Coolonaut Delivers Raw Psychedelic Brilliance on Latest Album Karma Smile

Self-recorded and produced using an analogue eight-track machine, Karma Smile is the third full-length album from a Scottish-born, now Australian-based artist known as Coolonaut. A musician who lives and breathes the sounds of 60s psychedelic music (and the countercultural mindset that came with it), Coolonaut channels that era’s spirit across all ten of the record's songs. And, while its relentless energy and raw, gritty production might feel daunting at first, Karma Smile is an album that rewards patience and immersion.

Confabulation kicks things off, immediately launching the listener into a sea of sharp riffs and intense drumming. It's a serious opening statement, and leads into the fuzzy, Beatles-esque soundscape that is Be On The Right Side.

Boganville then steps up to the plate and maintains the sonic liveliness of its predecessors, before giving way to the highly intriguing and entrancing little ditty, Volvoman - a tune I find myself constantly returning to, though I can't put my finger on why exactly.

Other standout songs include the album's potent title track, the infectious sounds of Pebble Dash Heaven, and the record's uncompromising closer, I Don't Need To Apologise.

"I have absolutely no desire to sound contemporary or to be perfectly polished in any way," declares Coolonaut. "It would be impossible for me to create another 'style'." Hear hear!