Carinae

By Olivia Gehrke

I’m sitting on a moonbeam, sings Carinae on their latest five-track EP, Zephyr Window. When you’re listening to it, you can’t help but feel like you, too, are sitting on a moonbeam. The Hadley, Massachusetts psych-rock band creates a unique sound that, like a moonbeam, is utopian and distant, but still radiant and familiar.

They enter the album slowly, with drums and an underlying drone building steady tension in “22/23.” This tension continues as the vocals are introduced; they have an edge and emotion that makes you both uneasy and eager to hear where they’re leading you to. The end destination is a psychedelic jam session complete with reverbed guitar solos and the hum of an organ.

“Youngblood” offers a fun talking/singing hybrid form of storytelling. It captures youth and its imminent death. There are playful, sing-song female backups and a catchy musical descent of “no, no, no.” It’s a feel-good song ridden with the slight chaos that comes along with adolescence.

As a whole, Zephyr Window is like ‘70’s psych rock, but modernized with indie pop undertones. It’s chilled-out, yet strangely anthemic with its memorable hooks. At one point Carinae ask Do I drone on? in the EP’s title track, “Zephyr Window.” The answer is quite simply, “no.” Instead of fusing together vocals with the instrumentation as most modern psych bands have gotten in the habit of doing, Carinae highlight bright, standout vocals and vocal melodies that lean more towards rock ‘n’ roll than a droney psych dream. Don’t get me wrong—Zephyr Window is still very dreamy, but it’s also vibrant in an exceptionally refreshing way. - Boston Hassle

Hailing from the musician rich stomping grounds of Western Mass., Carinae makes music just as explosive and celestial as the constellation they’re named after. On their first EP Eta, they have jaunty, jangly guitar riffs and rapid-fire vocals that trip over themselves at times. “The first track on the EP, ’22/23,’ tells a story of our former alien selves being destroyed in a supernova and being reborn as humans on Earth with no recollection of lives past. We like space and we would say that influences our sound along with other countless influences and the strong music community that is Western Mass.,” drummer Gabe Camarano said.

Eta’s sunny disposition is overshadowed by the sheer force and range of which Carinae pushes their limits on Zephyr Window. Churning, fuzzed up guitars and drums racing at breakneck speed flaunt the musicality of the band while giving the lyrics time to explore their subjects. Repetitive rhythms and modulation galore help perpetuate their psych rock sound. If you were lucky enough to catch their set at Out Of The Blue last Tuesday, Carinae’s sound is entrancing live. And that magic comes through on Zephyr Window, which Camarano said was recorded and mixed, start to finish, in ten hours at Sonelab in Easthampton. “After taking over a year to release our first album we had just finished an EP in hours, the contrast was refreshing,” he said.

By Anna Marketti - Allston Pudding