LONG DISTANCE TRIP

SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT from Berlin are promising newcomer on the heavy psych stage. The name is well conceived pointing to the band's essentials. Hence you can easily smell the blues roots. Samsara is derived from Sanskrit which more or less means 'eternally wandering'. And indeed they offer a convincing alteration here when comprising space rock, psychedelia with eastern flavour - and of course stoner/heavy psych as for the fundamental aspect. Finally you can state an experimental approach when musicians try to blend different rock styles to something refreshing and unique.

The quartet worked on some fine-tuning when intensively touring in Europe and USA before they produced this debut album. A significant trademark is Christian Peters' and Hans Eiselt's well-matching guitar work. This will be immediately confirmed when starting with Singata Mystic Queen - an early song, first published on a promo EP in 2008, but now revised and certainly improved with the result of a better interaction and equality of both guitarists - that's my impression at least. It's a midtempo jamming heavy psych track. Soaring spacey and riffing guitar impressions are swirling around each other. This is provided in a rather relaxed way - heavier propulsive excursions are rare here. Decent organ/synth and sitar goodies care for more variety and richness.

Army Of Ignorance is played straightforward rocking featuring a slight doom factor in the vein of the good old Black Sabbath. For The Lost Souls contrasts when starting as a cosmic trip which begins to groove more and more - certainly a challenge for space rock fans - playful melancholic, wah-wah and delay modified guitars - I like it! According to the 'eternally wandering' motto it all turns into something uptempo rocking then. Moving into the Center Of The Sun they let me feel like reaping black tomatoes together with the Oresund Space Collective. The album's center of gravity for what it's worth. And now at the latest I should mention the band's solid rhythm section. Powerful - and once again they fall into heavier streams in between.

A long distance trip also requires some laid-back moments - and so campfire romanticism comes up when listening to Wheel Of Life based on melancholic double acoustic guitar combined with the sound of the sea - nice change. The extended improv Double Freedom closes the album, multiple guitar appearance including sitar. Charming here - crushing there with much stoner and even some hypnotic krautrock appeal. Later gliding into another fine grooving section this forces a lively imagination how impressing the band's live performances must be.

'Long Distance Trip' provides heavy psych, decorated though with several proper space rock excursions. Even when holding a high proportion of jamming this is carefully produced - recommended - a really enjoyable one.