Long a best, well-kept secret on the NW Music Scene, Portland, Oregon’s Virtuoso Pop Guitarist-Vocalist David Messenger has released his first CD, "Frictional Reaction" independently on his own label, NoizGodz Recordings Company.  A mix of modern electronic textures and more traditional guitar and vocal performances works to combine to create a neo-impressionistic example of the possible future of NW electronic pop devoid of the constraints of having to conform to the current post-punk and post-indie rock tunnel vision that permeates modern NW mainstream and independent musics' expectations.
	 Working largely alone in his home studio, Chaotica Production Facilities, Mr. Messenger composes, arranges, orchestrates, performs, engineers & produces his music by himself with the occasional assistance of Pop/Rock keyboard demigod Robert O'Hearn, who began touring with L. Shankar's band out of school, and later went to Missing Persons (joining his brother), replacing Chuck Wild when he left the band. Mr. O'Hearns recording and performing career has included time with Alias, Freddie Curci, Martini Ranch (with Bill Paxton and Andrew Todd), Quarterflash,  Andy Taylor (working with Steve Jones in the Andy Taylor band),  Jack Charles' Mien Streets, Maggie Lee, Pete Droge,  & Jerry Joseph. He has also worked with Jeff Trott, the secret man behind a large amount of Sheryl Crow and he has also written for, recorded and toured with Dolly Parton. 
	While Mr. Messenger has not had as an illustrious a time as Mr. O'Hearn, he has indeed paid his share of "dues" and acquired some "chops" here and there along the way. He began music studies on the guitar at seven years of age and began singing and teaching himself the keyboard about the same time. He joined his first professional group at fifteen. By the time he was old enough to drive he was asked to join the Lewis & Clark College lab band, "Jusst Passing" well before Monica Lewinsky was a student there. In the early seventies he went to work in the music profession out of high school both as a casual professional musician and in stage and staff support personnel at both the Paramount Northwest Theater and Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. 
	At this time he began to work in small combos specializing in what is now thought of as out-fusion, playing charts by Hancock, Davis, Corea, Clarke, Abercrombie, Cobham, Zawinul & Shorter later also moving to sound reinforcement and record production. He started building his home recording project studio, "Chaotica" in 1983, after spending time in the ledgendary NW proto speed\garage\grunge project F.Y.X. with George Katz. 
	Always interested in Vintage keyboards, synthesizers and Midi Synth Guitars, as well as traditional electric guitars he has acquired quite an arsenal of instruments which he employs in producing his musical vison. 
	He has worked and is working in production with numerous NW artists, including Sone (working with Aaron Day helping engineer some parts of the groundbreaking "Holiday And Sport" EP which has received so much critical attention since the demise of the band), George Katzs' Living Eyes, Phantom Bluff, Bob Shoemaker and Billy Kennedy. 
	He still lives in Portland, OR where he owns and operates "Chaotica Production Facilities" and spends time critically analysing modern cultural and social trends for his own entertainment. Working on his next release, tentatively titled "Road To Nowhere" we asked him about future plans.  "We have no plans for any touring at this time," he says, "we have at least two more full length CD's worth of material we are working on recording now, and I' ll re-examine my touring options when I finish them!"
	When he says "full length" he might be hinting at a good volume of material, as "Frictional Reaction" clocks in at over 79 minutes with only 10 songs, placing the average time per song of well over 7 minutes - well beyond the acceptable standard rock critic time limit of 2 minutes 50 seconds.
	 He continues,"Well first of all, the last thing I ever want to be associated with is anything as limiting as a finite example of "rock", which is why I refuse to be catagorized as a "rock" musician. If anything it's what I've strived _NOT_to be for at least 30 years! Don't make the mistake of identifiying what I do as rock, there may be elements of rock in the production but the whole should be greater than the sum of it's parts, and one should in no way make the mistake of catagorizing that whole in a limiting term which is what "rock" is..I don't like limits, and that is what I see "rock" and peoples' expectations of what "rock" is for, a limit." 
	Heady stuff that, and maybe more than some people want to hear, but there he's said it! This ain't your old "rock and roll" by any stretch of the imagination! "Frictional Reaction" moves from subtle ambience through guazy electro-pop dance rhythms rolling on to places where Female Secret Agents perform Tantric exercises with Unnamed Detached Western Heroes in the darkness of rooms (up those stairs) we can't quite see into. And just when you catch your breath you are at a party with a Bicycle Girl  where stripper girls have not-so-well censored illicit sex with each other on a Holy Mission For Goddess... strange things may lurk and then withdraw themselves from your consciousness as they pass through and then you find that you are only halfway through a journey that has yet other mysterious places to take you, and that even darker things may loom in the light on the otherside of all! 
	You can take "Frictional Reaction" a song at a time, or you can sit down on a quiet night with really good headphones and your attitude well adjusted and drink the whole cup down by yourself at once, but a better hint should be to do so with your significant other...David continues... " For me the ideal result from listening to the music I love the most is the ability for it to captivate me and take me somewhere else. I want my music to attempt to actually alter consciousness on the way there, and in that respect I would define what I do as "psychedelic" music, that is, it should change your concousness in your perception of it." Call it "Modern Psychedelia"..BUT DON'T CALL IT "ROCK!   

										Leo Davis
 




When The Angel Calls

Queen Of The Night

That Crossover Look-DHM

Truth Be True

Track missing from the "Frictional Reaction" set.

Breath Of Life

All Night

Vault Of Time

Snowblind (Older Mix)

797-9899

All Night-Club Mix

All Night-Electro Mix

MESSENGER

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