LABEL: Hardly Art
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: 2014
FORMAT: Black Vinyl LP

Protomartyrs taut, austere rock was incubated in a freezing Detroit warehouse littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and warmed, feebly, by space heaters. Despite the cold, Protomartyr emerged with a sound that is idiosyncratic but relatable, hooky but off-kilter, and economical in a way that elicits comparisons to possible antecedents like Pere Ubu or The Fall as well as local contemporaries like Frustrations or Tyvek — all of which have combined here to make one stunner of a sophomore album, and the band’s first for Hardly Art.