Freakbeat

Freakbeat is a rock music genre that peaked approximately between 1966 and 1967. The term was invented in the 1980s by the music journalist Phil Smee, to retroactively describe a music style that has been described as a missing link between the early to mid-1960s mod R&B scene and the psychedelic rock and progressive rock genres that emerged in the late-1960s with bands such as Pink Floyd. Freakbeat music was typically created by four-piece bands experimenting with studio production techniques. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as: fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or phasing on the vocal or drum tracks. Often used almost synonymously with garage rock, the term is usually applied to music originating in the UK . Early albums by The Who and The Kinks supplied the blueprints for freakbeat bands that followed, such as The Creation, The Sorrows and The Move.