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Elastic Rock

1970 studio album by Nucleus

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
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Source updated May 20, 2026
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Encyclopedia of Popular Music
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

Elastic Rock is Nucleus' first album. Recorded in January 1970, it was a pioneering work in the emerging genre of jazz-fusion. Bandleader Ian Carr (later a jazz journalist and published expert on Miles Davis) was probably inspired by Davis' "going electric" in 1969, but the seminal Bitches Brew had not yet been released at the time Elastic Rock was recorded, and according to Carr, they hadn't even heard Davis' less rock-influenced 1969 electric release, In a Silent Way.

In July 1970 the group presented compositions from the LP at the Montreux Jazz Festival, winning the first prize. They subsequently performed both at Newport Jazz Festival and at the Village Gate jazz club.

01Track listing

All tracks composed by Karl Jenkins; except where indicated

  1. "1916", 1:11
  2. "Elastic Rock", 4:05
  3. "Striation", 2:15 (Jeff Clyne, Chris Spedding)
  4. "Taranaki", 1:39 (Brian Smith)
  5. "Twisted Track", 5:17 (Chris Spedding)
  6. "Crude Blues, Part I", 0:54 (Karl Jenkins, Ian Carr)
  7. "Crude Blues, Part II", 2:36 (Ian Carr)
  8. "1916: The Battle of Boogaloo", 3:07
  9. "Torrid Zone", 8:41
  10. "Stonescape", 2:39
  11. "Earth Mother", 5:15 (Karl Jenkins, Ian Carr, John Marshall, Jeff Clyne, Chris Spedding)
  12. "Speaking for Myself, Personally, in My Own Opinion, I Think...", 0:54 (John Marshall)
  13. "Persephones Jive", 2:15 (Ian Carr)

02Personnel

Nucleus
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Elastic Rock”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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