Detachment Kit

These New York-based indie-rockers (recently relocated from Chicago, where they recorded both their albums at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio complex) figure there's no reason you can't work up a dense lather of electric-guitar distortion in one song and reduce another to a few plucked notes beneath a pretty harmony-vocal...

By Mikael Wood

May 6, 2004

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These New York-based indie-rockers (recently relocated from Chicago, where they recorded both their albums at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio complex) figure there's no reason you can't work up a dense lather of electric-guitar distortion in one song and reduce another to a few plucked notes beneath a pretty harmony-vocal line. That they're correct in that assumption doesn't lessen the mild surprise you may experience while listening to Of This Blood, the Detachment Kit's new CD. The follow-up to 2002's solid but workmanlike They Raging. Quiet Army, Blood is a refreshingly eclectic take on underground guitar-rock: loud parts! quiet parts! fast parts! slow parts! a tune in which Ian Menard summons his courage and sings-not-shouts! The band's pairing with strong-willed Illinois rockers Local H here makes sense, but if it's not too late for the reunited Pixies to choose an opening act, can someone make a call?

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