ASTRAL JOURNEYS

The re-re-reconstituted Message, after much deliberation, finally arrived with their sixth album. Female vocalist Anna Haigis was gone (the only recorded evidence of her even being in the band was the early, extended version of "World Keeps On Turning" from the BRAIN FESTIVAL II double LP) replaced by Sammy Kunig. I'd say this particular album was a rather hard rock/prog in the style of Eloy or Jane. Lacking a full-time keyboardist, bassist Reiner Nagel doubles on keys, including lots of Hawkwind-style freakout synth stuff on the absurd "Feeling So High" and the dark and histrionic "All In A Dream".

The album's prog epic is the textural, almost meditative "This Life Is Short", complete with philosophical lyrics. The album's actually fairly diverse sounding, exploring also funk-jazz on "Places", folk-rock on "City of Fright" and philosophical piano balladry on "I Feel Glad". The latter is practically a'cappella, with piano backing played by Nektar's Allan Freeman.

Not the band's high point, and too inconsistent to be of real interest to any but a handful of collectors. Nonetheless, it's not bad.