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.
Founded in 1991 by Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman in Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, England, Delerium Records was originally set up to provide the free 7" records that were given away with the Freakbeat fanzine before it evolved into a label to promote new psychedelic music.