The story of the first Psytrance label: Dragonfly Records
The story of the first Psytrance label: Dragonfly Records
Dragonfly Records is the first pure Psychedelic trance records label. It was formed back in 1992 by Martin “Youth” Glover (the bassist for the band Killing Joke) in Brixton Road, South London, as part of his Butterfly Records.
The label quickly became the center of the psychedelic scene in London back in those days. Some of the most influential figures in psytrance history messed around with innumerable vintage Analogue & Digital Synthesizers at the label`s studios.
The cover of “Project 2 Trance”, the first release of the label
Martin Glover is a musical legend, and one of the most influential producers in the UK. His Butterfly Records label has produced artists such as Tom Jones, Take That and The Orb, in which he also wrote and produced. He has worked with or produced artists like Pink Floyd, U2, Paul McCartney (as The Fireman), Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, The Verve, and Ben Watkins of Juno Reactor, to mention few. After spending seasons in Goa for ten years, he founded Dragonfly Records in 1992.
The label quickly became the center of the psychedelic scene in London back in those days. Some of the most influential figures in psytrance history messed around with innumerable vintage Analogue & Digital Synthesizers at the label`s studios. Raja Ram & Graham Wood (who formed TIP – The Infinity Project few years earlier) joined the label, Simon Posford (Hallucinogen and later Shpongle), started his way as a sound engineer on Brixton Road, where he also formed Celtic Cross together with Youth and Saul Davies.
In the following years, the label released countless psytrance releases, by artists who will definitely be part of the Psytrance hall of fame. As indicated before, Raja Ram and Graham Wood first produced here as The Infinity Project. Simon Posford released his epic album “Twisted” on Dragonfly. This album featured the classic track “LSD” featuring a voice sample from acid guru Ken Kesey. The label`s first releases featured compilation with Total Eclipse and Mandragora and EP releases by Man With No Name, Doof, Prana (Tsuyoshi Suzuki).
DragonFly Records released some psytrance milestones. Albums like “Hallucinogen – Twisted”, “Doof – Let’s Turn On”, “Oforia – Delirious” and epic tracks like “Teleport” by Man With No Name, “The Muses Rapt – Spiritual Healing” and “Aliens” by Total Eclipse, were all released in the label and considered classics to these day.
Youth, 6th from left, in Goa, 1992.
We arranged for you a playlist gathering some of the best tunes from the never-ending discography of the label, including some fundamental psytrance tunes. Do not miss it!