> The end goal is not to reduce clutter, but to allow post-processing.

Ah. Got it. So let me make a counter proposal --

    .log(String msg) goes to an XML based .log file
    .message(String msg) goes to the console

This lets human readable messages go to the console and machine readable
messages go to a log file. This lets the task do a few things

    1) reduce the amount of clutter sent to the console
    2) give a "Stopping because of fatal error, see log" type message

The .log file should be very verbose to give the kind of info that you want
in post-processing nightly builds, etc -- and because of this, the console
messages can get tighter.

How's that sound?

.duncan