THE 5000 SPIRITS OR THE LAYERS OF THE ONION

After the departure of their co-founder Clive Palmer, the String Band reconfigured with the creative duo of Heron and Williamson as their core. This second album finds them plunging deeper into psychedelia than before, with extensive use of the sort of Indian instruments and pastiched borrowings from Indian music that the Beatles had popularised at the time. However, they had not "gone electric" the way Dylan had - nor were they veering down a sunshine pop path in the manner of Donovan (though closing song Way Back In the 1960s is a spot-on parody of Donovan's style).

A resolutely psychedelic folk album, with a strong emphasis on both halves of that equation, The 5000 Spirits contends with The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - a lighter and more whimsical take on similar territory - for the title of the Incredible String Band's best album. I am slightly inclined to give the trophy to 5000 Spirits, but it's a close-run thing.