• Resident Evil HD (Capcom, Multiformat)

    February 20, 2015 - By 

    Fittingly for a videogame about zombies, Resident Evil refuses to die. First released way, way back in 1996 on the Playstation, it was entirely rebuilt and remodelled six years later for the Nintendo Gamecube. Now Capcom have given us the remake of the remake, a concept that would sound like charlatanry if it were not for the fact that Resident Evil remains a fantastic game twenty years after it shuffled into the medium, groaning, clawing and chomping for brains. There is no doubt that some aspects of the gameplay feel archaic: the rhythm of get key, open door, obtain map, flick switch does seem…

  • More Acts Announced for Longitude

    February 20, 2015 - By 

    Joining the likes of headliners Hozier, Alt-J and The Chemical Brothers, seventeen new acts have been confirmed to play this year’s Longitude Festival. Taking place in Dublin’s Marlay Park over the weekend of Friday, July 17, the festival has revealed the following new additions to the schedule, with more still to be announced: James Blake, The Vaccines, Metronomy, Pusha T, Todd Terje, Danny Brown, Glass Animals, Everything Everything, Toro y Moi, Daphni, Jose Gonzalez, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Years & Years, Ibeyi, Benjamin Booker, Tove Lo, The Districts. Tickets are on sale now.

  • Where To Get The Thin Air Magazine

    February 20, 2015 - By 

    We’ve been getting quite a few people asking where exactly they can pick up a copy of our free, monthly magazine, so here’s a full list of where you can grab one in Belfast and Dublin. We’ll be fully expanding our distribution to Derry, Galway and Cork from March – fun times! Belfast Laverys, Woodworkers, Boojum (Botanic and Chichester Street), Black Box, Established Coffee, Voodoo, Black Bear, Cuckoo, Oh Yeah Centre, The Bar With No Name, Filthy McNastys, Dragon Records, Sick Records, Bubbacue, Pavilion Bar, Errigle Bar, Sinnamon (Botanic and Stranmillis), The Garrick, Nero (Europa, Rosemary Street & Fountain Street), QFT,…

  • The Hefty Fog: The Aussie Triumvirate

    February 20, 2015 - By 

    The latter half of the 00’s were, as far as underground Metal music was concerned, focused almost entirely on the advent and subsequent decline of ‘Slamming Brutal Death Metal’, or however many variants on that title had been adopted during the time. The grooves of the early to mid 90’s had resurfaced on a Death Metal scene that desperately needed some kind of facelift, lest the hardcore fans be doomed to relive the 80’s over and over again like some kind of Scott Burns-produced Groundhog Day. What we got in the end was a newly popularized strain of Death Metal…

  • Playspace @ QFT, Belfast

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    Belfast’s Queen’s Film Theatre will host its first ever gaming festival, Playspace, over the weekend of Saturday, February 28 to Sunday, March 1. Set to feature a whole array of film screenings, creative sessions, demo stations and a big screen Halo tournament, the weekend will peak on two of the very best cinema and video game mash-up films ever: Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World (above) and the endlessly iconic Tron. Creative Sessions on game design and more will take place across the two days and nights. Check out the full schedule for and buy tickets to Playspace here.

  • Track Record: The Dead Prezidents

    February 20, 2015 - By 

    Reagan and Nixon from The Dead Prezidents select their favourite dance records from Nineties classics such as Wink and Da Hool to their love for Positiva Records. Photos by Tara Thomas. Positiva Records There’s no particular song in this case, but a record label. For anyone who is familiar with the dance music scene, Positiva back in the day would be equivalent to the likes of Spinnin records now (currently the biggest dance music label). All the biggest tracks came out on this label. So when we were less musically educated at the beginning of our DJ careers, we would have just…

  • Culture Vultures First Birthday Party @ Odessa Club

    February 23, 2015 - By 

    Monthly Dublin pop culture event Culture Vultures celebrates its birthday at the Odessa Club on Wednesday, March 18 in the company of none other than the living, breathing manifestation of charming itself, the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon. Over the last twelve months, Culture Vultures – which combines music, spoken word and public interview – has welcomed stellar line-ups to the intimate surrounds of the Dublin venue. The likes of Glenn Patterson, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Carolan, Lenny Abrahamson, and Panti have taken to sitting under the spotlight to chat with with Tony Clayton-Lea. Tickets for the birthday celebration – priced at €15…

  • Echo & The Bunnymen w/ Arborist @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    Thirty-seven years in, Echo & The Bunnymen’s repute as one of the most vital and influential British rock bands ever is long beyond contention.  Notwithstanding a couple of reunions and several line-up changes, Ian McCullough and co – founding guitar/songwriter Will Sergeant and a considerably more callow touring band – have battened down the hatches for the long run, summoning their pioneering post-punk “glory days” on stage where recent recorded material has just fallen short of that early vitality. Tonight they offer up the timeless magic once more, an undeniably legendary proposition. With a steady stream of expectant heads herding into the Mandela Hall, singer-songwriter Mark…

  • Reluctant Yet Obligatory Review of the Year: 50 Shades of Grey

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    It’s hard to imagine anyone leaving their cinema seat after Fifty Shades of Grey feeling truly satisfied. Certainly not people like me, who had followed the on-set bust ups and disastrous pre-release press tour with some amusement and turned up hoping to see a hilariously terrible turkey. In fact, the movie is entirely well-made – it’s just well-made to a fault. This a cold, sterile piece, over-produced to within an inch of its life and with no semblance of real human sentiment or emotional weight that should come in a film that entirely focuses on a complex romantic relationship between…