Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

The owner of the mom and pop record shop on the island told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had to hand over the full payment of $10 if I wanted to try out this record on his turntable. I took a chance and bought it without bothering to hear it, and excitedly brought the US-pressed LP home with the shrink-wrapping still intact.

Boy, this changed my life! Okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but this album was indeed one of the constant thrill-givers of my teenage years. Leo and Ajaya got into it as well, especially 'Toccata', the group's explosive, positively mind-blowing adaptation of the fourth movement of Alberto Ginastera's first piano concerto, which had us dazed and delirious every time we heard it.