SON OF A NUN

John Bassett (a.k.a. KingBathmat) was a multi instrumentalist originally from Walthamstow, London, who now is living in Hastings, England. Before you take offense at the album title, I should say that he was actually raised by an ex-convent nun. Son Of A Nun is the first CD release from KingBathmat originally released in 2003 and it shows a distinctive yet somewhat diverse musical style with excellent production standards.

"Unfortunate Soul" starts out with a dramatic early Traffic or Cream psychedelic mood before settling into a metallic version of English folk music reminiscent of Jethro Tull at their creative peak. A few of the songs, such as "Post Traumatic" and "Virtual Cartoon", strike me as straightforward hard rock, "Black Horizon" and "Asking The Gods" are the most successful of the songs in that vein. "Uncle Remus" would not seem an obvious choice for the character name of a calculating impresario yet the song of that name works well as a progressive ballad. "Beg And Steal" features a wah-wah organ that sounds like Walthamstow's leading indie artist The Bevis Frond but the expressive octave-jumping vocals are pure KingBathmat. The measured piano and meandering synth line on "Not Born To Share" give the song as spacey pop ballad mood. Perhaps the highlights of Son Of A Nun come during Bassett's clever hard rock restatements of the traditional folk songs "King Of The Fairies" and "Johnny's Wedding".

Son Of A Nun finds KingBathmat in the process of developing his particular style but there are certainly plenty of moments for hard rock and psychedelic revival fans to enjoy. A promising debut