IF IT’S ANY CONSOLATION

Though clocking in at just 15 minutes, the Detroit post-punk foursome’s latest EP is rife with fierce sonic and political urgency

Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Protomartyr is a post-punk quartet made up of lead vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson. Formed in 2008, they’ve produced a solid four-studio-album discography to date, ranging from their impressive debut No Passion All Technique to last year’s critically acclaimed, highly politicised Relatives in Descent, which, in a way, gives birth to their latest offering, Consolation EP.

Recorded around the same period as those on Relatives, the EP’s four tracks keep the similarly heated conversations going with help from collaborator Kelley Deal, lead guitarist of enduring alt-rock legends The Breeders. With guns blazing, Wait opens with a barrage of thundering drums and guitars. “See a pair of fellas/ Rolling down a hill/ Punching the life out of each other/ Glamour waves the air,” Casey muses in his cynical, nonchalant timber. “Ironic T-shirts wet with blood/ An argument over aesthetics/ That would be my guess … Wait!”

Sharing more or less the same two-minute-ish length as its predecessor, Same Face in a Different Mirror further demonstrates just how masterful Protomartyr are when it comes to constructing a brief, yet impactful song. “Ugly is intact/ But now the frame is clearer/ Guilt cries like an unfed pet … Society’s plotting with the vermin/ Another empty room/ Another stained shirt/ Day’s kicking brains in the dirt,” he offers. Despite the bleakness of it all, there’s a ray of positivity to revel in (“but there’s something coming up/ The feeling there is love/ The feeling I’m in love/ We are love”).

The optimism doesn’t last long, however, because Wheel of Fortune follows with five minutes of full disdain and derision. “The flea/ The fetid pool/ The sink hole/ The asshole/ Who thinks he thinks/ He thinks he knows all answers/ Wrath for sale and it is always Christmas/ I decide who lives and who dies,” Casey and Kelley Deal intone in angry unison. Closing track You Always Win (also featuring Deal) is a contemplation on ageing and mortality (“Clean mind or clean body, choose one or the other/ Having both seems overindulgent … I go grey, you win again/ I grow weak, you win again”). Musically, this is the most adventurous the band has ever been, having incorporated non-traditional post-punk instruments like cello, viola, and clarinet.

Given its origin, Consolation EP may seem like a collection of throwaways culled from the cutting floor of Protomartyr’s last LP. Truth is, each of these four tracks stand on their own as being just as individualistic as any of the band’s best materials. Apart from Kelley Deal, who’s clearly a welcome addition here, a brilliant thing about this EP lies in its number of tracks — a perfectly bite-sized dose where booming drums, looming basslines and thrashing guitars are allowed to breathe instead of competing with one another as is the case with all of their previous full-lengths.