New Video: Protomartyr - Worm In Heaven

Protomartyr Release new single & video “Worm In Heaven” - watch here Ultimate Success Today gets new July 17th release date Today, Protomartyr present a new single/video, “Worm In Heaven,” off of their forthcoming album, Ultimate Success Today, which has had its release date moved to July 17th, out on Domino. Additionally, Protomartyr must sadly cancel their scheduled 2020 tour dates. Ticket buyers should seek refunds at the point of purchase. The band looks forward to bringing these songs on the road as soon as safely possible.

 Following lead single “Processed By The Boys”, “Worm In Heaven” winds with meandering guitar, mellow drums, and Joe Casey’s consuming voice: “I am a worm in heaven / so close to grace /  could lick it off of the boot heels of the blessed.” Eventually, the track rises with crashing instrumentation and a repeated refrain. The accompanying video, directed by Trevor Naud, is a collection of abstract still images stitched together. It was inspired by the 1962 Chris Marker short film La Jetée and was shot using limited resources, mainly a 35mm film camera, with no film crew. As the video goes on, the images grow stranger and more off-putting.

“The idea is a sort of dream chamber that has lured its creator into a near-constant state of isolation,” says director Trevor Naud. “She lives out her days trapped as the sole subject of her own experiment: the ability to simulate death. It is like a drug to her. Everything takes place in a small, claustrophobic environment. With soft, yet sterile visuals. Perhaps a strange combo to reference, but imagine the cover of the Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup and the character of Carol White in Todd Haynes’ 1995 film Safe."

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“I'd been experimenting with shooting multiples of still photographs and stitching them together so that there's subtle movement,” explains Naud,  “almost like a 3-D camera effect, but awkward and sort of unsettling--like looking at a photograph under shallow water. I shot upwards of 700 still frames on a Nikon F Photomic camera. I embraced the lines and artifacts from the film scans, which give a sort of Xerox quality to some of the images. All the special effects were done in-camera using mirrors, projectors and magnifying glasses.”
Protomartyr is Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitars), Alex Leonard (drums), and Scott Davidson (bass guitar). Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017 (featured on myriad “best of” lists, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, Loud & Quiet and more), Ultimate Success Today continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like.

“There is darkness in the poetry of Ultimate Success Today; the theme of things ending, above all human existence, is present,” says Ana da Silva, founding member of The Raincoats and friend of the band.  “There are exquisite, subtle gifts from other instruments that always heighten the guitar, instead of fighting with it. They help to create a harmonious wall of sound all of its own. This was intentional. Ahee wanted to use different textures other than pedals, and the drone quality of some of those instruments colours the guitar and the whole sound with a warm, rich in reverb, landscape for Casey’s voice.”

Ultimate Success Today features guest musicians Nandi Rose (vocals) a.k.a. Half Waif, jazz legend Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).

Watch the video for “Processed By The Boys” here.
Watch the video for “Worm In Heaven” here.
Stream “Worm In Heaven” here.

Ultimate Success Today is available to pre-order now on LP, CD and digital formats. A limited blue-in-red coloured edition of the LP is available exclusively on the Domino Mart.
Pre-order: Dom Mart | Digital

GERARD ESENKBRINK

Label & Product Manager V2 Records