MESSAGE (Germany)
Synapse (1976)
Tracks:
01. Fred The Head
02. Chessman
03. Destruction
04. To Live Again
05. Volcanos Under The Sun
06. Triangle
07. The Sailor And The Flyer
08. The Pharaoh's Leg
Line-Up:
Tom McGuigan - vocals, woodwinds, synthesizers
Allan Murdoch - guitar
Horst Stachelhaus - bass
Manfred Von Bohr - drums, percussion
With:
Tony Greaves / woodwinds
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Using The Head (1977)
Tracks:
01. Crash On Frisco Freeway
02. Someone Like You
03. Determination
04. Walking On A Rainbow
05. The Butcher's Daughter
06. Train
07. She's Gone
08. Wizard
Line-Up:
Helmut Fichtner - keyboards
Allan Murdoch - guitar
Tommy Wahl - drums, percussion
Emil Wirth - bass
With:
Wolfgang Ahlers - trombone
Gabi Borowski - vocals
Lawrence Elam - tuba
Angelika Hanschen - vocals
David Hanselmann - vocals
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Astral Journeys (1978)
Tracks:
01. Feeling so high (4:03)
02. Places (5:03)
03. City of fright (4;30)
04. All in a dream (6:43)
05. Soldiers (3;42)
06. Life is short (7:04)
07. World keeps on turning (4:59)
08. I feel glad (4:07)
Line-Up:
Allan Freeman - synthesizers, vocals
Sammy Kunig - vocals, saxophone, percussion
Allan Murdoch - guitar
Reiner Nagel - bass, keyboards
Peter Schmidt - drums, percussion
With:
Herb Geller - saxophone
Fritz Groger - guitar, percussion
Manfred Kneil - vibraphone
Jeanette MacLeod - vocals
Ute Nagel - vocals
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Miles of Smiles(1980)
Tracks:
01. Key Weather
02. Hover Over To Dover
03. Forever
04. Lord david Of The Green
05. The Rope
06. The Dog That Bit Me
07. I'm On My Way
08. Iron Butterfly
09. Even Tomorrow
Line-Up:
Sammy Kunig - lead vocals
Allan Murdoch - guitars
Fritz Gröger - guitars
Reiner Nagel - Hammond organ
Peter Schmidt - drums
Thomas Tscheschner - bass guitar
Originally born as a German-British band, the music of MESSAGE oscillates between a substantial heavy rock and a nice folk rock articulated around a range of keyboards arrangements. Their first album was recorded under the direction of the famous musical engineer Dieter Dierks. The result sounds remarkably as British progressive rock of the moment. Very melodic, with a ravishing and an accomplished lyrical sense of composition. Their following album is as great as the previous one, delivering impressive, extended, mainly instrumental heavy/ space rock tracks which can be compared (in some parts) to NEKTAR’s first effort. Their two last albums released in 1975/76 were directed to more mainstream, conventional and easy listening heavy rock music
Very accessible records, sometimes including jazzy ingredients, the band abandoned their complex, sophisticated and original progressive rock. In search of a commercial response, they finally failed to convince the public.
