Martyn Young

Scotland

Contributing Editor at Dork

Contributing editor, list maker and nonsense provider at @readdork co-host @chartattackpod He/Him https://t.co/D7NwFp5yBt

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Articles

Keo: Built on belief, buzz and bloody good songs

1 week ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

If you’ve been at all active online this year, you’ll have seen the same name pop up again and again: one you think could be a solo artist or maybe a group, or, actually, you might have no idea what it is, but it’s always there swirling around the hyper-speed fevered world of socials.
Aitch: "Don't ever say that I fell off"

1 week ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

“There was definitely a lot of fire in my belly,” says Aitch confidently as he talks about his storming comeback with his second album ‘4’.
From grapes to raisins: Niko B's sunny philosophy shapes his most summer-ready release yet, new EP 'People'

3 weeks ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Niko B is one of the most singular artists working in Britain right now. With no filter, no boundaries and a wonderfully creative and surreal worldview, the rapper, born Tom Austin, has cultivated a huge underground following through all his work across music and different creative avenues over the last few years with an impulsive attitude and a glorious free-spirited approach to creative expression.
Miso Extra brings her vibrant creative vision to life with debut album 'Earcandy'

1 month ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Miso Extra lives to create. Whether it’s art, music, visuals or actual physical objects – she’s a real whizz at ceramics on the classic pottery wheel, don’t you know – Miso’s head is always buzzing with ideas. It’s this imagination and playfulness to mess around with stuff that has made her music so inventive and compelling for a couple of incredibly good EPs that have established the creative world that she calls ‘The Misoverse’.
Japanese Breakfast: "I don't want to make art that everyone likes"

1 month ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Over three albums as Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner has established herself as a masterful chronicler of emotions. She deals in big feelings, expansive sounds and widescreen passion. On her fourth album, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (and sad women)’, Zauner delves deeper and darker into a fantastical world of heightened emotional tension and rich storytelling. The third Japanese Breakfast album, ‘Jubilee’, celebrated the transcendent power of joy through sparkling, synth-filled pop songs.
Self Esteem: "Everyone pretends, and the goal is to pretend as little as possible"

1 month ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Way back in 2019, Rebecca Lucy Taylor said she envisioned her career as Self Esteem as being The People’s Pop Star – a beloved national treasure as comfortable on Graham Norton’s sofa as on the biggest stages in the country. Those aspirations largely materialised with her seismic second album ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ in 2021, but Self Esteem’s journey has proven much more nuanced, messy and fractured than those early widescreen visions, culminating in her third album ‘A Complicated Woman’.
Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE

2 months ago | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Label: JagjaguwarReleased: 11th April 2025Justin Vernon is an artist who has gently traversed the thorny spectrum of cool for almost twenty years now with Bon Iver, sometimes having huge mainstream breakthroughs like winning Grammy Awards and collabing with Taylor Swift but at others content to quietly plough his own esoteric but distinctly singular furrow. You can kind of see him as an internet-age version of old 80s pop star Phil Collins.
Chloe Moriondo - oyster

Mar 26, 2025 | readdork.com | Martyn Young

Label: AtlanticReleased: 28th March 2025After the bonkers hyperpop-inflected excess of Chloe Moriondo’s second album ‘Sucker Punch’ comes the reflective and lucid songwriting brilliance of ‘Oyster’. ‘Oyster’ captures all the sonic impulses and flights of fancy that make Chloe such a great pop figure; this time, though, it’s more refined and focused. Less of the kitchen sink and more of the perfectly arranged group of utensils that all serve a specific purpose.
The Horrors – Night Life - Dork

Mar 19, 2025 | readdork.com | Martyn Young |Abigail Firth

Label: FictionReleased: 21st March 2025The Horrors are one of those bands who are always reliably brilliant. They never let you down and are always inventive and mystifying, dark and alluring. Most importantly, they are still here, which few people would have predicted when they emerged with the unhinged scrappy punk chaos of their debut ‘Strange House’.
Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) - Dork

Mar 19, 2025 | readdork.com | Martyn Young |Abigail Firth

Label: Dead OceansReleased: 21st March 2025Melancholy can come in waves, or it can be a pervasive all-encompassing presence that inflects everything. For Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, melancholy and channelling that sense of sadness into creative magic is the spirit that informs her stunning fourth album ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad Women)’.