ninehertz

Vina Records, from Rome, are performing a valiant public service in releasing Carbon Decoy’s Crush the Sun in the physical format, both in giving notice to this excellent album to anyone that missed it when the band released it last year, and for the lovely vinyl package they have crafted for it.

From Detroit, Carbon Decoy are within the stoner and psych web of sounds, a familiar warming homeliness there which instantly attracts us in. It can be heard from the opening The Trip, with its fair-paced heavy psychedelic beginning giving way to a happy, jaunty rhythm with cool, husky vocals. It is garage and stoner rock through its fuzzed-out drive within permanently trippy airs. It is a great introduction.

Best of all for the album is that they don’t rest on their laurels, instead bringing in slight yet noticeable variance across the remaining songs. The following Castle East is more circumspect, shifting towards doom rock, with lyrics of alchemists and wizards to match. Americana intonations begin to make themselves heard the longer the album goes.

There are appealing moments of pure blues swagger, and, on The Wraith a notable battle royale between clanging riffs and hazy tone stoner influenced psychedelia. It ends with an acoustic number which holds close to the outlaw country of Johnny Cash with a cinematic drama felt within.

There is no violent swing from one style to the next, just a band toying with their sound with deft skill to subtly vary from one track to a next. It makes for an always intriguing and frequently joyful album.