Joyzine first crossed paths with Michael Hall in the heady days of the early 2000s when we were cutting our teeth in the burgeoning music scene centred around the excellent Pop of The Tops nights at The Paradise Bar (RIP) in New Cross. He was fronting the suave indie pop band Nebraska, I was trying to take vaguely competent photographs on my 3 megapixel compact digital camera and scribbling impassioned, cliche-ridden reviews. I doubt that either of us expected to still be doing this twenty-two years later.
Yet here we are: the resolution of my camera images has multiplied (I’ll leave you, dear reader, to gauge the progress or otherwise of my writing) and with Nebraska having called it a day, Hall is now one half of DIY duo Martyrs, but the spirit remains the same.
Martyrs are originally from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, though they are now based in Kent, and first made music together when they were 15. They describe their sound as bridging ‘the uneasy gap between Arab Strap and Suede’, and new single ‘Pin Blue Sometime’, the second in a planned series of ten releases, minds that gap splendidly with its spoken word verses, flamenco guitar flourishes and horn section. Its understated, gently bittersweet indie romanticism stands in stark contrast to the chugging stadium rock locomotive of previous single ‘The View From a Memorial Bench‘, showcases the bands contempt for genre boundaries.
We’re delighted to be offering an exclusive first chance to download of the maxi-version of ‘Pin Blue Sometime’ absolutely free – you can listen and download via Bandcamp on the link below.
Martyrs: Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky / Bandcamp
Article by Paul Maps
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