Demos

Detached - None The Wiser

Owain Paciuszko 21/10/2010

Rating: 2/5

Sometimes a band can kind of do everything right for their chosen genre, but that doesn't really make things work, and unfortunately Detached are one such band. From the first few bars of Don't Bite The Crust (And Say the Pie Ain't Tasty) it's evident that this group of musicians can do that guitar and brass brand of ska-punk - made semi-mainstream by the likes of Reel Big Fish or Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - pretty well, they balance their choice of instrumentation pretty well knowing when to let the guitars take over or let the brass have their moment; see the jaunty Teeth Rattling Boneshaker for evidence of this.

However, it all feels a little too much like what's gone before, and whilst the genre never really showed much progression, it's a shame that capable musicians seem content to not advance the music in any way, preferring to tick all the boxes of nostalgia that will, undoubtedly, get a club full of people skanking away happily; but falls pretty flat on record.

If ska-punk bypassed you completely in the late-nineties/early noughties then you may find a lot to enjoy here, this group from South Wales do tick the boxes with considerable skill, but it feels like a relic from a bygone era rather than a fresh new discovery.