MESSENGER (UK) stream the entirety of their debut album, Illusory Blues, on heavily trafficked tastemakers Stereogum.com. Having already been awarded „Band of the Day” on TheGuardian.com, the website of England’s most prestigious newspaper, the buzz around MESSENGER‘s Illusory Blues continues to grow at an intense rate, with Stereogum proclaiming it „an inviting and beautiful album that feels as though it’s been transported here from another era, if not another dimension” and „a lovely and wondrous world in which to get lost.” Set for international release on March 31st through SVART RECORDS, the entirety of Illusory Blues can be streamed exclusively HERE.
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. They dwell equally in the earthly realm of folk music and in the celestial void of progressive psychedelia, but have chanced upon a sound and an experience that sounds like no other. Rounded off by Daniel Knight and James Leach, the lineup of MESSENGER is now complete, but the journey has just begun.