The greatest thing to come out from Walthamstow, East London since, um, East 17 or E17 which they were known just before they unfortunately decided that solo projects and criminal convictions were the way to go, King Bathmat (aka – John Basset) is a solo star in the making and I am sure he isn’t one of the departed from E17.

The ten track album ‘Son of a Nun’, is a corker, from the very first track ‘Unfortunate Soul’, it starts off very Beatles/bowie with a hint of Jellyfish thrown in for good measure and then moves to a funky Iron Maiden, there are so many influences oozing in the first track that I cannot decide where this guy wants to go, apart from write interesting music.

There are great songs on here, some not so great, but the ones that stand out to me are the opening track ‘Unfortunate Soul’, ‘King of the Fairies’, ‘Virtual Cartoon’, ‘Uncle Remus’ and ‘Not Born to Share’.

The album is superbly produced, there are very interesting sounds here, but I can’t help feeling that there is something missing, the songs are mainly all well written, but there’s a very 70s progrock feel and I don’t know if this will do anything for a lot of people.

But King Bathmat should continue what he’s doing as he believes in his work and that’s what is most important when you write music, you write it for yourself and if someone comes along and says they like it and he’s the only one then you have to think, how many people have already said it to him?

Gigbite!

http://www.kingbathmat.0catch.com

http://www.mp3.com/kingbathmat - cd $7.99