• EP Premiere: R51 – Pillow Talk

    March 23, 2015 - By 

    Belfast-based quintet R51 have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Having cultivated a perfectly pulverizing live show and an effects-laden, shoegaze-tinged noise-pop craft that continues to surprise and intrigue, the Melyssa Shannon-fronted quartet will launch their debut EP, Pillow Talk, at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Wednesday night (April 25). In his review of the EP for the Thin Air, Will Murphy said, “Each one of the songs has something to recommend, be it the Sigur Ros vibe permeating throughout the EP closer, ‘Seaweed’, the spaced out verses on ‘I Hate That Too’ or the monstrously huge chorus on ‘Pillow…

  • Belfast Film Festival Programme Launch

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    Set to take place in venues across the city from April 16-26, the programme for the 15th Belfast Film Festival has been announced. As is very much its custom, the festival has an extraordinarily diverse line-up up its sleeve this year, with categories boasting categories including New Cinema, Altered States & Twisted Corners, Northern Irish Independents/Shorts, as well as Opening & Closing films I Am Belfast, Shooting For Socrates and The Survivalist. Check out the full programme and buy tickets at the Belfast Film Festival website here.

  • Watch: All Tvvins – Thank You

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    Having received its premiere on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 programme last month, Dublin duo All Tvvins have unveiled the rather fabulous video for their triumphant debut single, ‘Thank You’. In January we summed up a live version of the track, released last year as “A charming and bewitching math-pop track released as a live video from the post-Adebisi supergroup. Whip-smart in the composition, and beautifully restrained in the delivery, it is a wonderful dichotomy of heart-warming melodies and existential uncertainty, sealed with searing, aching swell guitar.” The video for the single – a hyper-disco, ballerina-centric mini-masterpiece – was directed by Brendan…

  • Stream: Rusangano Family – Wasteman

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Formerly known as God Knows + mynameisjOhn, month we had the pleasure of bearing witness to Limerick’s Rusangano Family live in a filming of the Parlour (in which were also guests) at Whelan’s, Dublin. Both on and off camera, the guys – one of the featured acts in our 15 for ’15 feature – delivered an electrifying brace of tracks including the equal parts excellent and ethical ‘Wasteman’. Now, ahead of their midnight performance at our second birthday party at Dublin’s Twister Pepper on Saturday, May 2, the trio have released a studio version of the track. Featuring guitar from Steve Ryan of Windings,…

  • Watch: Patrick Gardiner – I’m Your Creation

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Cornwall-based, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Patrick Gardiner is a methodical songsmith that thrives on the intricacies of his craft. From the poise and refrain of his carefully-considered words to specific chord changes and structures, he has really made an impression on us, live, on more than one occasion. Three years on from his self-released debut EP, Save Myself, the Co. Down musician will release its five-track follow-up, Carcassonne, on April 1. On first listen, it’s a subtly eclectic mix of acoustic tale-telling, Gardiner’s earnest delivery on each track hovering confidently over full-band tracks underpinned with some instantly memorable melodic threads and pop nuances. Ahead…

  • The Thin Air’s Second Birthday @ Twisted Pepper, Dublin

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    We’ll be celebrating our grand second birthday at Dublin’s The Twisted Pepper on Saturday, May 2. Kicking off at 6pm in the Twisted Pepper cafe with an exhibition of our magazine covers to date and selected work from our fantastic team of photographers. Following that we have Robocobra Quartet and Night Trap live in the Stage room with our headliners who will be announced on April 2nd. Rusangano Family (pictured) will be playing a special midnight gig for us in the cafe too along with DJ sets from BATS and Andy Walsh from Little Gem. More info to be announced…

  • The Thin Air Stage @ Sunflowerfest

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    We are extremely pleased to announce we’ll be curating the scenic Barn stage on Saturday, August 1 at this year’s rebranded Sunflowerfest. Expect further details from us shortly about the stage, which is set to feature an eclectic mix of some of our favourite bands – both established and hotly-tipped – from across the entirety of the island; some of whom will be making their first Northern appearance. Sunflowerfest runs at Tubby’s Farm in Hillsborough – 20 miles from Belfast – during the weekend of Friday, July 31 until Sunday, August 2. With the line-up for our stage TBA, this year’s festival promises the likes of reggae/dub act Dreadzone, up-and-coming folk…

  • Stream: Arborist – Twisted Arrow (feat. Kim Deal)

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    In one of the more curious, unlikely – and, let’s face, envy-inducing – collaborations headed by a Irish singer-songwriter in quite some time, Belfast-based folk songsmith Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist has unveiled his latest effort, featuring backing vocals from none other than Kim Deal. Speaking about the collaboration, McCambridge said: “The harmony part was always there, from the moment the song was written and recorded here in Belfast.  But it needed a unique voice.  Fancifully, we drew-up a shortlist of desirable candidates with Kim far and away top of the list.  So, we contacted her – as you do – and after a…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Donegal

    March 13, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of jetting off to SXSW next week – and our Belfast show with them and Blue Whale at QUBSU’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 – Dublin experimental band Meltybrains? have unveiled the video for the stupendous ‘Donegal’. When the track first reared its heard at the start of February we called it a “spirited, expansive ode to escapism – reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marry in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon.” Donegal will be released as part of the band’s debut vinyl release, ‘Donegal/IV’, on February 16. Buy it here. Watch the video for ‘Donegal’…

  • Watch: Skelocrats – Zirconium Heart

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Not that you need reminding, but those notoriously sonically incestuous Popical Island lads are a quare bunch of busybodies this weather. Having unveiled the video for his very own ‘The Loneliest Master’ just yesterday, Bobby Aherne AKA No Monster Club is the directorial maestro behind the cosmic-romance themed video for Skelocrats‘ effortlessly earworming ‘Zirconium Heart’. The song will feature on the Dublin band’s forthcoming album, Bella Bella, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar with Ginnels and Switzerland on Friday, April 17.  The band will also play Sweeney’s, Dublin on May 9 and  Galway’s Roisin Dubh with Paddy Hanna on May 14.…