King King
Album: Standing In The Shadows
Label: Manhaton
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.kingking.co.uk

It will come as no surprise that with the moniker, King King, on the front cover that "Standing In The Shadows" is pretty much an out and out blues rocker. Swirling Hammond, fighting for space amongst the guitar riffs and blistering solos, hard pounding drums driving out simple rhythms to provide the drive, topped off with a deep soulful vocal.

King King leader, Alan Nimmo, has put together a quintessential blues band and then proceeds to use it to the full. Now I'll hold my hand up and say that there isn't a lot about "Standing In The Shadows" that is particularly innovative. King King are not a band at the fringes exploring new ways to deliver the blues rock, they are a band that take a classical approach to the genre and the only way to be distinctive in that space is to be very, very good at what you do.

"Standing In The Shadows" is an album that comes from a band that sits in the top division of British bands, the interplay between the instrumentation works first time every time. The solos are expressions of the direction of the songs rather than explorations of the fretboard or different ways to play a single note, detracting from a song, rather than enhancing it.

There's a very live feel to the album, it feels as though it was recorded old school with everyone in a single room, either way, you can feel that this is a band where the musicians are comfortable in their skin and with each other and that gives both King King and "Standing In The Shadows" a real gloss.

Neil King