Hailing from Germany, Samavayo is a storied (previously four-piece) trio with releases as far back as 2003, that presents before us its new debut as a trio with Dakota. Debut or no debut, however you want to slice it, Samavayo has managed to release a record that ticks so, so many boxes. Good boxes. And only one thing has prevented me from falling in love with it. While one might argue Dakota‘s songs are a bit on the long end of the spectrum, what we have here is a thoroughly early-00’s stoner rock album (or, if you prefer, 2014’s JG), and I mean it in the best possible sense. While the previously mentioned tracks are unabashedly stoner, Kodokushi and Overrun go a tad more proggy, with Intergalactic Hunt fully realizing its name, adding a spacey tint to the formula. But this is me, and me being me, I feel the need. The need for… a high Dynamic Range. And let me tell you, Samavayo’s production is on point. With a production that lets its music breathe and helps to take across the point that this guys now what they’re doing, and they’ve been doing for a good while. I rest easy, and happy. Cheers to Richard Behrens and Emanuele Baratto, for mixing and mastering the album, respectively. Funny enough, I had to go listen to John Garc?a’s solo debut, I was confusing the two records so much. Samavayo manages to feel familiar and old school without being trite. And all that in a genre in which, lately, it hasn’t been easy to not bore me, much less find me making such comparisons.
