Formal Growth In The Desert

デトロイト・ポストパンク・シーンの雄
プロトマーターが〈Domino〉から放つ最新アルバム!!

毎作各メディアから高い評価を受ける米デトロイト・ポストパンク・シーンを代表するバンドプロトマーターが最新アルバムを名門〈Domino〉からリリース。ザ・フォールやワイヤーといった伝説的バンドから、現行のアイスエイジなどにまで比較されるポストパンク・サウンドと、ヴォーカルのジョー・ケイシーのバリトン・ヴォイスで地元デトロイトシーンはもとよりUSシーンでも絶大な人気を誇る彼ら。
2020年にはブリーダーズのケリー・ディールをツアー・メンバーに迎えたこともバンドの成長へと大きな影響を与えている中で制作された本作は、テキサスのトーニローにあるソニック・レンチでレコーディングされ、かつてないほどのダイナミックなサウンドに進化した。

Ever since they released No Passion All Technique in 2012, Protomartyr have been a band more than a little obsessed with ranting about a world gone wrong, as seen from their window in one of Detroits less scenic neighborhoods. Their fifth album, 2020s Ultimate Success Today, came as Americas growing political and racial divide was dominating the news cycle while the COVID-19 pandemic became more severe than anyone expected, and it felt like the uncomfortable musings of a paranoid discovering the world really was out to get them. It was brilliant while leaving an open question of where the band could go next, and 2023s Formal Growth in the Desert finds them no more optimistic than usual but embracing the reality that sometimes theres nowhere to go but forward. As Ultimate Success Today saw them expanding their tonal palette with contributions from free jazz artists Jemeel Moondoc and Izaak Mills, Formal Growth features pedal steel player William Radcliffe on nine of its twelve tracks, adding a simple but effective orchestral feel that supplements the more traditional force of Greg Ahees big, echoey six-string. (Ahee, who co-produced the album with engineer Jake Aron, said the steel was influenced by his passion for vintage spaghetti western scores). The melodies are as straightforward and muscular as ever, with more graceful structures, yet executed with the precision and dynamic that make their music so satisfying, especially the powerfully imaginative drumming of Alex Leonard and the rich, malleable basslines of Scott Davidson. As great as the band is, its the vocals and lyrics of Joe Casey that set Protomartyr apart from their peers, and here his dramatic, compelling spiels deal with the deeply personal (the death of his mother in "Graft vs. Host" and the constant break-ins that led him to leave his longtime home in "We Know the Rats"), and the unfortunately universal (poisonous nostalgia in "Fun in Hi Skool," the cluelessness of the economic elite in "Tip the Creator," the abuse of the working class in "Fulfillment Center"), and as always, hes impassioned and literate, speak-singing with a barely simmering fury that makes room for compassion for those done wrong. Protomartyr would almost certainly have sounded like nay-sayers even in Americas salad days, but in 2023 Formal Growth in the Desert plays like another State of the Union address from this band of intelligent malcontents, and what they have to say is strikingly effective as editorial commentary and as music. ~ Mark Deming

デトロイトのポスト・パンク・バンドがデビュー10年を突破してら新作をリリース。砂漠をメタファーにしたタイトルが仄めかすように、この期間に母親を亡くしたフロントマンのジョー・ケイシーは、痛みから始まって、やがて事実を受け入れて前進するというプロセスを作品そのものの流れに反映しているようだ。より感情的に、ダイナミックに進化したサウンドにブッ飛ばされる。
bounce (C)亜蘭済士