• In Photos: The Thin Air Showcase feat. Our Krypton Son, Arborist, The Wood Burning Savages & Rory Nellis

    November 18, 2013 - By 

    Belfast-based photographer Diarmuid Kennedy was in attendance to capture our showcase at The Pavilion, Belfast as part of this year’s Belfast Music Week. Performing on the night were Rory Nellis, a fast-rising singer-songwriter – also frontman with Belfast-based indie pop four-piece Seven Summits – impressively progressing Derry-based quartet The Wood Burning Savages, the wonderfully Autumnal song of Belfast band Arborist and the ever magnificent Our Krypton Son AKA Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy. Check out Diarmuid’s photos from the night below.

  • Watch: We Cut Corners – YKK

    November 18, 2013 - By 

    Having released a stream of it last month, Dublin indie rock duo We Cut Corners have unveiled the Eoin Heaney-directed video for their new single, ‘YKK’. Filmed in black and white, the minimalist video features the pair performing the track in front of supremely seizure-inducing visuals from Dublin-based projection/visual artist collective LeTissier. ‘YKK’ is released via Delphi on November 25 and is set to feature on We Cut Corners’ second studio album, which will be released next year. Watch the video below via Vimeo.

  • The National @ The Odyssey, Belfast

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Restraint. A hard quality to achieve in one’s day to day life. Musically, however, it’s very difficult indeed. Amplified by speaker stacks and placed in the glare of spotlights, many bands affect emotion by stomping on a distortion pedal or guldering angst-ridden couplets. In stark contrast, the austere members of The National continually reign in such fits of childish pique. Take, for example, ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, with its spiralling drum patterns, mournful horns and droning guitar. It’s a perfect storm albeit one that never breaks but pulses and throbs towards a climax which never quite arrives. It creates a thrilling tension,…

  • TTA Session #002: Hurdles

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Off the back the release of their brilliant Where To Start EP, Belfast-based indie pop band Hurdles are our second featured act on our ongoing Thin Air Live Session series. Filmed and edited by the ridiculously talented Colm Laverty – with audio recorded and mixed by the upstanding and handsome James Bruce – the session features an interview with the Niall Hanna-fronted four-piece and performances of ‘Ruthless’ and their most recent single ‘Control’. Miss our first session with Bellos? Check it out here. Watch the session with Hurdles below!

  • Enablers, Blue Whale, Selaah @ Voodoo, Belfast

    November 16, 2013 - By 

    Five years on from wowing a close-knit assembly at Lavery’s Bunker, one of the most distinctive post-rock bands of a generation return to the Belfast tonight dogged and purposeful despite founding guitarist Joe Goldring having his guitar stolen in Dublin the night before. Founded in 2004 and fronted by poet and spoken word artist Pete Simonelli, San Francisco’s Enablers are all but an act unto themselves, their thoroughly immersive brand of abrasive yet introspective instrumentalism propelled by a masterful confrontational voice that just about guarantees special things on the stage time and time again. Kicking off proceedings in typically inimitable fashion…

  • An Introduction to: Wendy Carlos

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Wendy Carlos, musician and arranger, is 74 today. If you haven’t heard of her then you will certainly have heard her work on the soundtracks to A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and the original Tron. It was her 1968 triple Grammy winning Switched-On Bach that established her reputation. Like so many great ideas the work was based on a simple notion – arrange JS Bach for the synthesiser. Having worked as an adviser to Robert Moog, she was uniquely qualified for the task. The album sold over a million copies and was influential in all kinds of ways. Vince Clarke…

  • Inbound: TVVINS

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Made up of Conor Adams of The Cast Of Cheers and Lar Kaye of Adebisi Shank (who between the two of them also produce music as No Spill Blood and Charmers) to say Dublin synth newbies TVVINS have local street cred is something of an understatement. It’s that very indie credibility that perhaps makes the nature of the ‘TVVINS’ pairing something of a surprise. Gone are the pulsating guitars through which Adams and Kaye made their names; in their place lashing synths, vocoder-heavy lyrics and fuzzy dance-party angles. Things weren’t always that way. When Kaye and Adams first met, Kaye…

  • Track Record: Michael McKeegan (Therapy?)

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of our Belfast Music Week listening party with him on Wednesday, November 13, Therapy? bassist Michael ‘The Evil Priest’ McKeegan gave photographer Liam Kielt exclusive access to his enviable record collection for the latest installment of Track Record. Featuring  acts as diverse Kraftwerk to Iron Maiden, McKeegan talks Liam through some of his most prized records from down the years ahead of the release of his own band’s Gemil Boxset (which you can check out/buy right here). Bad Brains – I Against I It was one of the first punky harcore records I got into. I’d never heard anything like…

  • The First Time: David C Clements

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of his appearance at the Belfast Music Week showcase at the Limelight tonight, alt-folk singer-songwriter David C Clements is the latest local artist to allow Belfast-based photographer Joe Laverty (responsible for the wonderful portrait photo above) insight into the “firsts” of their listening, loving and making lives. First album you bought? Bathroom floor by Booley First single you bought? ‘Spaceman’ by Babylon Zoo First live concert/gig? Phantom of the Opera in the Point, but my first actual gig was Stereophonics supported by Turin Brakes. First album you properly loved? Biffy Clyro – Blackened Sky   First artist/band to change your music-listening/making life?…

  • EP Stream: Chocolate Love Factory – Pickle & POG

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its launch at Belfast’s Radar tonight, Thursday November 14, Belfast-based four-piece Chocolate Love Factory have released a digital stream of their latest EP, Pickle & POG. A six-track release featuring the single ‘Motivator’, the EP was recorded between Clark Phillips and Ben McAuley over the last year and a half. Following the departure of bassist Pearse McClelland, the band have recently expanded to a four-piece, incorporating members of the equally progressively-inclined Yellow Car No Return and The Institute* into the fold. Go here for the event page for the band’s EP launch, also set to feature The Big…