• The Thin Air Podcast: Elaine Howley

    June 12, 2025 - By 

    After a brief, half-decade hiatus, we’re delighted to say The Thin Air podcast has returned for Season 3, hosted by Danny Carroll. This season will have a particular focus on the creative practice of self-recording artists, featuring an expanse of deeply personal approaches to the process, and the myriad ways a song – and career- can take shape. In this episode, we meet someone who has long been a TTA favourite, Elaine Howley, a singer and producer originally from Tipperary, and now based in Co. Cork. Danny Carroll went to see Elaine at her home in Dripsey, on a particularly…

  • Track Record: Pebbledash

    May 20, 2025 - By 

      To mark the release of their new single ‘Asha’s Waltz’ today, Cork-based quartet Pebbledash select the records that inspired them from Leonard Cohen to Horsegirl. Photos by Erin Plaice Leonard Cohen – Death of a Ladies’ Man Fionnbharr: As much as we all enjoy the bit of noise, there’s a deep vein of appreciation for the lyricism of artists like Leonard Cohen or Jackson C. Frank amongst all of us in Pebbledash. This is Cohen at his most maximal and, for what the man is known for, perhaps his most unconventional – rarely do we hear him howl how…

  • Cian Ó Cíobháin on 26 Years of An Taobh Tuathail – and 26 Tracks That Shaped It

    April 30, 2025 - By 

    For over a quarter of a century, Cian Ó Cíobháin’s An Taobh Tuathail has been an almighty force in Irish broadcasting and a nightly dispatch from the edges of sound. First aired on 1st May 1999, the show has long operated as RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s flagship for leftfield and alternative music, delivering everything from ambient drift and avant-pop to underground techno and wayward folk. Presented in Irish but universal in scope, ATT has steadily, and ever increasingly built a reputation as one of the most vital and visionary radio shows on this island – and far beyond it. This…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 25th April

    April 25, 2025 - By 

    Dive into the very best Irish music of the week, featuring Junior Brother, AM Shanley, Stratford Rise, Hamer Place, Charlie Hanlon, Maria Somerville and more. Photo by Ellius Grace Junior Brother – Small Violence AM Shanley – AMERICAN VANILLA AMERICAN VANILLA by AM Shanley Stratford Rise – Gunshow Hamer Place – Gerry’s Retired Gerry’s Retired by Hamer Place Charlie Hanlon – Foreshadowing Maria Somerville – Projection Cathal Francis – Snowblind Snowblind by Cathal Francis Dose – After This After This by Dose Cliffords – Dungarvan Bay Offica – Go Mo Laura Duff – Fondness Of You DREAM BOY – Ivory…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 18th April

    April 17, 2025 - By 

    Dive into brand new gems from God Knows, M(h)aol, Nerves, VARO featuring Lankum’s Ian Lynch, YARD, RUÁ and Skinner Photo by Yana Babkina God Knows – The Observer Feat. Dreddy M(h)aol – I Miss My Dog Nerves – Dirty Fingers VARO feat Ian Lynch – Sweet Liberty RUÁ – Forbidden Pleasures Skinner – Eisbär (Grauzone Cover) ​ YARD – Slumber

  • Monday Mixtape: Ramper

    April 14, 2025 - By 

    Off the back of his sublime debut album, Loner, Donegal alt-folk artist Declan McClafferty aka Ramper talks us through some of his all-time favourite songs – from Kate Bush and the Bothy Band, to Dylan, Villagers and beyond. Photo by Joe Doherty Bob Dylan – Girl From The North Country I think this was the first song that pulled me out of listening to music through the prism of what the guitars were doing. I got a bit obsessed with the simplicity of it – acoustic, vocal, harmonica. Dylan is like a big hole. If you get stuck in there…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 4th April

    April 4, 2025 - By 

    Irish music this week isn’t so much stacked as spilling over. Hear brand new cuts from Myles Manley (who we’re bringing to Ulster Sports Club on Good Friday – tickets below), Search Results, Garrett Laurie, The Null Club, Data.Soul, The Number Ones and many more. Myles Manley – Jeremiaaad 1 // Di Fontaines Tickets for Myles Manley and Garden Centre at the Ulster Sports Club in Belfast on Friday 11th April are right here Search Results – Be Laurel Garrett Laurie – Something Blue Data.Soul – My Data Soul The Null Club – The Null Club Monday’s Child – Love,…

  • Premiere: David Murphy & Ether Ensemble – The March of the King of Laois

    April 3, 2025 - By 

    Cork’s, and arguably Ireland’s premier pedal steel player David Murphy released one of our favourite albums of last year with debut LP Cuimhne Ghlinn: Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar. A sublime collection of interpretations of traditional songs, it was another part of a growing body of work that is reshaping the role of the pedal steel away from its American roots and into global folk and contemporary music. His work has spanned soundtracks, collaborations with acclaimed Irish songwriters like The Lost Brothers, Arborist and John Blek, to versions of Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Rain Song’ and Aphex Twin’s…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 28th March

    March 28, 2025 - By 

    It’s another stacked week for new music from across the island. The releases are coming thick and very fast – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Lemoncello cover The Corrs in a way only they can. The Oh Yeah Centre’s latest Scratch My Progress compilation returns with standout tracks from Touzai and co. Connor McCann drops a stellar new EP, Cloakroom Q return with album number two, and there are some essential curveballers from Peng Weng, Unique Freaks and more. Link in bio Various Artists – Scratch My Progress Lemoncello – Breathless Connor McCann – After The End…

  • Video Premiere: Field Trip – I Get Down

    March 27, 2025 - By 

    It’s been a while – too long – since we last heard from Galway’s Field Trip. And while we’ll get into the hows and whys of that shortly, the return alone is cause enough for celebration. Today, we’re pleased to premiere ‘I Get Down’, a textbook harmony-laced gem that reaffirms just why the triom became one of the country’s most quietly beloved garage-pop bands. Taken from their long-awaited debut LP, Foreign Land, it’s a track that reaches gently into the past and brings something timeless back with it: bittersweet, impossibly earworming jangle-pop. Formed in Galway and fondly remembered for a…