"Mourning Phase" (UK Acid-Folk 1971)

Virtually nothing is known about Mourning Phase, who put out an extremely rare, privately pressed, self-titled British folk-rock LP in 1971. From the sound of things, they were a male-female duo, recording for the most part with just one electric guitar and one acoustic guitar. Though many would find the record under-produced, it's a well-written and exceptionally haunting album, built around strong minor folky melodies, the pair's close harmony vocals, and lyrics that are unusually piercing and combative in their stormy, romantic fencing matches. It was reissued on CD in the mid-1990s, though in such a limited quantity that even the reissue quickly became hard to obtain. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Psychedelic & Acid Folk Music:
Comments of Greyhound Records : This is the "cd reissue of 'supposed' 'test pressing' from '71. cover alludes to contributions from sandy denny & eric clapton! combines electric & acoustic instrumentation with male & female vocals."
According to Rockinworld this is an "Issue of another fascinating UK acoustic & electric acid folk acetate of original songs. Tired of smiling upsidedown indeed!"

Kissing Spell:
"The Mourning Phase demo-LP was discovered in 1992 and later sold for a 4-figure sum to a 'collector'. It appeared to be a test pressing, dated 1971, with a hand-made cover. Lyrically interesting, the densely layered acoustic/electric music seems merely to serve as a vehicle for the love/hate relationship of, speculatively, the male and female vocalists. Cynical, misanthropic, (with and occasional cello), and a cover based on an impressionist painting. Mourning Phase is surely the archetypal home-made art-student LP"

Another review:
I have a vinyl reissue put out by Steve Smith in 1991. I think he was the original Kissing Spell owner. Anyway, there's very little info. No names/instrumentation, etc on this vinyl release. It's a man, a woman, and acoustic guitars, though. As I recall, there was some scepticism back in the early 90s that this was actually a 'lost' recording from 1971, due to the lack of info. The back cover places it from Summer 1971. It rates highly and rightly so, because the songs are well written, well performed, and goes from somewhat dreamy through to aggressive. Well, as aggressive as an acoustic guitar can get, anyway.Here's the flowery blurb off the lyric sheet:
"Mourning Phase is the lament of two star cross'd lovers, committed to vinyl during a short stay in Eden during July, maybe August, the summer of 1971...Only one copy of their record has survived, complete with a rather beautiful sleeve hand-drawn in coloured pencils by the Girl, thrown to the four winds during the winter of their discontent, the time of Mourning Phase's parting..For deeper insight into this sorrowful tale, listeners are advised to contemplate these lyric-sheets, wherein lines of revealing ambiguity await, manifesting the love/hate of our two protagonists. Their ambivalence toward one another may explain the occasional Freudian slip twixt singers, charmingly transcribed to vinyl for eternity...and never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo..."

*Album cover:
1. Original
2. Kissing Spell CD reissue
3. Shadocks LP reissue