Wicked Messenger - The River Disappeared Sidewards

It is such a pleasure to be able to tell you about Wicked Messenger -one of my favourite musical discoveries of all time. I recall listening to a Dutch ambient music station which was where I first heard the track "Dealing with Ghosts" from the album. This track was unlike anything I've ever heard before. It was a fragile, crackling ice-cold sound which expanded into the layers of distortion like mist blowing across the streets of a deserted town. It was completely bleak yet at the same time quite beautiful and it gave me goosebumps. I had to find out more.

I found the album which have been released on Plague Recordings, a small independent label from Belgium. The album was also a revelation - the discovery of an entire new genre which Wicked Messenger calls "grand ambient". There was something entirely different about this music - an approach to pure noise which was quite visionary. Wicked Messenger is not so much music as it is pure atmosphere with an understanding of noise, dissonance and distortion which is unprecedented in any other music I've ever listened to.

Wicked Messenger is the work of one Martin Kranzell from Germany who I once had the pleasure of exchanging messages with via MySpace ( showing my age now).

It's as if he opens up the gates of hell and points a microphone in to record the sounds that emanate from there. Even more impressive is the fact but the main sound sources used are guitars which are heavily processed and cast  into enormous chasms of reverb which is right up my street. On this album check out the track "Transition" which grows and builds upon layers of circling noise to a point where you think your sound system is going to explode. I guarantee you have never heard anything like this before. It's unsettling, disturbing and challenging to the listener.

Is it ambient? To be honest I'm not sure but I certainly think so. If anything it is an extreme form of dark ambient which has never been created before and as far as I know no one else has gone anywhere near this area of sonic exploration but I may well be wrong. There were numerous other releases from Wicked Messenger each one developing within this newly discovered genre and I'm certain I will mention others in due course.