Formal Growth In The Desert

Protomartyr

explicit

Released on 02-06-2023 by Domino Recording Co
Main artists: Protomartyr
Genre: Alternative en Indie

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Language available : english

Rock music needs its rebel hounds and few today can equal the brainy abandon regularly displayed by Protomartyr's furious vocalist Joe Casey. Making energetic post punk dependent on the loud-soft dynamic that was once Nirvana's domain, these Detroiters are centered around the colorful Casey whose tortured, reverb-enhanced haranguing sucks up all the oxygen and catches every eye. While he does occasionally try to sing, as on "Tip The Creator," a song he says is about, "feeling completely lost with new technologies and my confusion over how people could worship the scumbags who run these dehumanizing companies," Casey's inner demon is his superpower. It enables him to convincingly spit out tangled lines like "A demigod in Toughskins busts in fills the jelly glasses to the brim/ 'Hey you old fuck, take a chair, see if you're gonna win the tontine'" ("Fun in Hi Skool"). Few frontmen outside of Iggy Pop would even try to muster the twistedness and convincing snarl of "Elimination Dances" ("I was sucking on a rubber ear/ For your and my amusement/ Terms of service, they ain't so clear/ Pale youth is my replacement").

While Casey is the seething cauldron out front, a truly great band toil away behind him. The musicianship is superb and the band is at its best when the songs fuse with Casey's dramatic energies, rather than being just inert settings for his angsty bellowing. Recorded in Texas, Protomartyr's sixth record features Greg Ahee's guitar showers and rolling beats, all set to a customary cinematic sweep. This time the influence of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks comes through, a flavor best heard in "We Know The Rats," whose title sums up the band's zeitgeist. "3800 Tigers" somehow successfully splices the number of the endangered species estimated to be left in the wild today with speculation on what the Detroit baseball team will resemble centuries from now. Lest anyone think this is indie rock immune to the granddaddy of all human frailties, the subject of love is eventually debated, most fervently in "Polacrilex Kid" where Casey agonizes over the question of "Can you hate yourself and still deserve love?" Formal Growth in The Desert is a feast of evolving space and textures by the perpetually unsatisfied. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

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Formal Growth In The Desert

Protomartyr

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