Psybass & Glitch-Hop

Psybass

Psychedelic Bass, or psybass, is a deep strain of electronic bass music that developed in the 2010s, primarily within the American transformational-festival scene. It sits in a deliberately awkward tempo range of roughly 80 to 120 beats per minute and is characterised by cavernous sub-bass, broken & shuffling rhythms, chopped, granulated & reassembled textures while often threading global instrumentation through modular synthesis for a psychedelic and otherworldly feel. It is the product of the collision of the weight and bass of English dubstep when it arrived in the mid-2000s and met the West Coast American psychedelic tradition that has run from the 1960s counterculture through rave culture to Burning Man. British producer Tipper is its central reference point, and the artist-run, Shanti Planti collective its central home. Built for sound systems in outdoor settings rather than the club; it remains closely tied to its sister style, Glitch-Hop.

Glitch-Hop

Glitch-Hop is an electronic genre that emerged in the mid-2000s, combining the tempo and rhythmic feel of hip-hop, typically around 110 beats per minute, with the fractured textures of glitch music. Glitch is where digital artifacts such as skips, distortion and granular fragments are used deliberately as musical material. It is characterised by intricate, stuttering, heavily syncopated sound-design built from chopped and rearranged samples over a strong low end. Precise editing creates its own aesthetic. It drew on instrumental hip-hop, IDM and glitch, and was codified as a conscious genre by Tipper, whose 2005 album Tip Hop became its template. Glitch-Hop sits alongside Psybass as a sister style, sharing personnel, audiences and the festival circuit, though it keeps a funkier, more head-nodding hip-hop feel than its slower, more psychedelic cousin.