• Classic Album: Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden

    Mark Hollis sits alone in his front room. He is tall, shaggy haired and slightly stooped. Frameless glasses are perched on the tip of his long nose as he flicks through a library hardback on the workings of the inner ear. In the corner of the room is a piano draped in grey oil cloth. It resembles a stunted pygmy elephant with unnaturally dainty feet. The piano is covered with books and the books are covered with dust. Hollis hasn’t played it in years, in decades. Not since he perfected music, in fact. Not since he finished it. Mark Hollis…

  • Inbound: Temper-Mental MissElayneous

    In this installment of Inbound, Loreana Rushe chats to the mesmerising Temper-Mental MissElayneous about her many influences, hiphop culture in Ireland and the power of the spoken word. Hi Elayne. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? (Your background, things you enjoy etc) All I wanted to be since as long as I can remember was different. Spumco’s Ren & Stimpy are my heroes since age 7. I wanted to correlate my artistic motives with their creator, Kricfalusi’s artistic vision to never repeat his characters facial expressions twice. I read multiple books simultaneously. Currently one of those many books is…

  • Q+A: Ted Chippington and the Nightingales

    Formed in Birmingham in 1979, post-punk mavericks the Nightingales split up in 1986 after seven years, three albums, eight John Peel sessions and tours with everyone from Bo Diddley to Nico. They returned to the stage in 2004, and are playing their first ever Irish dates this month, including a slot at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The band hit McHugh’s in Belfast on Thursday, May 8, with ‘anti-comedian’ Ted Chippington in tow, the man who Stewart Lee has often cited as the reason he started doing stand-up. Nightingales frontman Robert Lloyd and Chippington tell Andrew Johnston about life as outsiders. Words by Andrew Johnston…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… April

    April has certainly been a busy news month – in sports, we had lifetime bans and huge fines for court-side racism, as well as banana throwing (and eating); in entertainment we had Jeremy Clarkson, mostly just being Jeremy Clarkson; in politics we had a series of PR meltdowns for UKIP, many of them revolving around racism as well. Indeed, intolerance and prejudice has been widespread this month. There was no sparing the music world, either, with both Sky Ferreira and Avril Lavigne being branded racists for their respective music videos. It would be easy to be bogged down by all…

  • Classic Album: David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

    In Diamond Dogs, with a twisted and sophisticated take on his sound, David Bowie predicted a dark, post-apocalyptic future world. 40 years on, how does the prophecy and the music stand up? In 1974 David Bowie needed to deliver. The Ziggy Stardust album (1972) and accompanying stage show was a whirlwind success and saw Bowie become a significant rising star in America and the most important pop artist in the UK. The follow up, Aladdin Sane (1973), was swallowed up as a straight sequel by a public so Ziggy hungry, they barely noticed the (subtle but not insignificant) musical developments. In time for the Christmas market of the same…

  • The Record #004: Funzo

    The brainchild of Liam McDermott, Dublin hip-hop group Funzo have had a prolific and tireless journey since their inception in 2009. With 250 live shows – including numerous high-profile festival appearances – under their belt, they launch their debut album, The Great Lonesome, at Dublin’s Twisted Pepper on Saturday, May 17. Talking to us for the latest installment of The Record, McDermott fills us in about his songwriting process, the recording of the “concept” album and his very generous plan for its launch. In-studio photos by Shaun Neary. Hi Liam. You recently recorded your new album, The Great Lonesome. First off, can you tell us…

  • Interview: Ginnels

    Mark Chester’s Ginnels – a well-loved and lively part of Dublin’s ever expanding DIY scene – describe themselves modestly as “like your dickhead neighbour drowning out your Byrds and Feelies records with his poorly recorded noise ‘jams’ and his stoned mates. Except actually good.” They’re definitely right about the last part. Chester’s scene credentials are substantial, with the vocalist heavily linked in with Dublin record label Popical Island as well as playing roles in No Monster Club and Grand Pocket Orchestra. He seems able to orchestrate a collection of garage rock albums on a budget that’s too tight to talk of, and…

  • Ten must-see shows at Cathedral Quarters Arts Festival 2014

    Now in its fifteenth year, hands down Belfast’s most exciting, diverse and inspiring festival of music, culture and arts, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival returns from May 1-11. Boasting a programme featuring everyone from De La Soul and Tinariwen to Simon Amstell, Shonen Knife and Yuck, it is quite possibly the annual festival’s strongest roster to date. At the risk of scaling a mount of hyperbole, we reckon there is quite literally something for everybody at this year’s festival. Whether you look to the words and ideas of the likes of Bernard McLaverty or Mark Ellen, the comedy of Katherine Ryan or Howard Read et al, genre-defining artists such as The Handsome Family, The Selecter and Fuck Buttons or…

  • The First Time: Johno Leader (The Radioactive Grandma)

    Not for the last time, it’s the The First Time time. Belfast-based photographer Joe Laverty delivers yet another wonderful portrait shot, this time of Johno Leader from Co. Cavan acoustic indie-rock band The Radioactive Grandma, and gets the musician’s music-buying, making and loving firsts, traversing everyone from Moby, Val Normal, R Kelly and the Prodigy. First album you bought? The very first album I ever bought was purchased with vouchers that I got for my birthday. I was about 15 or 16 years old and that album was 1977 by Ash. It got played about five times before I was introduced to…

  • Inbound/exclusive stream: Nyt Bloomer

    Hailing from Donegal, Conor McNamee AKA Nyt Bloomer is one of the more interesting voices in Ireland’s thriving electronic music scene. I met with him at his April 24 show at the Menagerie with Shammen Delly and Colpey to speak about the inception of Nyt Bloomer, his record label You Can’t Break It Records, and his infatuation with sampling. Ahead of the vinyl release, Old Toys is available for streaming exclusively on The Thin Air, and the cassette can be bought in Belfast’s Sick Records. Hi Conor. Lets start with a little background – where did Nyt Bloomer come from? I…