Messages

Root Strata digs into the archives to release Mirage, a long out of print CD-r recorded in 2008 from NY duo Messages. The band was first introduced to RSTB around the same time via Social Registry's excellent run of 7"s, of which theirs stood out as a highlight. This album captures the band in a similar floating drone bliss, mixing raga buzz with a meditative vibration that borders on ecstatic. It’s a full body kind of extrasensory exploration that drives the record, tuning into chant, tambura rhythms and appropriately spaced-out raga chords that chug along at a pace set to melt rather than incite. Warren's work with Psychic Ills might take front and center now (though Messages just kicked out a great new record that expands the concepts of packaging recently on De Stijl) but this record captures a time when Messages was just blossoming into a full fledged project and finding their footing in the realm of exploratory psych. Its a damn fine piece of their history to have back in print and lovingly cut to vinyl, as the medium ought to open up the ambient headspace of the album further than CD-r ever could. Limited to 500 though, so it’s not exactly plentiful, just enough for those with the right kinda ears to get a hold before it dissipates.

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