A collection of well known musicians get together and write some tunes and then get round to knocking out an album. What are the odds of that happening then? Well take Chris Spedding on guitar, Martin Chambers on drums, (the recently added) Toshi Ogawa on bass and add Steve Parsons on vocals and the oddly named Sixteen on guitars and you have King Mob.  

"What's it like?" I hear you cry (well I'm getting to that obviously) and actually it sounds pretty decent to be fair. A big modern classic rock sound with some old school rockabilly licks and a whole lot more thrown into the mix, and with the pedigree on show here it's obviously well produced and sounds dynamic and quite fresh, from the rock solid rhythm section of Chambers and Glen Matlock (yup it was the ex Pistol who Toshi replaced) to the intricate licks and riffs of Sixteen and Spedding.    

'I Was There Olympix Edit' is a smouldering remix of a track from the band's debut album released last year, featuring a few traditional licks and classic rock chords making it a smouldering introduction to King Mob for your truly. 'Lover Of High Renown' introduces the 'Force 9' album proper before breaking down into a bit of da blues brothers and sisters with some heavily layered guitar noodling, it's clearly a jam by some players who know exactly what their doing and having a great time doing it.

One thing I thought about 'Force 9' is how damn big it sounds, the songs might not be the best I've ever heard but it's positively bursting out of the CD player which is something but then you expect these old pros to know exactly what their doing in a studio.  'Vah Va Voom' has some great swamp guitar work over a catchy hook, whilst 'American Slaves' has some great parts to it and is followed by the big expanse of 'Chapel Of Love' as it smoulders across five and a half minutes.  

Whilst there are songs here that I get and like one thing I have noticed is that stretched out over five and six minutes some are a tad too long and had some of these tracks been shaved of a minute here or there the overall attention grabbing factor would have been raised greatly as proven on the original album version of 'I Was There' which I like but it's too long whereas 'Make That Call' which follows is a much slimmer three minutes and what a difference those two minutes make, a very impressive tune indeed.  'China Waters' has a bit of the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds about it in delivery and arrangement  (nothing wrong with that at all) as it broods along.  'Selene Selene' is more traditional rock 'n' roll and possibly my favourite song on the album more of this in future please King Mob.  

This is an album that might well have potential to grown on the listener with it's roots in 60's rock 'n' roll and a dash of some other genres that followed but I hope the next time I put this record on the player I'll like it a bit more. There is definitely something here and a good grower is always worth investing in even if we missed out on it first time around.

http://kingmob-beatgroup.com/