Sameti ~ Germany

Sameti (1972)

Sameti was the very first album I purchased from a prog specialist mail order outlet, after receiving their two page catalog in the mail (still have it haha). As such I consider it a very important album in my collection. Why did I choose it? Because the description sounded the most tantalizing in a whole catalog of tantalizing descriptions. All of them new to me (and all subsequently discovered over the years). I had recently hit paydirt with Agitation Free's Malesch (story described there), so I was confident in my ability to pick a quality album out of a random stack (admittedly Malesch was just pure luck). I was more than halfway through my college experience, and I had really started to deep dive into the 70's European underground after my summer of '85 expedition to a couple of great local record stores in Dallas. I also still had some money left over from my lucrative summer internship at a government defense company. But not that much money.

And this cost me $20 bucks. That became my high water mark that I refused to exceed until I got into the workforce permanently some two plus years later. That was an insane amount of money for the time and place, and I really had no idea what I was doing yet. I would never do anything like that today, given what I knew and what I had. But, as noted before, I had become obsessed with records of this sort. I write about all this in the Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation review, which is where it all started.

After receipt of the album, and that most promising cover, I was beyond excited to hear it. And then... I felt taken. The first side is nothing at all what I expected. What is this? It's hard rock, that's what. Nothing Kosmische, space rock, prog, or anything else I was interested in. Blues based British styled hard rock is what I was hearing instead. Ugh. Now, as we all know, Krautrock, as the term has emerged, also includes a strong number of hard rock albums. They have a unique slant to the standard UK sound, one that I would not have understood or appreciated in 1986. It wasn't until years later that I came to terms with side one. It's an energized hard rock, definitely on the stoned side of things, though lacking any particular highs (so to speak) and with substandard vocals. It's not until A3 we get our first interesting break, that of a well placed saxophone solo. That also would not have been welcomed by me back then. The acoustic guitar jamming that closes the song is excellent. The phasing and other Kosmische effects start to emerge on A4, but its subtle.

Of course, as I'm sure you all know, it's Side 2 that the description in the catalog was referring to. I was already very familiar with Amon Duul II's Dance of the Lemmings, and that would have been my closest reference at the time. Which remains a very good mile marker. I had yet to hear the Cosmic Jokers series of albums, or even Ash Ra Tempel (just Ashra), but that's exactly what Sameti delivers on Side 2. Long form acid drenched psychedelic guitar, mumbling vocals, driving rhythms, submerged in a haze of thick disorienting smoke, all that makes the genre so endearing. It doesn't climax in the way that 'Amboss' or Guru Guru's UFO album does, perhaps it's only demerit. A very easy album to listen to for those predisposed to enjoying this kind of cosmic Krautrock. And Side 1 isn't bad at all, just completely different in sound.

Ownership: 1972 Brain (LP). Gatefold. Green label Metronome.

3//86 (acquired); 2004; 11/17/25 (review / new entry)