Protomartyr have released the first single, and indeed first track, from their upcoming album.
‘A Private Understanding’ is the opener for their fourth full-length, and was pegged as the album’s opening statement the second it was finished. At once beautiful and brutal, it mutates from drum-led oddity to unlikely anthem, with some of Casey’s most potent lyrical work at its centre: “Sorrow’s the wind blowing through/Truth is hiding in the wire.”
The video, shared today, was inspired by a recent trip to Ireland by Casey, wherein he found himself in a pub one night and saw an older gentleman – bearing a slight resemblance to himself – singing a traditional Irish song to a handful of onlookers. In the video, a man (portrayed by 78-year-old Detroit stand-up comic Marty Smith, an acquaintance of Joe’s from his days working the door at a comedy club) sings his torturous tale to a bar of people, many of whom show varying degrees of interest. CHeck it out below:
Anxiety about the precarious nature of reality is a recurring thread on Protomartyr’s 4th full-length and Domino debut, Relatives In Descent (out September 29th). Though not a concept album, it presents twelve variations on a theme: the unknowable nature of truth, and the existential dread that often accompanies that unknowing. It’s no coincidence this missive comes to us at a moment when disinformation and garbled newspeak have become a daily reality. “I used to think that truth was something that existed, that there were certain shared truths, like beauty,” says Protomartyr singer Joe Casey. “Now that’s being eroded. People have never been more skeptical, and there’s no shared reality. Maybe there never was.”
Protomartyr will hit the UK in November. Dates below.
Sun. Nov. 12 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Tue. Nov. 14 – London, UK @ Dome Tufnell Park w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Wed. Nov. 15 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Thu. Nov. 16 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Fri. Nov. 17 – Glasgow, UK @ CCA w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Sun. Nov. 19 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club w/ Sauna Youth Tickets
Image credit: Daniel Topete