It’s been a while……………….Berlin Heavy Psych/Stoner Rock juggernaut Samsara Blues Experiment are back with a new record and, frankly, it’s a bit of a mind blower. Four years on after the release of Waiting For The Flood, SBE have returned with a Blues-infused full throttle journey to the centre of the mind titled One With The Universe, its five tracks flowing seamlessly for an exotic, breathtaking and definitely progressive journey in the land of the Riff. We loved Waiting For The Flood, however it was essentially a really HEAVY Stoner Rock album with any real subtlety buried under the relentless sludge of guitars. Now stripped down to effectively a power trio since the departure of Richard Behrens with guitarist Hans Eiselt now playing bass, SBE have used the space left in their sound to stretch out and explore, still at the core a Heavy Rock band but one taking a trip further into the Psychedelic realm with a new album that fuses all the sounds and influences heard on their three previous records, plunging even deeper in their ongoing spiritual quest.
Samsara Blues Experiment’s roots have always been firmly grounded in classic early 70s Freak Rock with a deep Indian raga vibe running through their music, but as anyone who has heard any of guitarist/singer Christian Peters recent solo projects can attest there are also strong Krautrock and Prog Rock influences within the band……..One With The Universe is the album where everything has finally come together with SBE reaching the apex of their creativity, embracing the highest level of sonic awareness. Full of mood and tempo changes, the album opener ‘Vipassana’ is a heavily Psych/Prog influenced tune where Mini Moogs swirl around crunching guitar riffs as SBE lay down a marker for the rest of the album. It’s a total trip………….solid, driving drums and bass propel the band forward at maximum velocity through a squall of wah wah guitar as SBE push the Psych Rock envelope to the furthest points in time and space. ‘Glorious Daze’ is a beautiful slow burner of a track as sinuous guitar lines twist around electric piano and organ before easing into the LPs epic title track. With a running time of around 15 minutes ‘One With The Universe’ evokes the feel of Led Zeppelin’s majestic Physical Graffiti where the Blues were taken to a place way beyond this planet……………..part studio jam, part structured song writing, SBE take the tune and pull it apart and reassemble it in strange shapes. It’s still the Blues but beamed back from the stars. One With The Universe is a truly fantastic record…………the songs have been given plenty of space to breathe but there is still a maelstrom of very heavy guitars as SBE blur the lines between Heavy Rock and tripped out Psychedelia. The LP closes with the brutal proto Metal riffing of ‘Eastern Sun & Western Moon’ where SBE hit the afterburners taking this wild ride to a dizzying climax…………..it may be Stoner Rock, but Samsara Blues Experiment have taken it way further than ever before.
One with the Universe is out 12/05/2017 on Electric Magic records and will be available on vinyl (pre-orders here) and CD from all the best record stores or direct from the label on line store here. A digital download is available to by from the Samsara Blues Experiment Bandcamp page here……
No comments:
Post a Comment