Detroit post-punks Protomartyr are back with a new track & video, “A Private Understanding”, along with an announcement of their fourth album, Relatives In Descent, due September 29 on their new label Domino. Ostensibly inspired by a trip to Ireland taken by lead singer Joe Casey, the track is more of what we’ve come to expect from the four-piece – angular, cerebral, conscience with grit.
The press release posits an album grappling with truth and the nature of reality, at a cultural moment where it seems old Western certainties have all but foundered. Stormy guitars (containing more than a few nods to Sister-era Sonic Youth) and an undulating drumbeat accompany Casey’s articulation of modern America as he sees it – an “age of blasting trumpets” and a “paradise for fools”. Socrates died in the gutter, Elvis died on the bathroom floor.
Watch the video for “A Private Understanding” above.
Relatives in Descent tracklist:
01 A Private Understanding
02 Here Is the Thing
03 My Children
04 Caitriona
05 The Chuckler
06 Windsor Hum
07 Don’t Go to Anacita
08 Up the Tower
09 Night-Blooming Cereus
10 Male Plague
11 Corpses in Regalia
12 Half Sister
Connect with Protomartyr: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud