Vangelis
The Dragon

THE REVIEW

Innovative effects, imposing mellotron, predominant electric piano, cosmic soundscapes. In this work dated 1971, there's none of that. Vangelis yes: he plays "keyboards", guitar, bass, drums, percussion plus three little helpers. It's his "Tubular Bells".
The official discography lists "L'Apocalypse des Animaux" from 1973 as his first record, but instead there's also this "The Dragon". At the time he was with Aphrodite's Child with Roussos. It is probably a half experiment considering the difficulty of listening to it in its entirety.

Side A: "The Dragon". 15-minute suite played by Turkish revolutionaries landing near the Corinth canal at night. I hope the atmosphere is understood. No change. A very heavy slab. A Parthenon brick. Have someone accompany you if you're listening alone.
Side B: "Stuffed Aubergine". The quality piece... it immediately starts with a drowsy calm but halfway through comes a nice acoustic guitar accompanying a melody like a 70s post-fear crime thriller. Music hardly relatable to Vangelis. Greek-kitsch soundtrack.
Here's "Stuffed Tomato". Hellenic apotheosis. This is psychedelic sirtaki. A Hendrix-like change insinuates itself in the middle, maintaining that typically Greek sound. Little electric piano solo. Almost frenzied and nervous rhythm. You see kaleidoscope images with Greek odalisques dancing in front of you, winking with those see-through veils. But the best is yet to come... ELP arrives to close it all. It sounds like one of their tracks.

After all this, you lift the needle, put it away, shrug your shoulders, and go to bed eating half a jar of black olives.

If Antonioni had heard it, he would have used it for Zabriskie Point. If you know Vangelis for his universal music, don't look for it. If you are curious to know what he did 35 years ago at the beginning, it's your record.

It's not bad, it's impossible.