wascal - Scooped Out (Harkey Remix)
Pantyraid - Realism is for Girls

UK GLITCH-HOP A-Z
Akira Kiteshi - Iron Man
Beat3 - Connected Remix
Culprate - Talk to Frank (feat. Maksim)
Duskky - Gambo
Earegular - Counterpoint
Foreign Beggars - Contact
Ghost Mutt - Platinum Skull
Hudson Mohawke - Thunder Bay
Inaudible - OGShitzu
Jazzsteppa - Baby, Don't Leave Me
Kursa - Dead Leaves
Lockah - Tonki Fongrs
Mouldy Soul - Pling Pong
Nimbus - Chimaera (Kursa Remix)
Olmec - Maximum Juju
PropaTingz - Back to Business
Qemists - Dem Na Like Me (King Cannibal Remix)
Reso - When It Drop
Shamanic Technology - Neuro Wolf
Tipper - Puzzle Dust
u-ziq - Autumn Acid
Vent - Smack (feat. Crush)
William Breakspear - Every Filter v2
XKore - Magnum
Your Niece - Bow Down Remix
Zen Death Squad - Where the Whales Sleep

1st Birthday Party & Awards photos @ Juno, London, Friday 15 February

UK Glitch Hop Award

Standard&Push - Best Remix

Orangudan

Tryptich picks up Best Night for Whomp

Itchy & Skratchy - Best DJs 

Lone Drum / Lumo

William Breakspear + Morbildy Obese Midget

Terrorbyte + Automaton LIVE

William Breakspear

Your Niece

Skanky Panky Represent

Yes!

UK Glitch Hop 1st Birthday Tour!!! London - 15 February / Bristol - 1 March / Liverpool - 2 March

Crack out the whomp sauce! The UK Glitch Hop road show is coming to a town near you!!

 London - Friday 15 February @ Juno, 134-135 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JE

Automaton & Terrorbyte *LIVE DEBUT*
William Breakspear (Shortlisted Best DJ)
Your Niece (Shortlisted Best DJ)
Morbidly Obese Midget
Lumo / Lone Drum

UK GLITCH HOP AWARDS
Orangudan
DOORS: 7PM - 2AM 

FREE ENTRY / DONATION
DRESS CODE: DIGITAL BLING

http://www.facebook.com/events/159938417488182/166402716841752

Bristol - Friday 1 March @ Warren at The Croft,
117 - 119 Stokes Croft, BS1 3RW

Mouldy Soul (adapted records)
Automaton & Terrorbyte LIVE (beta test records)
Skanky Panky Allstars (William Breakspear vs SixAM)
Morbidly Obese Midget (UK Glitch Hop)
Your Niece (glitch.fm)
RetroBait Dj's (Bambi Legs) 

DOORS: 10PM - LATE

FREE ENTRY

http://www.facebook.com/events/588355871193731

 

Liverpool - Saturday 2 March @ Haus, 35-39 Greenland Street L1 0BS

Mouldy Soul (Adapted Records / Colony Productions)
Your Niece (Uppercut)

William Breakspear (Skanky Panky)

SixAM  (Skanky Panky)

Automaton & Terrorbyte LIVE (Beta Test Records)

Morbidly Obese Midget (UK Glitch Hop)

DOORS: 10PM - 4AM 

£5 PRE-SALE/£7 ON THE DOOR
www.nightowlliverpool.com/ukgh
http://www.facebook.com/events/598602716821328/

Glitch.fm #50 - Your Niece, 10PM-12AM GMT Wednesday 13 February

Your Niece is back from outta space with a strip hop style and the kinda dutty tunes you wanna make love to! 


Tune into Glitch.fm from 10pm-12am tonight to warm up for our 1st Birthday and Awards Party at Juno, Shoreditch, London, on Friday 15 February, where you can catch your long lost brother's daughter with the rest of the UK Glitch Hop fam from 7pm-2am ALL FOR FREE!

Your Niece is also playing the Alantines Speakeasy at Brixton Jamm on Saturday 16 February with JFB, Savage Henry and Lunatix, 10pm-6am £8 Advance, £10 OTD

UK Glitch Hop 1st Birthday Party + Awards shortlists revealed! FREE PARTY Friday 15th February @ Juno, London

It's time to reveal the shortlists for the first ever UK Glitch Hop Awards! The winners will be revealed during out 1st Birthday Party at Juno, on Shoreditch High Street, London on Friday 15th February.

From 7pm-2am you'll be treated to sets from Glitch.fm resident DJs William Breakspear, Morbidly Obese Midget, Mike Wallis and Your Niece, plus a special live set from Terrorbyte & Automaton from Beta Test Records. The man behind the UK Glitch Hop logo will open with a down tempo glitch set to ease you into the weekend, so it's well worth arriving early. We'll also have free stickers and CDs to dish out.

Having considered every possible approach, we've decided to throw this as a FREE PARTY for our community, the producers, DJs, listeners and promoters who have put UK Glitch Hop, neuro-hop, drumstep, whomp, mid-tempo breaks and omni-tempo bass music on the map over the last year. We hope you can make it!

UK GLITCH HOP 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY

Automaton & Terrorbyte *LIVE DEBUT*
Glitch.fm / Beta Test
https://soundcloud.com/beta-birmingham

William Breakspear (Shortlisted Best DJ)
Glitch.fm / Skanky Panky Records (Shortlisted Best Label)
https://soundcloud.com/william-breakspear

Your Niece (Shortlisted Best DJ)
Glitch.fm / Uppercut (Shortlisted Best Night)
http://soundcloud.com/your-niece

Morbidly Obese Midget
Glitch.fm / UK Glitch Hop
http://soundcloud.com/musicalmana

Lone Drum
Colony Productions
http://soundcloud.com/colony-productions

Orangudan
/ RAWK music
http://soundcloud.com/orangudan

FREE ENTRY / £5 SUGGESTED DONATION*
DRESS CODE: DIGITAL BLING
https//www.facebook.com/events/159938417488182/

The awards announcement will be made around 8pm. You can see the top three nominations from each category below, in no particular order. Massive respect to all shortlisted artists and crews. You rocked our 2012! Thank you to all 2,000 people who voted across the UK and international polls.

UK Glitch Hop Awards shortlists

Best Track (UK)

Culprate & Maksim - Nightmares in Reality

Koan Sound - Sly Fox

Tipper – Spunion

Best Track (International)

Opiuo - Fizz Tickler

Habstrack - Get Funky

Mr Bill - Cerebellum Serenade

Best Remix (UK)

Blunt Instrument - The Pocket (Krossbow remix)

Ill.Esha - Blazed (Standard & Push remix)

Mustard Tiger - Spell On (Mouldy Soul remix)

Best Remix (international)

Infected Mushroom - UR So Fucked (Opiuo remix)

K+Lab - Need To Know (Blunt Instrument Remix)

Ill.gates, Opiuo + Vent - Trillogy (Spoonbill remix)

Best EP (UK)

Culprate - Nightmares in Reality

Koan Sound - The Adventures of Mr Fox

Tipper - Puzzle Dust

Best EP (international)

He.Robust - Screw Loose

Ill.esha - Imaginary Friends

Opiuo - Butternut Slap Vol.1

Best Album (UK)

Reso - Tangram

Two Fingers - Stunt Rhythms

William Breakspear - Bardcore

Best Album (international)

Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes

Griz - Mad Liberation

Mr.Bill - Focus

Best Producer (UK)

Culprate

Koan Sound

Tipper

Best Producer (International)

Amon Tobin / Two Fingers

ill-esha

Opiou

Best newcomer (UK)

Dephicit

Kursa

Shamanic Technology

Best Newcomer (International)

JoBot

kLL sMTH

Teknian

Best Glitch Hop Label (UK)

Inspected Records

Ninja Tune / Big Dada

Skanky Panky Records

Best Label (International)

Addictech

Adapted Records

OWSLA

Best live act (UK)

Culprate & Maksim

Koan Sound

Mouldy Soul

Best international live act to play UK

Amon Tobin

Opiuo

Pretty Lights

Best DJ (UK)

Itchy & Scratchy DJs

William Breakspear

Your Niece

Best Night (UK)

Badger's Nuts

Uppercut

Whomp

*If you like what we're doing, please support us by chipping in to cover the cost of running the night, producing the awards, stickers and giving you Soundcloud downloads of all our shows. We've shelled out a few hundred squids between us so far and all monies received will go towards making UK Glitch Hop even more badass. Suggested donation £5

LoveFilth Presents ShoreGlitch: The return of Your Niece / Beat3 / Sweet Jesus / Dyson / LE3D, 3 February

Filth has it's second outing at Vibe Bar on Friday 3 February to hail the return of Your Niece. He spent the second half of last year swanning around the West Coast so we can't wait to see what kinda low down an' dutty crunk he's got in that record bag! 

Also on the bill are Beat3 bringing the triple talent in their first live London show in a while, alongside Uppercut's Sweet Jesus and Filth regulars Dyson and LE3D. All that and only a fiver, there's no excuse not to get your ass down.

YOUR NIECE (Meteor stage, Glade, Z-Shed)
(Nominated best DJ in UK Glitch Hop 2012 awards)

BEAT3 (Badgers Nutz, SGP)
(Nominated best remix, best track and best live act 2012 in the UK Glitch Hop awards 2012)

SWEET JESUS (Uppercut, Vibez)

DYSON (Boomtown, Zoola, Filthy3Some)

LE3D (LoveFilth resident) 

Hosted By
SKOLA X & RIZLABLU (Filthy3Some)

6pm - 1am
Vibe Bar
91-95 Brick Lane
E1 6QL
www.vibe-bar.co.uk
Free b4 8/ £5 after


https://www.facebook.com/events/460100140716557/?ref=22

Crash-site report: The Meteor @ Glade Festival 2012 Review

Morbidly Obese Midget reports back from the smoking crater...

 

  

When I arrive at Glade Festival on Friday morning, The Meteor is already the talk of the festival. I hear tales of a smoke-filled pit, strafing lazers, blinding strobes and leg-quaking levels of bass. The Thursday night Jump Music showcase was apparently off-the-scale. "I couldn't take it" one of the organisers tells me. "I was completely sober, but it felt like I was high just being there". Sounds promising.

The Meteor is a new feature for Glade Festival 2012 - a DJ booth styled like a flying saucer, built into the side of a hollow, above a wood-paneled dance floor stuffed with bass woofers. It's been built by the team behind of one London's most recent bass music nights, Uppercut, who have been developing their idea from an area called The Drop at The Secret Garden Party in 2011.

Launched in 2004 as an annual outing for the UKs alternative dance music tribes, Glade itself has been on a journey in the last few years, hitting a rough patch after losing its original site in Aldermaston due to council noise restrictions, then taking a year out after one crazy outing at Matterly Bowl. It was rescued by a partnership with Secret Productions, the team behind the UK's most successful festival of recent years. Their mission is to bring the fun back to the festival. They have certainly succeeded this time, on a new site Houghton Hall near St Ives in Norfolk for the second year running.

In a month which has seen flooding around the country, with heavy rain going into the weekend it looked like the festival might become the kind of mud bath that saw punters wading for 20 minutes through waist high waters to reach the Aldermaston site in 2007. The estate team were well prepared though, adding fresh hardcore to access roads which had already been well laid out.

Logistics aside, the success of the weekend lies in the diversity of fun on offer. The music programming is top notch, with Glade favourites such as the Origin, Overkill and Liquid Records alongside Secret Garden Party favorites like the Dance-Off, traditional fairground rides and a new woodland area. There is an evident commitment to aesthetically pleasing stage design and build, combining the creativity of Boom with the ambition of Burning Man as seen in new stages The Pyromid and The Meteor. It was the latter, built by resident Secret Garden Party DJ Andy Ellis or Head of State his Uppercut crew, that really raised the bar though, giving the broad church of glitch hop it's first dedicated showcase at a UK Festival.

But what is 'glitch hop'? My first port of call is nu skool breaks pioneer FreQ Nasty, who's now living in LA and very much involved in the West Coast bass music scene, opening the Glade stage on Friday afternoon.

"I'm really excited by the new stuff coming out of the States, because it doesn't sound like anything else. They've matured their own sound, which started out of the UK in the late '90s and early 2000s and evolved into something else. You could say that the granddaddies of the glitch hop and acid crunk scene are Si Begg and Dave Tipper; but now it's it's own animal, different from it's roots. It's a distinctly West Coast sound, including some artists from Colorado, making stuff that has that Bay Area kinda vibe, that acid crunk kinda feel, that classic west coast hip hop kinda feel, with the influence of the wobble of dubstep; but it's not all whomp. It's got wobble in there, but it's secondary to the vibe. It's as much about the melody and atmosphere as it is about the bass and beats. That's good because it's difficult to get more whompy than stuffs gotten right now. I love that heavy whomp stuff, but I think at some point it becomes more interesting, when everyone is doing that, to shift gears and change into something else. And that's what a lot of these cats have done."

I tell Darren about UK Glitch Hop and The Meteor, so we head into the woods to go in search. 

Following the sounds of mid-tempo bass we descend into a woody glade, sun filtering through, down steps cut into the side. With the smoke from the night before cleared, we see a flying saucer in the bank opposite us, piloted by Skanky Panky Records co-founder William Breakspear who is bombing the bouncing bodies on the wooden dancefloor below with tracks from his debut album, Bardcore. Soulful vocalist Georgina Upton and Liverpool's MC SAS complete the live PA. Like Freq Nasty and many others who have pioneered glitch hop worldwide, as his name suggests Breakspear started out making and playing breaks. It's easy to see the progression that he's followed in the dubwise opening of his set and the party vibe style.

Breakspear is followed by followed by Italian IDM producer and one time Londoner, Memory9, who flits from minimal dubby glitch and downtempo crunk right up to incredible footwork edits of jungle classics. By the time Skanky Panky's other bossman, SixAM, takes the decks, the wooden dancefloor is heaving. A blistering hour of glitch bangers ensues, featuring tracks by producers hailing from San Francisco to Melbourne. His own tune 'Bad Mother' and a massive remix of 'Octopus Lover' by South Africa's Sedge Warbler are definite highlights.

Next on the bill are a live production trio from London, Zen Death Squad, whose triumvirate line up draws instant comparisons with US glitch hop superstars The Glitch Mob, although their music ("we call it lazer crunk metal") couldn't be more diverse. Off the back of their debut EP, Cyber Dojo Lazer Training, they toured to the US West Coast last autumn . So how did it feel to play back in the UK? "It's amazing to come to stage like The Meteor where that whole sound is dominating" says Adam, one of the two ZDS members able to make it to Glade, "You walk in and Mochipet's playing and it's like: I didn't even realise other people listened to that here!" "Yeah, it's like home away from home" chips in fellow ZDS head Mark.

Friday evening on The Meteor is another label takeover, this time from Colony Productions, perhaps the longest running glitch hop label in the UK. Established in 2000 by Mike Wallis and Dave Tipper, it was initially just an output for their Crunch material. At the time, Dave was better known for his drum and bass or breaks productions, while Crunch was developed under the IDM umbrella. Exploring a space between the dancefloor and the chill out room, they made a track way back in 2002 called 'Bit Hop'. "We only recently heard the term; but I like the sound of Glitch Hop" Mike told me recently. When Dave Tipper decided to defect stateside, Sam Ashwell a longtime friend of Mike and Dave's got more involved with running the label as they expanded their roster. Sam, incidentally, is one half of the internationally successful renowned duo VENT and also collaborates with Mike as Abstrakt Knights. 

The Colony showcase is opened by Colony Dj's Mike Wallis and Ben Parker aka Lone Drum who warm up the gathering crowd before a live set by one of the UK's rising stars, Mouldy Soul (aka. Richard Carrigan). 

"Someone came up to me today and told me 'I was looking for future music, and then I found you'," Richard tell me later on. The analogy isn't a bad one - like the pioneering electro hip-hop of the 1980s, this is a sound that revels in lazer beam samples and robotic imagery.

His crisply produced, melodic, mid-tempo bass wobble (or in his own words "wiggling wangling lines of awesomeness") topped the glitch hop charts on Beatport and Addictech for months after his first releases in autumn 2011. 

 

As darkness descends, space ship DJ booth really takes off with some spectacular lighting. The dancefloor bounces energetically to beats by another emerging act, Krossbow, a duo from London who have released through both Colony Productions and US label Simplify Recordings. The pair really ramp up the energy, with dancefloor friendly 110bpm tracks, A.Skillz classics and Limp Bizkit remixes sending the crowd nuts.

Playing as VENT, label boss Sam Ashwell, takes that energy and runs with it, keeping the crowd hooked throughout his set of mostly new material that peaks with the swing-style singalong of Lunatics. Talking to Sam and Mike afterwards, it became apparent quite how significant this moment was. 

"It was definitely in my top five gigs, and I've been DJing for 15 years" said Sam. He takes a moment. "that was almost like a watershed moment for glitch hop in this country. It's not really a big genre in the UK. You know it's huge in Australia and it's huge on the west coast of America especially, but that was a crowd not knowing the tunes... just raving hard. I don't think I've seen that in this country before. It was a huge buzz. I don't think I've ever played a whole hour of glitch hop in this country; a least not while people were still dancing at the end of it. That wasn't a step up, that was an Olympic jump. That was a different scenario to what I'm used to."

Next to take the intergalactic controls is 21 year old bass wizard Culprate. Over the last year or so Culprate  has been one of the most popular acts to begin steering the UK dubstep scene towards a mid-tempo cross-genre bass music evolution. He's joined by Maksim, an MC who over the last 9 months has been rapidly staking his claim to mid-tempo funkstep territory. Rusko is reportedly in the audience, who collectively go berserk.

Another big act to have achieved this crossover in the last year, Koan Sound were billed to play on The Meteor too, but perhaps understandably declined a Glade appearance on the offer of a transatlantic tour. This can only mean good things as they take the sound to new audiences through Skrillex's OSWLA label, alongside the Foreign Beggars.

Glasgow's Akira Kiteshi, treads a similar path, and his affinity for lazer noises and refusal to be restricted to any one tempo has seen him attract much attention both here and in the US. Dramatic shifts and slides between tracks betray his roots as a hip hop DJ, as he hammers out remixes, established classics and tracks from his latest album Industrial Avenue, accompanied by a scratch turntablist.  By this time, the flyer saucer is reaching new dimensions with some mind-blowing 3D animations being projection-mapped on the surface. Problems with the system balance at the start of the set don't phase the dancers. 

"The crowd didn't seem to mind" he tells me afterwards in his good-natured Glaswegian drawl, "they were just properly up for a good dance and a good party. To be honest,I think that was one of the best places we've played in quite a long time. We drove from way up North, down here, for ten hours driving and basically straight on stage, and you know it was just such a great vibe. Wicked atmosphere, an amazing stage and Glade's just a great festival anyway, so it was a privilege to actually play it." 

He was equally excited to be playing alongside VENT and Culprate for the first time. "The thing about the glitch hop scene is that it's like a family, because it's not grown as big as dubstep at the moment. Everyone's aware of everyone, so it is very friendly and it is a great vibe. And the music's good as well."

Kiteshi is followed by US bass music star Ben Samples, who's been ploughing his own sub-frequency furrow in the wake of pioneers such as Bassnectar. One of the headliners on The Meteor, Samples is carrying the flag for the West Coast scene. "I think my DJ sets are a good entry point to glitch hop" he tells me "I play a lot of remixes of well known tunes so it gives the crowd something to recognise and creates a real party vibe. That's what I'm really about, party music". Coming from the US where the style already seems to have matured, I ask him if he feels like the party's already over, just as it looks like it might finally take off in the UK. "Well, I played more of a glitch hop set here than I usually do. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, there's more to do as a DJ! Back home I'm actually playing stuff that sounds more like house music. It's all beginning to blend like that. I just make music you know?"

The final set we see is Uppercut resident Your Niece, dropping low end tunes that nod toward swaggering ganster rap and the US roots of crunk - a kind of slowed-down, bass-heavy hip-hop that evolved from Miami Bass and became popular in the US around the same time as dubstep was taking shape in the UK. It's current evolution, trap seems to be that latest flavour du jour.

FreQ Nasty again: "At the moment it feels a little bit like dubstep was in America when it came out of the UK. I used to play dubstep to people in the States and they'd just stand and look at me. 'What are you doing? Shit's so slow!' But kids into hip hop started getting it first because they already had chopped and screwed stuff and the crunk that was getting so low it was starting to getting down to 70bpm. I noticed when I was playing at the Glade stage, there, that when I veered into glitch hop I could see people just going 'Where's the huge drop, the big whomp?' And I understand that... but I still played a  bunch of glitch hop because I wanted people to hear it and to be able to think back next time they hear it and go 'Oh yeah! I remember hearing that stuff. Ok, cool. I'm a little more open to it than I was before.' Probably in three or four years time they'll be going 'Oh I'm right into glitch hop. Glitch hop's awesome. I was into that stuff years ago' but actually the were just standing there staring at me."

The excitement around The Meteor can be gauged by the fact that FreQ Nasty delays his flight out of the country in order to play an unscheduled guest set to a packed woodland on the Saturday night. Leaning heavily towards the swaggering, popping, glitch hop end of his bass arsenal, the level of effort he puts into playing and the enjoyment he gets out of are evident. "Bare headz were there for the mid tempo sound. Mad system too," he tweets afterwards.

*Review by Morbidly Obese Midget*