Detroit quartet Protomartyr are set to return with a new album this September titled Relatives In Descent, a fiery lament on today’s dystopian world where lie is presented as truth and disinformation is the new normal. The first single is the tense and expansive album opener, ‘A Private Understanding’, a track that attacks the growing number of people in the western world determined to generate and internalise their own irrational and emotionally driven facts and refuse any refutation of them, however clear and obvious it is made to them that they are wrong. But its actually more about a morally and ethically bankrupt elite that deliberately engineer division, uncertainty and insecurity, encourage ignorance and cultivate and groom the subsequent fear and loathing that results.
Historically, the fascistic and totalitarian societies that have resulted when already flawed and fragile democracies are used and abused in myriad ways by the powerful have all been characterised by this tendency and created in such contexts. The corrupt and morally bankrupt Governor of Wisconsin Rick Snyder cops a firm kicking, especially for his criminal actions in the working class town of Flint for which, unsurprisingly in a Republican gerrymandered state, he has escaped any sanction.
Watch the Tony Wolski & Trevor Naud directed video for ‘A Private Understanding below, one that likens the current state of affairs as an allegory to the slow and confused demise of a dementia sufferer. There is little light here but the music and the message are as vital as ever.
Relatives In Descent marks the band’s move from Hardly Art, which released their first three albums, to Domino and will be released on September 29. Pre-orders for all formats including vinyl are here. For the deluxe edition which includes coloured vinyl, poster and lyric zine go here.
Tracklist
1. A Private Understanding
2. Here Is The Thing
3. My Children
4. Caitriona
5. The Chuckler
6.Windsor Hum
7. Don’t Go To Anacita
8. Up The Tower
9. Night-Blooming Cereus
10. Male Plague
11. Corpses In Regalia
12. Half Sister
A Private Understanding
Protomartyr (USA)
From the forthcoming album, ‘Relatives In Descent’, Domino. Out Sept. 29.
Protomartyr Facebook
Audio Stream
Official Video