Relatives in Descent

Relatives in Descent is the fourth studio album by American post-punk band Protomartyr released on 29 September 2017. Their first to be released through Domino Recording Company, the album is much darker and more philosophical than its predecessors. While lyrically not a concept album, it is produced so that many songs flow from one to another seamlessly. Relatives in Descent received critical acclaim upon release, with many publications ranking it one of the best albums of the year. Recording The band hired Sonny DiPerri to co-produce this album (known for his work with Animal Collective). In an interview, lead singer Joe Casey said that "we knew we wanted to go someplace different to record than the previous two records, so we wouldn't get in a rut [...] what was so great about Sonny was that he was very locked in to what we wanted." He said that the band "wanted to record somewhere warm and we went to California. Usually, we are recording in Michigan and it is characteristically cold." According to Casey, the change in recording location also helped them write more complicated songs than before. Guitarist Greg Ahee "was kind of enthralled with a certain kind of violin sound we heard [...] on a Raincoats record called Odyshape and then he wanted violin on the record. At first we heard it, and we all just thought, 'Ah shit, I don't know if that's going to work or not.'" He was also influenced by Mica Levi's score to Under the Skin. Asked on the source of the album's direction, Casey said: "For this record, we had just come off the road after doing a lot of touring. There were a lot of aches and pains so there was a lot of references to guts and generally feeling unwell. After the tour, my house also flooded. Before then, it had this smell of smoke and dust. Now I've got this mildew smell on top of that and the combination of these sensations and smell kind of infected the record." Content