Albert Hoffman was the Swiss chemist that synthesized LSD in 1938, and discovered its psychoactive effects in 1943. In 1956, the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond was the first to utilize the term “psychedelic” in a letter talking about LSD, addressed to Aldous Huxley. Timothy Leary was the man who popularized LSD, around the year 1964. Apart from other precursors, only known to a small circle of experts, the Texan band the 13th Floor Elevators were the earliest to openly and intentionally talk about “psychedelic rock”. Acid rock is a terminological variation of it, proper of Californian bands. The musical sub-genre had a true explosion in the years 1966-1967, largely parallel to the earliest electronic pop. Disco music itself, according to my sources and my opinions, can be considered as a descendant of psychedelic rock. Honestly, classic blues was the terrain on which psychedelic rock has been seeded, and that can explain the great attraction exerted by psychedelic rock on jazz, soul, and funky. The short summary of the above serves to introduce the topic of the page, which is the survival of psychedelic culture.
LSD has been a big investment for pharmaceutical industry, and the fact partly explains the notable attention of psychiatrists and psychologists towards therapeutical potentialities of the substance. As it seems, LSD may alleviate severe anxiety, and may boost the brain’s ability to form and to reorganize neural connections, including the restoration of damaged circuits, proper of addiction, depression, and schizophrenia. Moreover, scientists affirm that LSD is a tool for exploring consciousness, and for increasing human knowledge about mind functioning. How much important are the things above described nowadays? I’ve found recent articles, that consent me to say that LSD is still alive and kicking, and promises future developments.
In the matter of psychedelic rock, I remember the affinity of it to some rides of amusement parks, like roller coasters, dark rides, helter-skelters, and carousels, depending on emotional dynamics, able to evoke the mental journey of psychedelic experiences. The cited affinity has been underlined many times in psychedelic rock, and in its legacy. In effect, psychedelic rock is never dead, and has inspired almost all of new musical genres. Generally, I notice that we are in the era of the global rule of EDM, and that the vast majority of professional DJs are creating their own music, by personalizing tunes of the past. How can they do that? Everything is based on samples, and a lot of those samples is taken from classics of psychedelic rock. The genre known as “drum and bass” is a sub-genre of house music (EDM), born in the early 90’s in the UK, whose most evident feature is fast rhythms, complex and syncopated. Like everything else in the field of house/EDM, drum and bass genre is a result of the elaboration of samples. I’ve read on the web that some aficionados are searching for “psychedelic drum and bass”, and that not many answers have been given to the kind of question. Thus, I'm proposing my answer, contained in the mix of the page.
The conclusion is that psychedelic mythology is not dead, and, on the contrary, it is continually demonstrating its own resistance.
File name is “psychedelic drum and bass is real, by Max Look DJ (Feb 2026)”, about 1 hour and 24’ of drum ‘n’ bass tracks, evidently obtained from working on classics of psychedelic rock.
Fast & psych, the playlist:
Pop Art – the guru
DJ Kryst Off – rollercoaster (SashMan remix)
E-Z Rollers – rolled into 1 (Photek remix)
Law & Auder – acid jungle
Grace – not over yet (Metrix’s Dark mix)
Level 2 – purple haze
Billain & Kemal – cosmic gate
Mohican Sun – darkest hour
SyRan – helter skelter
Q Project & Myth – demonz
Bou & Spyda – magic carpet
Ed Rush & Optical – magical thinking
Ozma – world of acid
Doors – break on through (to the DnB side
Doors – L.A. woman (Voronoise DnB remix)
Meduza – piece of my heart (Dante Rose DnB remix)
Upbeats feat. Kemo – carousel
WBBL – whole lotta wob
Pendulum – blood sugar
New Order – blue Monday (RazorPoint remix)
