• Primer: ADW

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    In this instalment of Primer street artist ADW chats about his recent projects & inspirations. Photos and interview by Mark Earley. Hi ADW, how’s tricks? Hiya! I’m great thanks, flying high and life couldn’t be better! Can you tell us about your current work? Last November I completed a new body of work which was presented in the solo exhibition BORN TO CREATE and, as I speak, I’ve just stepped off site from after a commission in the 3Arena, in their Premium Lounge no less. It’s been a hectic few months, but loving every minute. BORN TO CREATE, which was you 4th…

  • Stream: Gadget and the Cloud – And I Told You Something True

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Outside of her relatively recent music-making as Gadget and the Cloud, Cork’s Kelly Doherty has been an active, respected voice as music writer, critic and campaigner for a few years now. Also an occasional contributor to The Thin Air (full disclosure and all that) Doherty launched the “sad ambient sounds” of GATC in late November, 2015 with October 31st, a debut five-track release of sparse, elegiac drones and bleeping sub-pop. Fifteen months on, released during a period of personal bereavement, ‘And I Told You Something True’ is a similarly minimal effort, bounding with choppy beats, quiet grace and fidgety, shimmering…

  • T2 Trainspotting

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Danny Boyle’s oddly-titled T2 Trainspotting is a Jonny-cum-lately [sic] sequel to the cult 1996 film. T2 picks up the threads of the saga some twenty years after the events of the first film (or T1, as I’ll call it), stitching together original elements from a screenplay by John Hodge with some bits of the novel Porno, Irvine Welsh’s sequel to his breakthrough 1993 novel. So, having ripped off his friends and fled to the Netherlands at the end of the first film, Renton (Ewan McGregor), returns to haunt Leith, the backdrop of T1’s lurid, heroin-fuelled events. Renton presents himself as…

  • Sleater-Kinney – Live In Paris

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Anyone who claims that Sleater-Kinney do not belong in the pantheon of great bands should be forced to listen to Dig Me Out, One Beat and The Woods until they can see how wrong they are. With their furiously impassioned lyrics, clever off kilter musicianship and jaw dropping live shows, they’re a trio who belong in every music lover’s heart, not just the punks or riot grrls. Despite their tenure, the group had not released anything which demonstrated how powerful and forceful they are on stage until Live In Paris. Recorded on the tour for their comeback album, No Cities…

  • 17 For ’17: DIE HEXEN

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Extending from the north of Ireland to the east of Asia, the scope of DIE HEXEN – spatially, temporally, and ideologically – is vast and fascinating, executed in a fashion that marks this enigma of performance art apart from any other musician in the country. DIE HEXEN defies definition or categorisation, an identity and an idea constantly in flux. It’s a marriage of western and eastern concepts; of the unique post-World War II Japanese art theatre, Butoh, the dance of darkness; of myriad twentieth century cinematic, musical and pop-cultural influences; of personal experience and wilful passion. We’ve had glimpses of…

  • Joshua Burnside – Ephrata

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    Experimental singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has announced the release of his debut album after a few years of silence. Ephrata is due to come out on May 5 through Quiet Arch Records – home also of Ciaran Lavery, Ryan Vail & Tucan – and was written allegedly during a creative spurt in Colombia. His only prior EP, If You’re Goin’ That Way was released in 2013. Despite Burnside playing most instruments on the album, it features a variety of recognisable local collaborators and producers throughout. Stream first single, ‘Tunnels Pt. 2’: Joshua Burnside launches Ephrata at the Duke of York on Sunday, April 30, with support from Alana…

  • Watch: Fionn Regan – The Meetings of the Waters

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    What better way to make a long-awaited return than with a faultless new song and video featuring none other than Cillian Murphy? Having recently been sampled by Bon Iver on ‘00000 Million’, Fionn Regan‘s sublime, slow-burning ‘The Meetings of the Waters’ is the title track from his forthcoming fifth studio album, which is set for release on April 14. To say we’re excited about what the full-length has in store might a bit of an understatement. Get acquainted with the new release from the Wicklow singer-songwriter right below.

  • F Festival 2017

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    A free, multifaceted festival aimed at generating visibility and equality for women in the arts, F Festival will return to various venues in Dublin for its second annual outing on March 11. With the daytime schedule set to see an array of art, talks and workshops transform the likes of Generator, The Back Loft and Temple Bar Gallery, venues including Sin E, Mother, Gypsy Rose, Grand Social, The Mercantile and more will host “hefty riffs and dirty disco beats” from the likes of Laoise, Kevyn, Vernon Jane, Leila Jane & The Healers, My Fellow Sponges, Pillow Queens and more to be announced. Go…

  • Loving

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    I could probably relate Loving quite easily to the colossal shitstorm currently raging in the United States as a result of the rise to power of the man Dan Savage memorably calls ‘Orange Julius Caesar’. I could tease out the parallels between the mid-twentieth century America of Loving, in which laws are used to deny peoples’ humanity, and Trump’s new playground. But that’s a rant best suited to Twitter, or maybe the pub. In any case, Loving offers a much more convincing and compassionate response to the politics of hate than me and my bleeding heart, wringing hands and jerking…

  • ASIWYFA’s Chris Wee on an Irish DnB Institution’s 11th Birthday @ Voodoo

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    The preservation of club nights and music scenes has long been a vital fabric at the heart of any city. For many of us, some of our fondest memories and most formative of years are down to the nights we went to and the venues that inhabited them. In today’s shaky climate it takes the most tenacious of gig promoter to overcome the social media overload and the general gig goer apathy to get people through the door. Many aspiring promoters have appeared and been quickly swallowed by the lack of enthusiasm for anything beyond a few drinks in a…