Jun 23, 2025

How VHS Glitch Brought the Apocalypse to the Dancefloor (and Made It Look Cool)

Let’s get one thing straight: If you’ve ever fantasized about fighting cyborgs in a neon-lit alleyway while a bass-heavy synth track plays in the background, there’s a decent chance VHS Glitch was already scoring that scene in your brain. The Spanish producer and visual artist has been crafting dark, glitchy, cinematic soundscapes since 2014, and he’s done it with the flair of a 1980s hacker villain who just broke into the Pentagon... for fun.

But let’s rewind a bit (pun intended). VHS Glitch isn’t just making music — he’s creating entire VHS-drenched universes where every sound feels like a corrupted memory from a future that never happened. And somehow, through all the static, the warbles, and the shadowy beats, he’s making you want to dance. Or drive into the night. Or both.

Who is VHS Glitch?

Originating from Spain, VHS Glitch is the solo project of an anonymous artist who seems to have crawled straight out of a dusty horror film reel. Since 2014, he’s been building a reputation as one of the more shadowy figures in the cyber-/dark-synthwave scene, combining pulsing retro-futuristic beats with a flair for the dramatic.

Think John Carpenter meets Blade Runner meets a corrupt Sega Genesis cartridge. That’s pretty much the vibe.

Heavily inspired by 80s horror and sci-fi films, VHS Glitch channels analog nightmares into high-octane synth anthems. His music has that warped VHS feel — distorted, gritty, just on the edge of breaking down — but with the polish of someone who clearly knows his sound design.

He’s not just pressing buttons and hoping for the best — every track feels engineered for impact. And not just sonically — visually too. The guy designs all his own album art and graphics. Yeah, that’s right. He’s the full cyberpunk package: music producer by day, graphic designer by night (or maybe vice versa — it's always darkwave o'clock in his world).

The Music: From Evil Tech to Night Hunts

Since his debut album Evil Technology in 2014, VHS Glitch has built a discography that reads like a menu of forbidden experiments and cinematic destruction. We’re talking titles like:

Halloween Strangers (2015)
Moral Decay (2016)
ROBOROR (2017)
They Made Me An Animal (2018)
Night Hunt (2019)
CNTRL, Sides, CARVED (2020)

The sound? Think deep synth basslines, distorted arpeggios, and glitchy textures that feel like they’ve been run through a dying VHS tape. He doesn’t do “clean” — he does “gritty,” “twisted,” and “cinematic with a dose of doom.” Each track feels like it could soundtrack a forgotten 80s action flick or a modern indie horror game. (Speaking of which — he’s also contributed to games like Demons With Shotguns and Chrome Death, so he’s literally scoring cyberpunk carnage.)

And in between all that? Singles like “Digital Rebirth” (2014), “Doctor D” (2018), and “The Journey” (2021) show that VHS Glitch doesn’t sleep. He warps.

Honestly, he should come with a warning label: “May cause spontaneous night drives and inexplicable urges to wear sunglasses indoors.”

Gunship Remix Royalty

Here’s where it gets even cooler: In 2019, VHS Glitch entered — and won — Gunship’s remix contest for “Drone Racing League.” For the uninitiated, Gunship is synthwave royalty, and winning their remix competition is kind of like being knighted with a neon sword. His version took the already-electrified track and injected it with even more dystopian juice. He didn’t just remix it — he rebuilt it in his own haunted laboratory.

It was like Dr. Frankenstein got a MIDI controller.

This win helped cement his place among synthwave's elite, proving that even when stepping into someone else’s sonic world, VHS Glitch leaves his fingerprints all over the place — probably smudged with static and VHS grime.

Why He Stands Out

Let’s break it down:

Aesthetic commitment: Everything from his album covers to his Instagram posts is drenched in retro-futurist style. This isn’t a gimmick — it’s a philosophy.
DIY attitude: Music, visuals, branding — he does it all. If you’ve ever struggled with Canva, you should know this guy is building cyber-dystopias from scratch.
Consistent output: Over a dozen albums and EPs in just a decade? That’s more productive than your favorite Netflix show. (Yeah, I said it.)
No-nonsense vibe: VHS Glitch isn’t trying to be a popstar. He’s trying to make your nightmares danceable.

Honestly, it’s refreshing to see an artist who doesn’t pander or chase trends. He’s built his niche, and he's not budging from it. If anything, he’s adding more fog machines and synth layers to it.

The Look Matches the Sound

Let’s be real: Listening to VHS Glitch almost requires a wardrobe update. You can’t blast They Made Me An Animal while wearing beige khakis. It’s just not spiritually aligned.

That’s where we come in. At Newretro.net, we live for this vibe — the leather jackets that scream “cyber vigilante,” the retro VHS sneakers that look like they walked off the set of a lost 80s arcade game, and sunglasses made for moonlit rooftop chases. If you’re vibing with VHS Glitch, chances are our gear is already your future look. Just saying.

(Also, who doesn’t want to look like they just stepped out of a synth-driven noir anime?)

By now, you might be wondering: Does this guy ever slow down?

Spoiler: He doesn’t.

In 2024 and 2025 alone, he dropped three new EPs (Tales from Rebellion, Alt Freqs, and Wish You Were Here), proving he’s still pushing boundaries — still warping frequencies, and still refusing to go mainstream.

But we're not done yet. Not even close.

So, you’ve made it this far down the rabbit hole — congrats. You’re probably already queuing up CNTRL or ROBOROR on Bandcamp, your pupils dilated to pixel-sized pinholes as you imagine yourself in a synth-drenched dreamscape. And good. That means the Glitch is working.

But we’ve only scratched the surface. VHS Glitch isn’t just some retro-obsessed synth nerd who loves horror movies and old tapes (though, honestly, same). He’s evolving — and his music is getting darker, weirder, and dare we say… smarter?

Let’s break down his recent work and see just how deep this glitch in the system really goes.

The Recent Releases: A Glimpse into Tomorrow's Nightmares

After a brutal, bass-heavy streak of albums through 2020, you’d think maybe VHS Glitch would take a breather. Sip a sangria. Touch some grass. Wrong. In 2024 and 2025, he came back swinging with three EPs that feel like they were forged in a dystopian circuit board:

Tales From Rebellion (2024)
This one plays like an underground radio transmission from the last rebel outpost. It’s raw, aggressive, and dripping with urgency. It doesn’t just soundtrack a rebellion — it is the rebellion.
Alt Freqs (2025)
Here, he leans even further into the experimental side. Glitchy textures, distorted samples, and synths that sound like they’ve been filtered through a haunted modem. It’s a vibe. One that says, “You are not ready.”
Wish You Were Here (2025)
The surprise here is how emotional this one gets. Still dark, still VHS-tinted, but there’s a melancholy undercurrent. It’s a rare softer side of VHS Glitch — like if a Terminator suddenly got the feels.

These EPs aren’t just filler between albums. They’re signals — updates from the frontlines of the synthwave underground. They show that VHS Glitch is still innovating, still bending the genre to his will. He’s not afraid to mutate the formula — and that’s why fans keep coming back.

Beyond the Music: A One-Man Cyberpunk Studio

We’ve mentioned it, but it bears repeating: VHS Glitch is also a graphic designer and illustrator. He creates all his own cover art, visuals, and branding — and it shows. His aesthetic is unified, distinct, and immediately recognizable. Just look at one of his album covers and you know it’s a VHS Glitch joint. It’s that perfect blend of:

VHS static overlays
Deep, shadowy neon
Geometric horror
Glowing typography that says, “Yes, this might be cursed media, thanks for asking.”

This kind of cohesive branding isn’t common. It’s what sets artists like him apart — and honestly, it’s something we at Newretro.Net respect deeply. That obsession with detail, that relentless commitment to the retro-futuristic vibe? It’s the same energy we pour into every stitch of our retro denim jackets, every pair of VHS Sneakers, and those Terminator-worthy shades. You’re not just listening to a style — you’re living in it.

Glitch in the System: Why He’s a Genre Outlier

Dark synthwave isn’t new. There are dozens of artists who play in the shadows of retro sounds — but VHS Glitch hits different. Here’s why:

He’s not nostalgic — he’s destructive.
A lot of synthwave glorifies the 80s with rose-tinted Tron-glasses. Not VHS Glitch. He drags the aesthetic into a cyberpunk horror world and lets it rot in the static.
The VHS angle is more than branding.
The degraded, warbly sound isn’t just for kicks — it’s part of the experience. It makes you feel like you’ve uncovered forbidden footage. His music doesn’t remember the past — it reconstructs it like a memory gone wrong.
He builds worlds, not just tracks.
Every album, every release feels like a portal into a different dystopia. Some are apocalyptic, some are otherworldly, all of them feel strangely… alive.
He doesn’t cater.
There are no TikTok baits here. No pop-friendly features. VHS Glitch isn’t interested in chasing trends — he is the trend, for those deep enough in the scene to find him.

Synthwave’s Future: Is Glitch Leading the Pack?

As the synthwave scene grows — evolving from niche online fandom into a full-blown global aesthetic — artists like VHS Glitch are steering the genre into darker, more experimental territories. The neon is still there, but now it flickers. The beats still pulse, but they’re unstable. The future isn’t clean. It’s corrupted.

If Gunship and The Midnight are the accessible faces of synthwave, VHS Glitch is the hacker in the basement, writing his own rules in binary and blowing up the grid.

His influence isn’t measured by streams — it’s measured in inspiration. Just scroll through the artwork of up-and-coming producers or the background visuals of indie cyberpunk games. You’ll see his DNA everywhere.

And that’s what makes him essential.

So, what now? You’ve been introduced. You’ve (hopefully) added him to your playlist. Maybe you’re even wearing your Newretro leather jacket while listening to Demoniac in your headphones, imagining yourself in a slow-mo standoff in a rain-soaked alley. (If not, we can help you fix that. Just saying.)

But VHS Glitch’s story isn’t over — not even close.

As 2025 rolls on, his presence on platforms like Instagram keeps teasing more to come. New visuals, new sounds, new EPs that might just melt your face off with analog distortion. He doesn’t say much. He doesn’t need to. The music is the message — and the message is: Glitch is permanent.

And if the end of the world ever needs a soundtrack?
We already know who’s scoring it.