AFFINITY (Vertigo, 1970)
Having long been a staple on the lists of collectors of funk, jazz laced prog, spaced out psych and, of course, the hardcore Spiral enthusiasts; Affinity's sole debut LP has been clocking up some serious bucks on the circuit for years ­ and it's easy to see why. Super chunky basslines, monster fuzz and fat ass organ funk are combined with a 10 minute guitar funk turned organ freak out 'All Along the Watchtower' cover, and executed with Linda Hoyle's haunting presence. The fact that it is housed in a super deluxe pastoral bleached out Terayama-esque gatefold sleeve only adds to its desirability. The cover has been designed by Vertigo's legendary in-house maestro Keef McMillan ­ the man responsible for designing the sleeves of records by Vertigo prog heavyweights such as Nirvana, Cressida and, of course, Sabbath's legendary debut.

Affinity's only other contribution to Vertigo came in the form of a top notch folk funk groover on 45, United States of Mind, and lest we forget, Linda Hoyle's heavily sought after gothic funk folk solo LP ­ also released through Vertigo and also commanding horrific fees among collectors worldwide.

It is also worth noting that Affinity was released simultaneously in the US on the Paramount label, to critical acclaim but no commercial success whatsoever. But to the delight of psych and prog collectors the world over, this US version is a lesser priced gem. LB

BLACK SABBATH (Vertigo, 1970)
Birmingham breakneck blues boy-band are named after a Boris Karloff b-movie and joined by a harmonica wielding ex-cat-burglar/future-reality-TV-doyen to arguably/accidentally invent Heavy Metal. Black Sabbath spent a whole day (!) recording tracks like 'The Wizard', 'NIB' and 'Behind the Wall Of Sleep' for UK progressive rock label Vertigo. Meanwhile the marketing department were hell-bent on turning the Sabs into the first satanic majesties of pub-rock. It wasn't until the sleeve came back from the printers' that the band found a huge inverted cross emblazoned on their debut LP. AV

NICE TO MEET MISS CHRISTINE (Birth, 1970)
Chris Harwood's debut LP for the obscure British 'Birth' Label was the only record she ever made. No singles were ever released and it was seldom heard beyond these shores - the making of a record collector's holy grail. Alongside the obscure Vashti Bunyan LP and Julie Covington's early solo LP, 'Nice to Meet Miss Christine' remains one of the most sought after English female folk records ever released. You just have to listen to her cover of CSN&Y's 'Wooden Ships' to realise why. Miss Christine's naked vocals ride a rock-solid back beat with clavinet funk and a wash of luscious strings sending you into a trance-like state. I won't put you off by mentioning the Yes connection. AV

DID YOU GIVE THE WORLD SOME LOVE TODAY, BABY? (Odeon, 1970)
On a recent trip to Aberdeen, I found myself sat in a bar at 4 in the morning identifying 101 seventies record labels emblazoned on a poster advertising an up-and-coming funk night. Cadet? Aye. MGM? Aye. Err KPM? Aye... As the whisky bottle emptied, the conversation progressed on to one of my favourite highland-games entitled "Have there ever been any decent bands in Scotland?" Of course the usual Pentangle conversation ensued, which I fondly greeted with open arms, then, over the table, a young Scottish DJ piped up with 'DORIS'. Doris? Surely he didn't mean the Swedish Doris Svensson LP? Not the Psychedelic ultra rarity with two added bigbeat dancefloor killers on each side? Not the one with the Tony-Hart-a-like "Be careful with those sharp scissors!" picture sleeve? No 45s but two mega rare cover versions by other bands???

Aye, that's the one. Little did I know that this little blighter was trying to get me on a technicality, and I took the bait - with a bet.

Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, Doris Svenska had the will and skill to be a Nordic Pet Clarke. And due to Sweden being such a mystical place, her dreams came true, and she met a mega-rich TV celeb who had the cash-money and ability to provide a handful of jazzy easy listening numbers, two big beat dancefloor killers, and one immaculate, enigmatic, but seriously and beautifully deranged tripped-out psycho-jazz lullaby that would encourage the Japs to reissue this LP in 30 years time. The recordings took place, the producer Húkan Sterner was ready, the session band were geared up, Doris was on fire - all we need now is a bloke to do some off-kilter close harmonies and BVs...

Eight foot tall Francis Cowan moved to Sweden from Scotland as a cellist. He was asked to come and play cello on a freaked-out pop album by up and coming songbird Doris Svenska. He also supplied backing vocals on one track. Under no circumstances am I buying the next bottle of scotch. AV

ELEPHANT'S MEMORY (Buddah, 1969)
Psychsploitation records are a phenomenon that have left self-respecting progressive rock dealers in turmoil over recent years. When I first began collecting rare psych LPs as a teenager I swiftly learnt that a pinch of knowledge about the 'correct' LPs could get you a long way but the mention of the 'wrong' kind of LP would guarentee a curt and frosty end to an expensive phone call to the holier than thou, cockney wanker frog prince of all things prog.

For example, I soon learned that Buddah Records ("Spit... A bubblegum pop label") was a dirty word amongst the uptight psychedelic-snobs on the record fair circuit, and in hindsight all I can say is more fool them. The first mystery concerning the absolute classic debut LP by the New-York based, art authentic, cinematic, avant-garde, fuzzy sunshine pop performance jazz combo 'Elephant's Memory' is...

Why has it never received the status as the seminal milestone in psych history that it deserves? The credentials that make pop-history are unquestionable...

The two tracks that appeared in the Paul Morrisey directed segment of John Schlesinger's movie 'Midnight Cowboy' spawned a relationship with Warhol Factory regular Ultra Violet, who after filming starred in a missing Elephant's Memory movie.

The LP itself was co-penned by up and coming superstar record producer Tony Visconti who later took hold of some of David Bowie and Marc Bolan's most inspirational moments.

Funk-rock enthusiasts might appreciate the fact that members of the original line-up went on to form the band 'Grootna'. And of course this is the band that would soon, after four more schizophrenic albums, back John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the ground-breaking, art-for-arts-sake 'Approximate Infinite Universe' long player.

The other mystery is this: Who is the female singer? Inspect the freaky-deaky, body-and-face-paint gatefold sleeve and you won't find the answer, and the chick on the sleeve bares all for the camera but still gives away no secrets in the face department.

It's no mystery that Carly Simon toured with the band in their formative years when the original rhythm section were working the New York club circuit. Simon signed a major record deal when the first LP was cut to tape. The 'other singer', Michal Shapiro, "...inherited arrangements of songs that Carly Simon had already worked up with the band". Might this suggest that Simon's name was excluded from the sleeve for contractual obligations? When CS is asked in recent interviews about her first ever recording she often makes sneaky references to the band, such as " I can't remember, I have a memory like an elephant". In reference to this early period, Shapiro has also claimed that "they had just blown out the pipes of a very good singer named Martha Velez." The swamp-woman of 'fiends and angels' fame could well have contributed to the LP herself.

For the record, an official statement from the Elephant's Memory camp actually claimed that the breathtaking, angelic voice on the album's stand-out opus 'Old Man Willow' was infact recorded by Shapiro himself in a full blown, Aled Jones on mescalin falsetto vocal take from ladyboy heaven. This is the most disturbing and unrealistic solution to the riddle so far, I mean why would they put the bird with the big tits on the sleeve?

Elephant's Memory's first eponymous album (of two self-titled LPs) is a performance par excellence which sadly could not be repeated. A change of line-up and most notibly a lack of femininity saw the group take a stumbling step into hard rock blues-breaker territory and they mutated beyond recognition. Shortly after the release of 'Midnight Cowboy', Buddah repackaged half the LP with cover versions of 'Everybody's Talkin'' and 'Theme from Midnight Cowboy', the latter of which is the sole companion to this LP which manages to retain the beguiling and seductive qualities of the debut LP. A top ten single released from a later LP entitled Mongoose would keep fans of Gumbo-Funkala Dr John happy for the evening.

Nowadays, psychedelic dealers - if they've got any brains - have had to move the goal posts. The realisation that, in fact, 'any' record is fast becoming a 'Rarity' ensures that LPs on DOT, WB and, of course, Buddah have mysteriously clambered up the record price guide ladder and are lauded as missing-albums and obscurities that got away. Thanks to unblinkered 'institutions' such as Sundazed and Cherry Red, who listen with their ears as opposed to their pockets or their egos, unsung b-list psychedelic groups of the 60s are being recognised and celebrated on their own musical merits of which Elephant's Memory's spellbinding debut has many. AV

CAULDRON (Limelight, 1969)
Having just cracked the proto-punkism and mindless avant-noise = drugsploitation cheap trick equation, a young sundazed Edgar Verese enthusiast called Cork Marcheschi left his private press bad trip with his then band 'The Ethix' in search of a bona-fide musical experience in a bid to create the greatest psychedelic jazz-rock record the west coast would ever struggle to hear.

With a line up of names that should belong to a Hanna Barbera cartoon pop group, Nancy Blossom, Kim Kimsey, Larry Evans and Davey Blossom took some close-miked drums, well recorded guitars, structure, melody and a thespian-esque vocal delivery and created a purple-hazed backdrop for Corky's visionary electro-plasm, taking his squeaky box of tricks and slattering infectious electronic mud into every nook and cranny of the 50 foot skeleton.

Comparable to the likes of The Silver Apples - who used electronic gadgetry to blend hypnotic, tribal polyrhythms for mind expanded New Yorkers - the 'Hose opted for pops, bleeps, reverbs and delays to achieve a pre-synthesizer melodic accompaniment to the narrative, saccherine-sweet vocals of the doe-eyed Nancy Blossom. Imagine a sister album to CBS' United States of America's eponymous debut (but in this case an older and wiser sister who doesn't dig The Beatles, reads black books and writes to a European pen pal). If this sounds like your idea of psychedelic euphoria then maybe Cauldron IS the greatest ever psychedelic LP. However, the group would never enjoy the popularity and exposure of their would-be siblings and spent their 45 minuites of fame recreating the LP in front of a thousand stoner 'Love' fans having secured a support slot.

Signed to Limelight, they shared a label roster and recording budget with bands like Sound Of Feeling, Mecki Mark Men and Paul Bley, which potentially exposed the band to a more discerning and experimental market, hence the evident jazz influence on tracks such as 'God Bless The Child' and 'Rose' - of which the latter epitomises their highly influential sound and is peppered with references to modern art, da-daism and sex. The ten minute long mescalin-drenched opus called 'Fantasy' hears the 'Hose extended to its full capacity, while the title track 'Cauldron' gives Marcheschi's debut vinyl outing an exhausting run for its theatrical drug-money. AV

TUAREG (Philips, 1970)
Gal Costa was a leading figure of the Tropicalia movement of the late 60s, along with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes. Having started her career singing traditional bossa-nova compositions with Veloso, she re-invented herself as Brazil's first psych-rocker after a storming performance on the 'Divino Maravilhoso' (Divine, Marvellous) television show. On this, her second solo LP, known as 'Tuareg', she is backed by 'Os Brazoes', who also released their own self-titled LP. The guitar work by 'Brazoes' is mind-blowing, utilising fuzz, wah-wah and some strange brazilian-rock hybrid chords. Each song highlights Gal's adaptability, as she tackles diverse arrangements ranging from bossa-pop to tripped-out, experimental rock weirdness. The ethnic influenced sitar-groover 'Tuareg' is the most instantanious track, but each track on the LP holds its own; the funked up 'Meu Nom E Gal' - with string arrangements by Rogerio Duprat - is a beautiful but twisted pop track. All of her records from late sixties to the mid seventies are worth seeking out, especially her first solo LP, also titled 'Gal Costa', and sometimes referred to as 'Nao Identificado'. DT