German rockers Samsara Blues Experiment impressed with last year’s Long-Distance Trip (review here), and with their demo before that, and live this year as the last band I saw at Roadburn, so it’s not really shocking that their new album, Revelation and Mystery is met with some measure of anticipation. A proven track record that’s held up live goes a long way, and with some of the turns they make sonically on the new full-length, I’m glad to have been looking forward to it.

In a way, I expected the Berlin four-piece to go farther into the improvised-sounding heavy jamming that showed up on some of Long-Distance Trip, but they didn’t, really. If anything, Revelation and Mystery is more straightforward on the whole. Cuts like “Flipside Apocalypse” and the near-burly “Into the Black” have a pointed riffy thrust to them and clear adherence to structure all the way through. The band still jams and offers journeying psychedelia on the closing title-track and the preceding interlude “Zwei Schatten im Schatten,” but even “Outside Insight Blues” is more directed than its eight-minute runtime would lead you to believe.

This makes the album an even more exciting listen. The lineup from Long-Distance Trip has returned — guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters, guitarist Hans Eiselt, bassist Richard Behrens and drummer Thomas Vedder — and their time touring with the likes of Sons of Otis and on stage at festivals like the aforementioned Roadburn and Burg Herzberg has begun to pay off in the confidence with which they approach the surprisingly sunny “Thirsty Moon” and the ultra-memorable “Hangin’ on the Wire,” which is the track I’m lucky enough to be able to premiere on the player below.

I think you’ll find it’s a fitting example of Samsara Blues Experiment‘s heavy rocking side that mixes well with their psych edge. Dig it:

[mp3player width=460 height=120 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=samsara-blues-experiment.xml]

Samsara Blues Experiment‘s Revelation and Mystery is due out Oct. 31 on World in Sound. More info on the release is available at the band’s website and the label’s website. Thanks to Christian Peters for letting me host the track.

Tags: Berlin, Germany, Samsara Blues Experiment, World in Sound

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 at 11:12 am and is filed under audiObelisk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.