Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The world of Progressive Rock has perhaps never been in a more healthy and thought-provoking state. The days of being labelled as dinosaurs and past it are long over, the new breed that fly the standard high, proud and youthful vigour such as Touchstone and The Reasoning sit alongside the giants of the genre and the old master who still show any aspiring musician just what is so cool about being able to thread together lengthy and intricate musical movements with a good lyric.
In the heady mix of fantastic Prog/Rock albums released in 2012 by the likes of It Bites, Magnum, Marillion, Steve Hackett and Neil Morse comes the first classic of 2013 by KingBathmat, the superb and wonderfully indulgent Truth Button. Six tracks of such length, brilliant musicianship and full on hedonistic ability that the combination is likely to make the listener lightheaded, giddy with exuberance and cheery banter of the merits of songs 10 and half minutes in duration whilst underneath bemoaning the sacrifice these guys make when producing complex thematic albums.
Truth Button is the sixth studio album from Kingbathmat and its inebriating complex layers deal with the ever-increasing world of technophobia and the triviality it brings into people’s homes and lives. Whilst technophobia and the burgeoning use of technology leaves more and more people in a cold sweat, especially those who probably need it more, it has done wonders in making sure that the Progressive Rock renaissance that has been keenly felt over the last decade will continue to grow and hopefully stick around a lot longer than the first foray into this musically intelligent genre.
The six tracks on Truth Button flow in such a magnificent way, that barely have you put on the album and sunk into the chair to wallow in the creative musings of John Bassett, David Georgiou, Lee Slush and Bernie Smirnoff than the entire 50 minutes has gone by in a flash. Such is the nature of songs such as Book of Faces, the outstanding End of Evolution and the amusingly titled Coming to Terms With Mortality in the Face of Insurmountable Odds that each song instantly feels like a classic waiting to be discovered.
The first great Prog album of 2013 and it’s a stormer.
Truth Button is available to buy from January 21st 2013 from Stereohead records. Steroehead records will be re-releasing the entire KingBathmat back catalogue over the coming year.
Ian D. Hall