Protomartyr turn the American present into a crumbling building on Hotel Usona, their seventh album and another sharp detour into the darker corners of post-punk. Joe Casey’s deadpan narration moves through rooms haunted by AI, deportation, nationalism, violence and the absurd machinery of contemporary life, while Greg Ahee keeps reshaping the band’s sound with Middle Eastern textures and warped exotica.
Recorded with Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios, the record hits harder through Alex Leonard’s increasingly physical drumming and a production that leaves very little room to breathe. There’s still room for melody and strange flashes of beauty, but the atmosphere is claustrophobic, tense and deliberately uncomfortable.
Listen below.
