MESSAGE — The Dawn Anew Is Coming (review)

MESSAGE — The Dawn Anew Is Coming album cover

Album · 1972 · Non-Metal

4/5 · 2024-07-19
siLLy puPPy

MESSAGE was an early German Krautrock band that was founded by bassist Horst Stachelhaus in 1968 in Düsseldorf. The band is mostly compared to Nektar for its two British members: Allan Murdoch (guitars) and Tommy McGuigan (sax and vocals) as well as appearing on the same label Bacillus which specialized in early German psychedelic bands. MESSAGE was a shapeshifting band with different career moves that unfortunately kept it from finding any particular success outside of its homeland unlike the more internationally successful Nektar. THE DAWN ANEW IS COMING is somewhat of anomaly in the band’s canon since it is more remembered for its darkened heavy rock second album “From Books And Dreams” before turning to a more chilled style of brassy jazz rock on future releases.

The band also suffered a unstable lineup throughout its existence that lasted up to 1981 after releasing seven albums. THE DAWN ANEW IS COMING is the only album to feature the lineup of Tom McGuigan (vocals, sax), Billy Tabbert (guitar, spinet, vocals), Allan Murdoch (guitar), Horst Stachelhaus (bass) and Gerhard Schaber (percussion, vocals) along with James Allan Freeman who added extra mellotron and vocals. While comparisons to Nektar may ring true on the second album, this debut is less psychedelic and rather delivers a mix of more energetic rock that alternates with slower folk inspired motifs with English Tom McGuigan’s vocals sounding a bit like Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson in the way he enunciate’s his lyrics. The composiitons are somewhat complex with intricate chord changes and unpredictable meanderings into lengthy jamming sessions especially on the 8 1/2 minute title track and the near 10-minute “Heaven Knows.”

While the opening “Changes” features some psychedelic elements, “When I’m Coming” and “Evil Faith And Charity” are more akin to more straight forward English hard rock. Despite being British dominated, THE DAWN ANEW IS COMING still evokes a sense of German Krautrock in its looser delivery system and heavy use of mellotron. Although lead singer Tom MCGuigan is a native English speaker, he still delivers somewhat of a faux broken accent of some kind however the British presence left an indelible mark on the band’s sound making it sound like a hybrid of some sort which it clearly was. While the music itself isn’t nearly as colorful as the beautiful album cover art work, the band was amazingly competent in its instrumental interplay and the album is an interesting collection of five tracks although the album is rather on the shorter side at only 33 1/2 minutes of playing time. Like many classic albums of the era, THE DAWN ANEW IS COMING features bonus tracks on various reissues.

While some could write off MESSAGE’s debut as a somewhat generic representation of hard driving rock from the early 1970s as it lacks an abidance of progressive elements at this stage, the performances are still rather unique and most importantly pleasant. Tom McGuigan delivers passionate performed vocals that sound rather unique and the album sounds like a strange chimeric beast that slipped in between the world of British organ-driven hard rock from the likes of Deep Purple, Black Widow and hints of Van der Graaf Generator along with the German sounds of early Eloy, Birth Control and Wind. The occasional saxophone embellishments further add a bizarre sense of lack of direction as the album does feel a bit scattered as it progresses from beginning to end but overall i find this to be a very addictive mix that is tied together by strong rhythms, brilliant melodic songwriting and bet of all McGuigan’s animated vocal style.