Records with a wonderful story behind their
release usually turn out to be highly satisfying and ‘BFI’
by ‘The Dragons’ is no exception. Obsessive record
collector Strictly Kev aka DJ Food weeds out a 500 run private
pressing of a surf movie entitled ‘A Sea For Yourself”
and finds the track ‘Food for my Soul’ from an 70’s
psychedelic band on it. Utilising his extensive network of contacts
he tracks down a member and asks permission to use the track on
a mix. This leads to the revelation of a whole unreleased album
by the band and upon consecutive listens, Ninja Tune decide to
release ‘BFI’ 37 years later.
The Dragons are 3 brothers who lived, surfed and gigged around
the Malibu area of LA in the late sixties. After finishing BFI
in 1970 they were met by scepticism by major labels who ‘weren’t
ready for it’. This hidden 11 track gem is a true psychedelic
soul/rock gem which contains all of the stylistic characteristics
of the care-free era but these are wrapped in a slightly left
field and experimental soundscape which utilises space age sounds,
ambitious layering techniques and a multi-dimensional vocal style
which pre-dates contemporary vocal fashion. Just check out ‘Pop’s
Bag’, a strong summery track containing vocals which eerily
sound like Badly Drawn Boy.
With ‘Bfi’, the Dragon brothers showcase an expert
ability to carve delicious male and female vocal harmonies, which
although not as catchy as their more pop-orientated counterparts,
nevertheless delve deep into the late 60’s west coast ideology
and exude class. Just check out ‘Sandman’ or ‘Are
You There?’ which implement a successful formula of busy
percussion, heavily processed and deftly crafted 'hazy summer
sun' guitar melodies, deep layering techniques and sublime vocals.
Furthermore, the album showcases some seriously funky and well
arranged grooves which switch intermittently in order to stop
proceedings from becoming too formulaic, and in addition to this
listeners are treated to stretched instrumental passages in the
place of formulaic choruses and treated to some ultra tight and
sharply produced drumwork (just check out the freaked out mechanised
drum solo on ‘Sunset Scenery’ which precedes ‘This
Heat’s’ innovative ’24 track loop’ track
by several years). One of the strongest tracks on the album is
‘Amplified Emotion’ which effectively utilises a dark
and meandering organ melody which provides the foundation for
spaced out guitar manipulations, twinkly effects and lush harmonious
vocal delivery.
The album inevitably contains a small number of insipid tracks
which tend to pass the listener by, however they won’t have
you clambering for the remote control. Surprisingly the track,
‘Food for my Soul’ (the track which DJ Food first
heard and which was the catalyst for the release of the album)
isn’t the strongest track on the album by a long shot due
to it for-going the psychedelica elements in favour of a funkier
aesthetic which comes across as a tad ‘lite and airy’.
I can understand why this record may have had difficulty in being
released back in 1970 as it wasn’t conformist or catchy
enough to seduce big labels yet it wasn’t experimental or
freaked out enough to be released on innovative independents.
Even though BFI found itself in this position, it satisfyingly
isn’t a diluted, image over substance slice of psychedelica.
Indeed it is a expertly crafted slice of the true 60’s sound
and features fantastic arrangement and instrumentation, especially
in regards to percussion. Ultimately, ‘BFI’ succeeds
in transporting you straight to the golden-era and successfully
invokes images of hazy, sun-drenched beaches (RM).
For fans of: David Axelrod, Beach Boys, Andy Votel reissues
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