Rodney is a sad young man because he's fat and ugly

Giles, Giles & Fripp - The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp - 1968

Yes, the Fripp here is, indeed, King Crimson's Robert Fripp. One of the Giles is Peter Giles, who would also be at the initial KC, and the other Giles is his brother, Michael.
This is nowhere near King Crimson, though. This feels to me, a bit, like listening to a Monty Python movie: it's weird, comical, very hard to pigeonhole into one style or genre, and completely crazy.
The album is divided into two sections: "The Saga of Rodney Toady" and "Just George", which refer to small spoken snippets between the songs, some of which are instrumental. There's some very interesting musicianship, and some of the tracks composed by Fripp somehow foretell the complexities that King Crimson would have later on, with more jazzy and classical sounds. That's mostly evident in the last tracks of the album.
Still, what surprised me the most (this is one of those albums that I can't even remember listening to ever before), was the first part of the album. It's absolutely tongue-in-cheek, the lyrics are mostly vignettes of British life, and there's something about the music that makes me think that parts of this album could have ended up being mid 90s britpop. Some of the tracks here are closer to Madness, or even Blur, than anything else you could here back then. Some others resemble a bit Syd Barrett's tracks in The Piper... , but with jazzier musicians.
For anyone who might want to venture to a fun, top quality album that's also completely off the beaten track, this is a must.

• When released, this album apparently sold a record breaking amount of .... 500 copies! It's easy to see why: not much of a commercial album.
• Poor, poor Rodney Toady!
• The cover of the album shows Robert Fripp smiling. I wasn't aware he could actually do that. 

It's some thunder in my brain

Deep Purple - Shades of Deep Purple - 1968

And just like this, we arrive at one of the first non-psychedelic, no-nonsense albums in this chronology in a while, with the debut album by one of the best bands of hard rock ever.
I have enjoyed the psychedelic madness quite a bit, but this one feels like a breath of fresh air. 

It's a strange album, though. Deep Purple clearly hadn't found their sound yet. Most likely the different musical backgrounds of the members weren't too easy to mingle right away, and as far as debut albums go, this one is not as strong as others. Part of it is the songwriting. While "And the Address" and "Mandrake Root" are heavy and brilliant, some others, like "One More Rainy Day" seem silly and out of place. "Prelude: Happiness", is brilliant, but sounds much more like early progressive rock, than hard rock. 

There's a lot of covers here, "Hush" being my favourite. I'm not all too keen on their versions of either "Help" or "Hey Joe". 

But this is a very good album, and it's fun to hear the beginnings of one of the bands I love the most.

• Both "Mandrake Root" and "And the Address" remind me a bit of some of the heavier Hendrix's tracks in Are you Experienced. Also, especially "Mandrake Root" already start showing a bit of the band's tendency to showcase the abilities of all the musicians, with a solo by Jon Lord in the middle of the song.
• The similarities of "Mandrake Root" and Hendrix are so big, that if you're in the right mood, you can actually sing "Foxy" on the starting riff.
• "Prelude: Happiness/I'm so Glad" is a two part song, the first being a medley with excerpts from Rimski-Korsakoff's Scherezade. The second part is a cover from a Delta Blues from the 1930s. The repeat the word "glad" over 90 times in the song. I'm so glad they were so glad....
• The cover of "Hey Joe" also have excerpts of classical music, this time from Manuel de Falla, which sounds a bit like a cross between Ravel's Bolero and the beginning of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". I find the instrumental part quite awesome, the rest of the song a bit on the weak side. 

Hey Marge, remember when we used to make out to this hymn?

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda - 1968

This album is mostly famous for the title track, a delirious 17 minute heavy psychedelic madness that, as legend has it, actually ended up being that long because they were too stoned to figure out how to end it. 

There's other songs there too, but the better ones are no more than good garden variety psychedelia. 

The main title, well, I actually love the song, all 17 minutes of it, although at times it is clear that they really didn't know where to go next or how to end it. The solos in the mid-section are pretty good and while it's not a song for everyday listening, it's a very well deserved classic.

• There's an organ phrase in "Most Any Thing You Want" that sounds a lot like the organ phrase in The Doors' "Light My Fire"
• I could write a lot more about the title track, but I don't think anything I can say is better than the Uncyclopedia version, which includes sections like the one in which apparently they are still recording it and the final version is expected to last 2 years, 3 months, 4 days, 8 hours, 17 minutes and 5 seconds, and be released as a 20,117 box-set CD called: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda: The Extended version. Please do yourselves a massive favour and read the whole thing here: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
• Of course, the title of this section is from The Simpsons. Of course, that's the version I am going to post here. You can always find the original in YouTube. You can also find this one, but there's always the chance some of you never saw it.