New Protomartyr, ‘The Agent Intellect’ streaming on NPR

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Detroit four-piece Protomartyr have returned with a whole new set of songs after delivering on breakthrough LP Under Color Of Official Right in 2014. This latest release, The Agent Intellect, cements the band’s place at the forefront of the crowded post-punk landscape, full of frenetic and lurching melodies over gloomy notions of anxiety, social pressures, and the authenticity of happiness in the modern age. Such subject matter can get heavy pretty quickly, but the band treads water without getting bogged down through energetic riffs that tumble together with a pop sensibility that feels haphazard in its joyful abandon. Listen to the record below, and catch the band live when they come through the Middle East on October 13.