Protomartyr’s taut- austere rock was incubated in a freezing Detroit warehouse littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and warmed feebly by space heaters. Despite the cold Protomartyr emerged with a sound that is idiosyncratic but relatable hooky but off-kilter and economical in a way that elicits comparisons to possible antecedents like Pere Ubu or The Fall as well as local contemporaries like Frustrations or Tyvek -- all of which have combined here to make one stunner of a sophomore album and the band's first for Hardly Art.