Psydub

Psydub or Ambient Dub is a fusiongenre of electronic music that has its roots in Psychedelic Trance, Ambient- and Dub music.^[1][2] Incorporated dub elements are melodic basslines, deep reggae roots and producing techniques like dynamically adding extensive echo, reverb, panoramic delay, and occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works. An incorporated ambient element is an emphasis on tone and atmosphere. Incorporated psytrance elements are low-bass frequencies and hypnotic melodies^[3] and the use of samples. Those samples mostly contain references to drugs, parapsychology, extraterrestrial life, existentialism, OBEs, dreams, science, time travel, spirituality and similar mysterious and unconventional topics. Psydub is also highly influenced by Music of India.

History

The pioneers of the genre were mostly interested in the combination between Ambient music and Dub. The Orb can be seen as one of the first producers to combine the two genres.^[4][5][6] Several tracks on their first album "The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld", released in 1991,^[7] already sound a lot like contemporary Psydub. Psydub developed further by the influence of Psytrance. Psytrance producers have always had a keen interest in all kinds of music and a few of them have produced tracks that have big Dub influences.^[8] Most notably is "Vapour Rumours", released in 1996 and produced by the band Shpongle,^[9] consisting of Simon Posford a.k.a. Hallucinogen and Raja Ram who were one of the first to produce psybient music.^[10] A good example of the combination between psytrance and dub is the album "In Dub", a collection of Hallucinogen tracks remixed by the record producer Ott, which was released in October 2002.^[11][12][13]

Notable artists

References