Welcome to the ‘Night Shift’, the new single from the genre-defying Martyrs, available on all streaming platforms now!
A ferocious blast of melodic, metallic fury, the track is yet another sharp left turn from the Welsh DIY duo following their brief foray into flamenco-fuelled indie rock, ‘Pin Blue Sometime’ earlier this year. ‘Night Shift’ is available as a Free Bandcamp Exclusive maxi-single as well as appearing on all streaming platforms.

This time around Jon and Michael mine their experience of dead-end jobs to tell a tale of workplace macabre stretched taut over a sky-scraping wall of sound. Entirely incapable of adhering to genre confines, what begins as a seemingly straightforward homage to the likes of Soundgarden and Faith No More, soon warps into a wild array of chant-along choruses handclaps and ‘50s rock n’ roll inspired refrains. B-side ‘The Clinic’ is a haunting experiment in spoken word sound collage inspired by the novel The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk.

Martyrs are Jon and Michael, who began making music together in their hometown of Merthyr Tydfil aged 15. Confirmed genre agnostics, their output swerves between lo-fi electronica, picture-perfect post-yacht, ‘90s-tinged alt-rock and melancholic indie, sometimes within the same song.

Musical influences range from Amadou & Mariam to Richard Dawson, Khruangbin to Christopher Cross, Aphex Twin to Iron Maiden, with a particular focus on pro wrestling entrance themes of the 1980s. Broader inspirations are drawn from Giallo movies, VHS nostalgia, cold brew coffee and Dylan Thomas.

Entirely independent and passionately DIY, their work is written, recorded, produced and released from the confines of their respective kitchens, with all videos made by their own fair hands. They give much of their music away for free and the rest they sell to benefit charities close to their hearts.

Support from local radio and blogs helped their 2024 album ‘Luminism’ sell out of physical copies and reach 100,000 streams. Their last single ‘Pin Blue Sometime’ featured as a track of the week with Thomathy Entertainment, Negative White and The Indy Review and featured prominently on sites such as Joyzine and God Is In The TV.

‘Night Shift’ is the 3rd in a series of 10 planned single releases from Martyrs over the coming
months.

Emily Marsden – Editor
#IndieRevolution
@Indierevuk
indierevuk@gmail.com