The transition from actor to musician is traditionally a difficult path to negotiate, yet in many ways it should work given that each field requires artistic talent. In the case of the focal point of KarmaDeva, JJ Stanness, she already has collaboration and appearance credits on cult British comedies 'Nighty Night' and 'Human Remains'. The music of KarmaDeva is slightly more rooted in the past though; built up on gothic rock textures. This could have been a case of bad timing but given the success of Howling Bells, this Bristol quartet could well follow in their slipstream.

The first two songs are cohesive and though they seem too in love with the past, they are performed with welcome conviction. Stanness herself certainly has the potential with a distinctive haunting vocal dominating each of the songs, none more so on the acoustic 'Forgive Me'. Yet on the final song 'Diamond', despite the band unleashing a hook-laden backing, somewhat confusingly Stanness is at her most shrill as if the members of the group aren't quite on the same wavelength. Overall, KarmaDeva have made a decent start but one feels they need to embrace more modern sounds in order to make further inroads into public consciousness.