From Books and Dreams was the second album from Message, a British and German group, originally released in 1973 on Bacillus/Bellaphon on SQ Quadrophonic (you needed SQ equipment to be able to play it in quad). The group at this time consisted of vocalist/saxist Tom McGuigan (who also played a little Mellotron), future Birth Control bassist Horst Stachelhaus, guitarist Allan Murdoch, and drummer Günther Klingel. The music is not unlike a harder rocking Nektar without organ (Allan "Taff" Freeman had appeared on some of their albums, not this one though). The cover is downright creepy, with the skull and a snake crawling through an eye and nose socket. "Sleep" is the opening cut, with spooky spoken dialog, which leads up to "Dreams and Nightmares (Dreams)". This piece really rocks and I really dig those guitar riffs. "Turn Over" is another spoken dialog piece, and a voice that says "Turn over" over and over. It was apparent the band meant the "turn over" to be on the run-off which would loop forever until you lift the needle (if you own a non-automatic turntable, that is), but that didn't quite happen, instead, it repeats it several times, before the run-off, and then goes silent. I own the original LP, so I should know. "Sigh" really blows me away, with some really powerful vocals from Tom McGuigan, which then leads to the epic "Dreams and Nightmares (Nightmares)". I really love that short Mellotron passage making me wished McGuigan used Mellotron more throughout the album. More spoken dialog follows. I'm pretty certain McGuigan is Scottish because I notice a Scots accent when he speaks.Many people end up disappointed because it doesn't meet their expectations of what Krautrock is. No, this isn't Neu, Faust, Can, Amon Duul II, early (pre-Autobahn) Kraftwerk, and so on. This is British style hard rock with prog trappings. Since two of the members were British, that helps. You'll like this better if you fancy the idea of a harder-edged Nektar. I really love this album and I highly recommend it!