• Premiere: Swimmers Jackson – Bliss

    March 12, 2020 - By 

    There’s reliable, then there’s London-based Dubliner Niall Jackson aka Swimmers Jackson. Whether you look to his output as a member of Dublin indie-rock heroes Bouts, the more in-your-face efforts of Sweat Threats or his solo output as Swimmers Jackson to date, he has a country-spanning, genre-flaunting track record of digging deep to deliver something brimming with pathos and intent. Recorded by Darragh Nolan at Asta Kalapa studios in Co. Wexford (below) new single ‘Bliss’ is no exception to the rule. Taken from Jackson’s forthcoming debut album, Murmuration, it’s a beautifully-crafted tale capturing those longed for moments of happiness and quiet satisfaction. “I spent…

  • Video Premiere: John Blek – Death & His Daughter Fair

    March 12, 2020 - By 

    Cork singer-songwriter John Blek is a rare master of his craft. Whist and masterfully considered, he plays a brand of contempoary folk that can snare a listener with the slightest chord change or incisive turn-of-phrase. Take new single, the quietly mesmeric ‘Death & His Daughter’. A delicate folk dance accompanied by easily one of our favourite videos of the year so far, it’s a feature-length meditation on loss and deliverance that encapsulates motifs right at the heart of Blek’s recently-released fifth solo album, The Embers. Catch Blek at the following shows this weekend, and have a first look at the video for ‘Death & His…

  • Video Premiere: Son Zept – 1D2D RISE

    February 11, 2020 - By 

    Though it’s nigh on impossible to select a highlight from his new, seven-track album, A, ‘1D2D RISE’ by Belfast-based electronic alchemist and all-round polymath Liam McCartan aka Son Zept is very hard to beat. Somnambulant and wistful in equal measure, it’s a slowly unravelling three-minute burst of warped-out ambient, melding broad washes of synth with heart-tugging, Plantastia-leaning synth arps. Speaking about the track and accompanying video – which you can have an exclusive first look at it below – McCartan said: “It came from those dimly lit 3am sessions that happen again and again with the headphones on really tight. Trying to…

  • EP Premiere: Panik Attaks – White Water Rafting

    February 3, 2020 - By 

    There’s timely releases, then there’s White Water Rafting by Dublin five-piece Panik Attaks. Clocking in under 10 minutes, it’s a searing and supremely fucked-off blitz, brimming with full-blown righteous indignation aimed squarely at Varadkar and other such paltry cunts clinging to power. A pay-what-you-like release on Bandcamp, the fury and fist-clenched bombast of tracks like ‘Fear’ and ‘Fire In The Hole’ is nothing short of thrilling to behold. Have a first listen to the release – and have a first look at the video to lead single and outright EP highlight ‘The Boom Is Back ‘ below. White Water Rafting by Panik Attaks

  • Premiere: Robbie Stickland – Lizard

    January 16, 2020 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first listen to the debut single from Dublin musician Robbie Stickland. Tackling issues of body dysmorphia and self-care head-on, ‘Lizard’ is a compelling opening gambit from the artist, who is something of a cult figure in Dublin’s indie scene. Having already supported the likes of Fontaines D.C and Paddy Hanna under his previous moniker Spongebob Eyelashes, the song is the first to be taken from Stickland’s forthcoming debut LP, Warm Jeans in the Morning. Speaking about the self-produced track, Stickland said, “I wrote it to explore the relationship I have had with myself over the…

  • Premiere: Not I – At The Beach

    December 20, 2019 - By 

    Dublin indie rock noisenik duo Not I are back with ‘At The Beach’, the second single taken from their forthcoming debut album – reportedly due next year. Produced by Christopher Barry at Ailfionn Studio and artwork from Linden Pomeroy, it conjures the no-peak malaise of The Microphones and Pavement at their most jittery. A singularly voiced lyricist, Thomas O’Reilly’s vaguely-pitched Lee Ranaldo-esque sing-talk has never been more convincing. Listen below:

  • Premiere: Like Chandeliers – Scars

    December 13, 2019 - By 

    Dublin three-piece Ronan Jackson, Nigel Farrelly and Christopher Barry aka Like Chandeliers have been concocting supremely sleepy sounds since 2016. Doubling up as their latest and greatest effort to date, new single ‘Scars’ is a wonderfully balmy dose of dream-pop, marrying broad, Badalamentian washes of synth with twinkling arps and Kranky-worthy, spoken-word vocals. Think Devotion-era Beach House, playing in the corner in a back room of the Bang Bang Bar, quietly relaying the heart-stung pangs and unknowability of it all in super slo-mo. It’s something Rita Macedo’s beautifully understated visuals for the track taps into and then some. Have a first listen and look below.

  • Album Premiere: Eoin Dolan – Commander of Sapiens

    November 22, 2019 - By 

    On his third full-length LP, Commander of Sapiens, Galway musician Eoin Dolan underscores his status as one of the country’s finest songwriters. Conjuring everyone from Animal Collective to the Beach Boys, songs like ‘Microship Visions’ and ‘Sheena’ meld starry-eyed harmonies and cosmic wanderlust with masterfully woozy refrains and sublime melancholia to deliver nine tracks of first-rate, surf-influenced sci-fi pop. Released in proud association with Galway-based collective Citóg and featuring long term collaborators Conor Deasy (guitar), James Casserly (drums) and Adam Sheeran (bass), the album wonderfully veers between themes including environmental destruction, mass consumerism and human cybernetics. Surely you’re sold by now? Stream it…

  • Album Premiere: Jogging – Whole Heart

    October 31, 2019 - By 

    We’ve premiered our fair share of albums here on The Thin Air, but – if truth be told – we’re struggling to recall one that we’ve loved so much, and so quickly, as Whole Heart by Dublin three-piece Jogging. The long-awaited follow-up to 2012’s Take Courage, it’s an emphatic (and rather heavier) ten-track return from Darren Craig, Gerard Mangan and Ronan Jackson. Out today via one of the country’s finest imprints, Out On a Limb, the album was engineered and produced by John “Spud” Murphy and Ian Chestnutt at Guerrilla Sound Studios in Dublin at the start of the year. To mark…

  • Premiere: Laurie Shaw – Had To Swerve

    October 29, 2019 - By 

    This Thursday, endlessly prolific, Cork-based songwriter Laurie Shaw will release his latest album, Helvetica. The follow-up to the exquisite Weird Weekends (which we premiered last January) the redord, we’re told, “delves deep into the British psyche, taking a poignant and timely look at its history and current society, moving between both fond and satirical tones.” New single ‘Had To Swerve’ edges into more darkly territory. Conjuring a midpoint between Sparklehorse, Department of Eagles and Amnesiac-era Radiohead, it makes for a brilliantly oppressive four-minute burst of scorched vocals and layered, spectral sounds. Have a first look at the Laurie Shaw-directed video for the single, as…