Dragonwyck - Fun (1974) (2008)

This previously unreleased album from 1974 rounds off the World In Sound trilogy of Cleveland´s most celebrated 70s “art-psychedelic” rock groups. It´s Dragonwyck´s most professional piece of music and truly decent pioneering in combining 60s psych compositions with tape looping (comparable to the “Dark Side of The Moon” album) and symphonic elements: “Fun is what the name implies; hard work, a lot of sweat. Orchestrated rock that is orchestrated without an orchestra”. Sure they were inspired by the conceptions of giants, like Genesis, 70s Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant or Yes and express a few Doors / Bowie-flashes to sound finally as a unique collage of detailed studiowork.

Compared to the time when it was recorded it´s innovatively produced and became a great artistic statement with finally 10 original cuts (plus 2 bonustracks/8 p. colorbooklet). You´ll hear prog-psych and crazy symphonic perversions with weird vocals/voices, powerful guitars, violin and lots of keyboards. While the first album (WIS-1023) was minimalistic dark/heavy and strong Doors influenced, the second (WIS-1030) created more “British Invasion”-sounds a la Moody Blues or King Crimson, to make this third album the most variative and unexpected one…….

This album from Dragonwyck (also released for the first time) is a sort of rock’n roll star progressive rock opera, a bit lighter than usual, in fact a strange combination of lightness and seriousness, with ambitious parts too. The result more sounds like a more progressive Queen, like inspired by Curved air (violin and keyboards on track 4), mixed with some light and glamerous rock or hard rock band like Meatloaf. They say it is “orchestrated rock without an orchestra”. The theme is “fun”. This includes a cynical way of presence, almost in the direction of serious cabaret but while in that way coming to the edge of seriousness, even cynically meant, it hangs a bit dangerously on the edge of areas of bad tastes, without being spoiled by it yet, but without bringing me fun. It is more a bit confusing. Is this progressive of something lighter or does it make it also a bit the other way around ?

The bonus tracks were recorded two years later, when they changed their name into Flying Turns. This is a more serious but grotesk-operatic cabaret-stage rock version of their previous project, with a calmer more dominating keyboard based background.