samsara blues experiment live

A rare video of the Samsara Blues Experiment taken in November last year. This is before the lineup change in 2014 when they became a trio. Here with the Hans Eiselt’s rhythm guitar feeding off the sharp drumming of Thomas Vedder it kept there last album 'After The Flood' moving from power rock into a psychedelic groove rarely heard by bands since the days of The Grateful Dead.

Christian Peters (vocals and guitar)

"The world needs digital music, but then again it doesn’t need it at all. It just depends on you, do you want to spend your life in front of a computer searching the endless plains of the world wide web for more and more music or leave that crap and plant a tree, return home happily and listen to that old Neil Young record".

"...we handle our own sales. Which is cool but most people don’t know anything about what happens when the band leaves the stage. We all still have jobs. I’d say this is obvious, but a lot of people look at us with eyes like an Owl when we tell them that we have to work the next morning. We’re all really quite "regular" people."
INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN PETERS : IT'S PSYCHEDELIC BABY. 2013

See that? Day jobs! It's why they're free to do what the flood they like with their music.
You'll probably only catch them at occasional gigs outside of Berlin this year (Berlin Swampfest. 20th September 2014)

'After The Flood' is available from their Bandcamp site. Here is the title track (worth the album price alone) at Kaktus Farm, Dortmund. 13.11.2013

2013 - year of the new psychedelia

Reviewing the year of stats on the most popular posts here at The Garage we'll always remember 2013 as the year of the new psychedelia.
This year there's been more bands and individual artists from all over the globe coming on line with their own exploration into a genre that from it's formative year in 1966 is nearly 50 years old. Maybe it's the wretched state of conformity in modern music and life that's brought the new artists to explore their imagination and create the music that can escape from this 24:7 rolling horror show of war mongering, money grabbing, disaster ridden, mind numbing exploitative reality.
So if the words of Timothy Leary in 1965, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" might be the preferred option for many then the hits registered here show that's precisely what is happening.
Also amongst these new tripsters there's the appropriate entries from two of the 60's originals - Hendrix and Yoko Ono. All good then.
There should also be mention that Record Label of the year has to be Fruits De Mer who continue to not only put out a dazzling display of contemporary psyche on vinyl but have begun to organise their own one dayer festivals (see post).
Plus radio programme of the year is from the ever vigilant Valis with Trip Inside This House) at KDHX radio who has given airtime to so many of the new psyche bands.

Here's the 2013 top 10 -

1. Wooden-Shjips (US) see post

2. Truckfighters (Sweden) see post

3 Samsara Blues Experiment (Germany) see post

4. Polska Radio One (Poland) see post

5. Doug Tuttle / Morgan Delt (US) see post

6. Liverpool Psyche Festival (UK) see post

7. Hendrix documentary (US) see post

8. Yoko Ono (Japan/US) see post

9. Uncle Acid and The Dead Beats (UK) see post

10. Me and My Kites (Sweden) see post

samsara blues experiment latest

Now here's a perfect example of how the new psychedelic / stoner progressive rock is handled by a Berlin band. Samsara Blues Experiment have just released their latest album and it's a bit of a monster.
This quartet weave their ideas, as in the true 70's style, over tracks that last nothing short of 10 minutes. With that in mind you know this is going to be a band who want to play. This won't be some stadium singalong oh no, these guys want to work it out. There will be no compromise to you as the listener not being able to go with these extended compositions and given there's only four of them it's one load of sound being put down. There are some pretty rich textures here too, even some backdrop synth and organ. It makes for a big sound. The compositions are never dull or indulgent, cleverly evolving their riffs into some exciting interplay through the numbers.

Another unusual feature of the band is lead guitarist Christian Peters vocal delivery. Often with European vocalists singing in English they have a type of mid Atlantic accent which quite disguises their own language. Peters on the other hand doesn't have this and he doesn't slur the words, hence making them sound very correct English, but you can definitely hear a German nuance to his voice. That makes a clear difference to the vocal delivery giving them a sound that's powerful and deliberate.
SBE are in their 5th year and the lineup hasn't changed from the start and that shows in how tight they can work this stuff out. This is a really great band and should be touring far wider than Europe. You feel if they were an American band the world would be at their feet. As it is this is the sound of Europe's underground.. and frankly it's dynamite.
Here's the albums brilliant title track 'After The Flood', and below that you can stream the whole album.
Buy it for a steal at 8 Euros from their Bandcamp site

samsara blues experiment

As any Hauntologist (Hauntology) will tell you "the present exists only with respect to the past".
The Samsara Blues Experiment have created a sound that is as surely torn from a previous era as it is alive in the present. Their own missive declares "the blues as the fundament where it all comes from, the inclusion of spiritual influences accompanied by Indian/raga music and the experimental approach..".
The first album 'Singata Mystic Queen' was released in 2010 after touring Europe consistently. The new CD 'Revelation & Mystery' was released 2012.
Gigging for the past 4 years has sharpened the Berlin based band to be able to stretch out their improvisations to a length that's not easy to control for most groups.
Here's the title track Singata Mystic Queen. Heavy psychedelic, jamming, stoner space rock. The past and the future begins here.