Elastic Rock is Nucleus' first album. Recorded in January 1970, it was a pioneering work in emerging genre of jazz-rock 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.