Messenger

Messenger (UK) is a musical troupe from London formed in the spring of 2012 by Khaled Lowe and Barnaby Maddick. They booked a session with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios that gave birth to their debut album, Illusory Blues: a cosmic ode to the forces of nature and the inevitable cycle of life. To cite musical influences would be futile. The musicians had made their names with bands in scenes as far apart as hardcore punk, black metal, and ambient music. Tonally, one might recall finding oneself in the same "space" occupied by other architects of sound such as Ulver, The Beatles, Swans, or Pink Floyd. But the stream of sound that emanates from the source of Illusory Blues is a heaving mass of organic richness, brimmed with intricate sounds that acknowledge the original fathers of experimentation but look forward in creating something new and unique…

By licensing these previously unreleased live and studio tracks (plus some previously released but rare material) from the Special Markets division of EMI-Capitol Music, the mail-order company Collectors' Choice Music has legitimized Quicksilver Messenger Service recordings that had floated around on bootlegs and quasi-legal discs for many years. The performances all date from 1967-1968, a period during which Quicksilver consisted of lead guitarist John Cipollina, rhythm guitarist and singer Gary Duncan, bassist David Freiberg, and drummer Greg Elmore. As Richie Unterberger points out in his liner notes, "They were not so much singer-songwriters as they were virtuoso players and creative interpreters and stylists. They were not the greatest of vocalists or composers"…

One of the group's better albums, despite coming so late in their history that it was ignored by almost everyone. "Hope," "Fire Brothers," and "Don't Cry for My Lady Love" are among the best songs the group ever cut, and "I Found Love" is one of the prettiest, most upbeat songs ever to come from any classic San Francisco band. Some of the rest is self-indulgent, but that's what this era of music was about - the guitar pyrotechnics of "Song for Frisco" and "Play My Guitar" make them both more entertaining than their somewhat bland melodies; the latter song, in particular, sounds like a Marty Balin/Jefferson Airplane outtake that would have been right on target about four years before the release date of this album…