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Originally known as The Prophets, with a singer called Judy Bradbury, this band were originally from Wellsley, Massachusetts but based themselves in Boston. Clearly, a hippie as opposed to a punk band, their album is a fine one, with their sound moulded by Conny Devanney's crystal clear vocals. On tracks like Dark World her voice is beautiful, while on others, notably the widely recorded High Flying Bird, Hung Up Chick and Walkin' And Singin', it blends in beautifully with that of her male counterpart, Richard Griggs. Also of note is the unusual People Of The Night and the sleepy Full Cycle. This album is strongly recommended if you ever come across it. The band split up in December 1968, and Carey Mann went on to play with Dirty John's Hot Dog Stand. 

The original LP had an incorrect song order listed on the back cover. The second song on Side One was wrongly listed as Sleep rather than People Of The Night. Similary Sleep was wrongly listed as People Of The Night. The bonus tracks on the Afterglow and Akarma reissues are from demos for the album and these too miscredit the demo version of People Of The Night as Sleep. The majority of original copies of the album were also subject to a mastering fault on High Flying Bird, which also appears on both the 'counterfeit' and the 'legit' reissues. 

Flashes does indeed have more flashes of potential than many of the countless other one-shot psychedelic albums of the late '60s, but this Boston group's sole effort is quite erratic, and not graced with much good material. The best points in their favor are the bracing vocals of Connie DeVanney, whether she's singing alone or blending with male voices in a manner reminiscent of (and probably highly influenced by) early Jefferson Airplane. But despite the presence of Tom Wilson at the production reins, the production often sounds underdeveloped, and the songs frequently meander in a derivative twilight between folk-rock and psychedelia. There are some fair driving folk-rockers in the 1967 Airplane style here, like "People of the Night" (with a lengthy Eastern-style psychedelic guitar break), "Hung-Up Chick," and "High Flying Bird," the last of them a folk song covered by numerous rockers in the last half of the 1960s, not least Jefferson Airplane themselves. "Dark World" is haunting folk-rock-psychedelia, and the best solo showcase for DeVanney's voice, while "Sleep" has some almost gothic male-female vocal interaction. But the album also has some overlong blues-rock noodling and psychedelic droning, mediocre good-time jug band-influenced stuff, and self-consciously heavy social commentary. 

Connie DeVanney Vocals  
Ken Frankel Banjo, Guitar  
Richard Griggs Guitar, Vocals  
David Kinsman Drums  
Carey Mann Guitar (Bass), Vocals  

 

01 - Walkin' and Singin' - 3.14
02 - People of the Night - 7.46
03 - Little Man - 4.32
04 - Dark World - 3.47
05 - L.A.P.D - 5.07
06 - People of the Night (Bonus) - 2.34
07 - High Flying Bird - 4.59
08 - Hung Up Chick - 5.56
09 - Sleep - 2.38
10 - Full Cycle - 6.14
11 - You're All I See Now (Bonus) - 2.22
12 - Ill Wind (Bonus) - 2.53