No King – Roadside Rhythms
Self-Release – 2025
8 tracks; 46.19 minutes
No King is a four piece band from The Netherlands and this appears to be their debut album. The band is Sjoerd Schelvis on vocals and keys, Jelle Wunderink on guitar, Stijn Middelhuis on bass and Lars Middelhuis on drums and all eight tracks here are originals, attributed to the whole band. All the songs are in English and Sjoerd sings with little or no accent, so everything is comprehensible to an English or US audience.
The opening track sets out the band’s stall with a guitar and organ flourish before developing into an upbeat blues-rock tune about being in a band, playing music “Wide And Far”. The title track introduces more melody as Sjoerd celebrates the places he gets to see when on the road, his swirling organ very much a central part of the band’s sound, allowing Jelle to play some ‘riff-tastic’ rock solos. A heavy guitar ‘chug’ starts “Midnight Misery” that has some strange lyrics about a crazy female driver and declares “let’s not pretend, this is not the end”, accompanied by tough guitar, very much in rock, rather than blues, vein. With a title like “Spacetime Rock n’ Roll” it is no surprise to find the band rushing along over a persistent riff, the lyrics lined up with the title with mentions of space travel, rockets and, of course, RnR.
“Down Downtown” rocks out over heavy bass, the organ again well featured, before the band invites us to “Show And Tell”, a slower tune with electric piano as well as the Hammond, the tune having some resemblance to Ray Charles’ “Hard Times”; Sjoerd’s piano is the main solo instrument here, Jelle also showing restraint in his solo before ending in a crescendo of anguished notes. This is the tune that shows the blues side of the band on this album, before the instrumental “Royal Gumbo” brings a funkier tone to proceedings. The attractively catchy “Ain’t No Fool” closes the album with backing vocals appearing on the chorus although only Sjoerd is credited for vocals.
As can be seen from the timings, all these tracks are long enough to allow plenty of solo work from the front men. There is little actual blues here, but plenty of rocking music with solid musicianship, so if that is your preference this one is worth checking out.
