Dragonfly | Portrait Of Youth

“Portrait Of Youth” taken from the LP ‘Dragonfly’ (Megaphone MS 1202) 1968

DRAGONFLY Dragonfly (Megaphone MS 1202) 11/68 | As an awed voice says right at the start of side one: “Oh, my God!” This tremendous, dynamic album sits proudly atop the heavy psych heap. Savage riffs, throaty vocals, heavy and precise drumming, badass lyrics, woozy studio effects — all are present and correct. But if that were all, it would become tedious after a few tracks.

These guys, however, also have impressively strong songs, a remarkable energy level, imaginative arrangements and cool production flourishes, including backward tapes and plentiful echo. And the guitar, the guitar! It buzzes and stings like the insect they’re named after.

It’s hard to pick highlights, but the bitter ‘Enjoy Yourself’ hits you in the gut every time, ‘I Feel It’ will get any heavy rock fan jumping, and their swinging cover of ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ is plain astounding. And was anyone else anywhere near this heavy in 1968?

Amazingly, the same band had made a pop-orientated album as The Legend earlier the same year. Sealed originals of Dragonfly come with a gold sticker on the cellophane, but as it has a unipak sleeve you’ll have to tear off the shrink if you want to play the disc. (RMJ)

Dragonfly | Portrait Of Youth

There are different hypothesis about the origins of the members of Dragonfly, so nothing can be assured 100%. From Hollywood, California, and released through record label Megaphone, their self-titled album is one of those damned works that resist being investigated. There are some people that relate the name of the producers (Tony Sepe and Marty Brooks) with the band Legend, an equally unknown group that had previously recorded another album for the same label produced by the fore mentioned couple.

It seems like there is a 7″ version of the song “Portrait Of You”. But the truth is that Dragonfly members are not really identifiable with that piece of work and B. Davis, J. Duncan, G. Jimmerfield and R. Russell appear as ghost signatures and it’s impossible to follow their track.

The first surprising thing about Dragonfly is their sound, extremely electric, a real cannon shot aimed at your ears. Their repertoire is definitely lethal, filled with psychedelic fuzzy guitars. All over the songs we can see something that could be described as an acid mutation.

There are moments when lysergic echoes are evident, but they’re perfectly connected with the british forms of the genre in its purest expression, though what’s dominant here is the rhythmic animal instinct and the atomicity of the guitar solos, always reminding Leigh Stephens but also obviously influenced by legendary guys such as Rob Russen (Negative Space) or the beast Gary Thompson, from Detroit’s Frijid Pink.

The only cover on this album is “Hootchie Koochie Man” by Willie Dixon, becoming here a High Energy shot that even the MC5 would have craved for them. “Crazy Woman”, “Enjoy Yourself”, “Portrait Of You”… are only some of the 12 barbarities included on this record that, by the way, is increasing its price on the collector market.

Recorded at I.D. Sound, Hollywood, California and Amigo Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California.