Get to Know Freakbeat

Freakbeat is a term used to describe a style of rock 'n' roll in vogue in the late sixties in England.

The term was coined in the 1980s by music journalist Phil Smee. Initially used by collectors but now relatively widespread, it refers to the obscure English rock bands that appeared around 1966 at the crossroads between the declining British beat (mersey, mod, r-b) and the nascent psychedelic music. The groups described as freakbeat have a sound marked by the influences of their English elders such as the Kinks, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and especially The Who, to which they add the sound experiments offered by the studios such as: feedback, echoes, phaser, and fuzztones, in particular. The result is a more brutal and less polished music than that proposed by the majority of British beat bands. However it is difficult to define a real typical profile of the freakbeat formation, it is more of a disparate set of groups animated with a certain savagery whether it is oriented towards the play of instruments or the use of the possibilities of the studios.

The most important bands commonly associated with freakbeat: The Sorrows, The Birds, The Smoke, The Creation, The Unions, The Primitives, The Attack, The Pretty Things, The Flies, The Syn, The Majority, The Poets, The Timebox, The Human Instinct, The Seeds, The Score, The Small Faces, The Beatstalkers, and New Breed.

If you are looking for new avenues to explore and expand your musical range you may want to try freakbeat.

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