FROM BOOKS AND DREAMS

Message was founded by bass player Horst Stachelhaus in Germany in 1968. He was joined by two British musicians, Allan Murdoch (guitar) and Tommy McGuigan (vocals, sax). On this album, From Books And Dreams, Gunther Klinger plays the drums. Musically they come close to the sound of Nektar on their first two albums (Journey to the Centre of the Eye and Tab in the Ocean). It is mainly heavy rock, with both progressive and psychedelic touches.

The album opens with the spacey Sleep!, which sounds dark and sinister. The next track is the first part of Dreams and Nightmares. It is a rather mediocre hardrock track with long jam parts. Turn Over is more laidback with nice sax playing. The end of the song however is ruined by the (probably meant funny) voice that repeats "Turn over" while hearing a crack in the vinyl. Next one, Sigh, is again a rather mediocre hard rock track. The only track that makes this album somewhat interesting is the second part of Dreams and Nightmares. It is still the heavy rock that is heard on the whole of the album, but the instrumental parts are more adventurous.

If you like early seventies heavy rock with a progressive or psychedelic sound to it, this is probably not your cup of tea. Better albums were made, like the first two of Nektar, or Virus - Burning Candle (1971) or Gomorrha - I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was (1972).