DRAGON

This album, their debut, is a charming and very good example of early progressive rock, dominated by organ and a slice of psychedelic pop. Having their base in New Zealand I can fully understand that they might have found trouble hitting it big, despite the fact that Dragon play seriously progressive rock with a bite. While not overly complex they do deliver a blend of hard rock stricken, psychedelically infused progressive rock of some proto-type. There is a real british tone to the music, which may or may not surprise some of you.

The organ is very present, a thing that pleases me immensely. Soundwise Ivan Thompson resembles Jon Lord in his heaviest moments. The organ is treated in a very exciting and heavy fashion, giving space to the clicks and thumps.

The opening title track starts with mellow electric piano, leading into drums and acoustic guitar and a rhythm section in the middle. Great track. "Going slow" is certainly on the poppier side but not without presenting it in a progressive stricken overcoat. "Patina" begins with organ before it all breaks loose. This is one of the best tracks, alongside "Avalanche". Heavy prog, one might say. The short "Weetbix" is sort of an intro to the majestic "Graves". The organ is thumping and led- heavy. It's like being hit, repeatedly with a hammer, before the more gentle vocals brings ease and comfort. This track is most likely my favorite, being so dominated by this thunderous organ. The centre-piece, however, ought to be the multipart epic "Avalanche". Brooding, ominous and quite scary at first it leads into yet another thumping and groovy psych-pop section, where the vocals are laced with some echo effect. Great stuff and it gets my body moving to the rhythm. Then there's the instrumental section, circa halfway into the song. The sound is so dark and menacing. The ending is amazing! I suppose this is the greatest of all the tracks on Universal radio.

While Dragon cannot claim to have climbed heights noone else have climbed or broken barriers never before broken, this is certainly a very progressive effort and a really exciting one at that. Leaning heavily towards hard rock and psych the sound is sort of crude and unsophisticated, yet thrilling and skilled. I love this album and the way it grooves, thumps, kicks and broods along. If you like early prog (say between 1969-1975) this could be right up your alley. To me it is easily four stars.

Even in their poppier moments - "Vermillion Cellars", "Greylynn Candy" and "Darkness" - they are unable to play it completely straight - Ivan Thompson never stops playing his bubbling Wakeman-esque style organ (a huge feature of "Darkness"), and some fleeting changes of metre creep in to both "Vermillion Cellars" and "Greylynn Candy" (though never in commercially-unsettling places). However, the lyrics of "Vermillion Cellars' make clear the future intentions of the Hunter Brothers - 'if you don't play what the people want, well son, you're out the door'

By contrast "La Gash Lagoon", "Sunburst" and the title track are in full-blown symphonic prog territory, led again by Thompson's keyboards. "La Gash Lagoon" is a tasteless title for a song about streetworkers, but the music is winning, approaching Yes territory. "Sunburst" (my personal favourite) boasts a soaring vocal melody, great interplay between Beggars Opera-style organ, jangling guitar, and a rhythm section deliberately muddying the waters (is it 6/8 or 3/4?). The title track resembles Genesis in various places, with it's mix of electric and acoustic interludes, although it's clear from his delivery that Marc Hunter isn't taking the song seriously (he would later dismiss both their New Zealand albums as 'concept albums with no concept').

Definitely the better of the two Vertigo albums, even with the flagged move into poppier territory. Hence 4 stars, although it's probably more a 3.5. After this they had a radical lineup change (only the Hunter Brothers were still in the band a year later), moved to Australia, and adopted a much more radio-friendly sound, gaining them a string of hits. I haven't heard any of their later albums and am not in a huge hurry to collect any of them.

The star of the show is keyboard player Ivan Thompson, whose neoclassical style gives interest to even the least progressive material. Todd Hunter's wandering bass style is also a major factor. The weakest link would be guitarist Ray Goodwin - there are few guitar solos, even fewer that are memorable. Marc Hunter's personality does not yet come through very strongly on this album, except on "Going Slow" where he seems to be almost daring the listener to hate him.

The standout track is "Patina", the most symphonic track, reminiscent of those bands mentioned just above (with a trace of early Camel as well), with a lengthy, complex layered arrangement with multiple changes of pace. "Graves" is also a highlight The weirdest track is undoubtedly "Weetbix" - what the hell were those lyrics?