Detonics heeft het bericht van Jakob Wandam gedeeld.

1 week ago

Vanuit Denemarken! Thanks Jakob!!

Album review: Detonics: Raise your bet (Naked NP031)

Dutch blues band the Detonics debuted in 2017 with the album Live evidence, which I reviewed in this space (musiksyn.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/anmeldelse-detonics-live-evidence/). That same year they represented the Netherlands in the European Blues Challenge in Horsens and came across really well (www.bluesnews.dk/den-mest-vellykkede-european-blues-challenge/).

Now, the Detonics have put out their sophomore album (released in 2018), and whereas their debut was a live recording featuring their own as well as other people’s songs, Raise your bet sees the Detonics in the studio playing all-original compositions.

This has not changed their style, which is still primarily swinging West Coast blues. Nor has the absence of a live audience affected the energy level of their music. This is joyous, swinging blues we’re dealing with, and that is something the Detonics know about.

Keyboard player Raimond de Nijs is responsible for the lion’s share of the music, while lead singer and harmonicist Kars van Nus wrote most of the lyrics, but all members of the quartet have contributed to the songwriting.

Other than de Nijs and van Nus, the Detonics are Jeremy Aussems on guitar, Mathijs Roks on drums and René Leijtens on upright bass.

They are an incredibly vigorous band, and you will find it difficult to sit still when listening to their lively songs that mostly draw on jump blues, rhythm & blues and boogie-woogie.

Occasionally they do find room for a chance of pace: ”Bullet through my heart” is a slow blues featuring atmospheric organ work by Raimond de Nijs, and “Route 101” offers surf guitar and country rhythms. The Detonics get away with these digressions quite well, but their hearts are obviously in jumpy, up-tempo blues, and they really are tremendously good at it.

The Detonics are not a band which relies on individual performances; they seem like a close-knit unit where each man plays his role, and where the combined product has a higher priority than each individual’s time in the spotlight.

This is not to say that there are no spectacular solo performances. Kars van Nus’ vocals are strong and pleasant, and his harp playing is economically dosed, but all the more effective. Likewise, the impact is strong when Jeremy Aussems lets loose in a guitar solo as he does on “Out of sight”, or when Raimond de Nijs contributes layers of organ notes or feisty boogie-woogie piano.

In short, Raise your bet is a tight, well-played bundle of joy, and I am at loss to find anything negative to say about it. Well done, boys! ... See MoreSee Less

Detonics heeft het bericht van Wil Wijnhoven gedeeld.

2 weeks ago

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Detonics heeft het bericht van Kwadendamme Bluesfestival gedeeld.

2 weeks ago

Wees er snel bij!! ... See MoreSee Less