Samavayo Premiere “Cross the Line” Video; Tour and Festival Dates Announced
Last spring, Berlin-based heavy rock three-piece Samavayo reinforced their willingness to cross genre lines with their fifth album, Dakota (review here). With a strong sense of drive behind their crunching tones, they brought together elements of noise rock, heavy riffing and flourish of Middle Eastern progressions that only further distinguished their material. Recorded by Richard Behrens (Heat, formerly Samsara Blues Experiment) and released through Setalight Records, it was angular in its purpose — that is, prone to sharp edges on a sonic level — but flowed smoothly throughout and brought the band to a place that emphasized the consideration put into their songwriting without coming across as navelgazing in its sound.
It rocked, in other words. I guess I’m trying to say it rocked.
The trio of guitarist/vocalist Behrang Alavi, bassist/vocalist Andreas Voland (also Moog) and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Stephan Voland haven’t been shy about getting out to support Dakota, and next month, they’ll hit the road on a tour through Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic ahead of showing up in the UK for a slot at Desertfest London 2017. Good gig to get, but it’s hardly their last. Summer festival season awaits in Europe, and July will find Samavayo back in action at the long-running Stoned from the Underground as well, and it seems likely more are to follow (also more precede, hello Hell over Esslingen).
At the same time, and perhaps to herald their departure, Samavayo have put together an artfully shot new video for the track “Cross the Line” from Dakota that is premiering today. You get to see the band playing as silhouettes and you get to see people with boxes on their heads — are they robots? — and other such fun whatnots, but of course the star is the song itself, which shows off where Samavayo are sound-wise and the penchant for working under a variety of influences that stands them out so much from their peers.
Please find it below, followed by their tour dates, and enjoy:
Samavayo, “Cross the Line” official video
Cross The Line is the first official video of the latest album Dakota from the German stoner rock band Samavayo. The song is currently also the first of their live set.
“The audience gets carried away by that song and its sound right at the beginning of our shows,” says singer and guitarist Behrang Alavi. “The song also has a message: We can’t cross the red line of humanity and decency, because there won’t be a way back from it. We need to find empathy and get rid of ruthlessness and greed.”
In cameraman and director Johannes Plank Samavayo found the perfect fit to visualize that message. He mobilized the antagonists of his upcoming movie “Eva Ost.” The “TV-Men,” whose heads are actual TVs, illustrate a society poisoned by consumption and ownership. In the video the tv screens show some cuttings that can be understood as political statements and therefore build up a new meta level. The message is: “Nobody can run from this change. Our brains are already poisoned.”
Credits:
Director / Camera / Editor / Production | Johannes Plank
Assistant Director | Florence Freitag
Gaffer | Yannick Spiess
Production Design | Mihan Torabi
Camera Assistant | Ranav Adhikari
Set Runner | Siddarth Thapa
Catering | Anne Berger
Drivers | Andreas Voland, Christian Schmalfuss
Musicians | Behrang Alavi, Stephan Voland, Andreas Voland
TV-Men (Berlin) | André Schröder, Ricardo Ziege, Richard Volkmer, Simon Höhne, Mustafa Bozbalak
TV-Men (Plauen) | Christian Dressel, Stephan Stumpf, Alexander Enskat, Rico Gemeinhardt
Many thanks to the venue “Zukunft am Ostkreuz.” MEKU Film © 2017
Samavayo “Cross the Line” tour:
Mar 16 Zentralcafé Nuremberg, GER *
Mar 17 Immerhin Wurzburg, GER *
Mar 18 Dirty+Dancing Osnabrück, GER *
Mar 24 Zukunft am Ostkreuz, Berlin, GER **
Mar 25 Spring Rocks! 2017, Wolfenbüttel, GER
Apr 03 AKK Karlsruhe, GER ***
Apr 04 L’Elastic Bar, Strasbourg, FR
Apr 05 Dr. Feelgood, Paris, FR ****
Apr 06 Café Faust, Stuttgart, GER ****
Apr 07 Gaswerk, Winterthur, CH ****
Apr 08 The Bruch Brothers, Luzern, CH ****
Apr 12 Alte Mälzerei, Regensburg, GER
Apr 14 Kramladen, Vienna, A ***
Apr 15 Kain Prague, CZ ***
Apr 16 Bajkazyl, Brno, CZ ***
Apr 28 Little Devil, Tilburg, NL
Apr 29 Desertfest 2017 London, UK
Apr 30 Hopla, Cologne, GER
May 11 Sabotage Dresden, GER
May 12 Hell over Esslingen, Esslingen Am Neckar, GER
Jul 13 Stoned from the Underground, Erfurt, GER
Jul 14 Steinbruchfestival 2017, Mühlheim, GER
* with Operators
** with Mother Engine
*** with Shotgun Valium
**** with Hellroom Projectors
