Coolonautโs Dark Energy is a warning flare. Rooted in the swirling aesthetics of 60s psychedelia and mod rock, the Scottish-born, rural Australia-based artist fuses analogue warmth with urgent, modern-day dread. Recorded entirely on an 8-track tape machine, the album captures the rawness and real-time humanity of music made with just instruments, tension, and purpose. And that purpose is to wrestle with a world unraveling at the seams sonically.
โStick to the Scriptโ opens the album like a jolt to the nervous system. The heavy rev of the guitar collides with sharp, slicing organ lines, while Coolonautโs thick, restless voice pushes through the static like a broadcast from a collapsing radio tower.
By track five, the title song โDark Energyโ delivers a slow-burning paranoia. A gritty guitar riff loops like a mantra, joined by drums that roll and rumble beneath the weight of the story being told. The vocals are restrained but ominous, conjuring an invisible menace stalking in the shadows. โSuffocating, leaving not a trace/Like a pillow on a victimโs face/Dark energy/ drives me down,โ he sings, in a fantastical and unnerving line. A churning, Hammond organ-like bridge momentarily lifts the heaviness, with a flash of suspiciously alert brightness before plunging back into the murk.
Then comes โKiller in a Suit,โ a searing closer that marries vintage tone with current fury. The fuzzed-out guitar grinds alongside pulsing drums and backup vocals that echo the frontmanโs scathing indictment: โHe is a killer in a suit/every wordโs a lie/He is a killer in a suit/Smiles as the children die.โ
Dark Energy is retro in tone but fiercely present in spirit as it roars softly but means every word.
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Review by: Naomi Joan