• 17 for ’17: Damola

    January 27, 2017 - By 

    Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland mightn’t be known as hip-hop hotspots, but it’s these unexpected influences that seem to characterise Damola’s music. He cites listening to his parents’ Jamaican music as a child in Nigeria as his earliest influence, although he didn’t start performing until he was a teenager in Dublin, making up raps to impress his friends. Since 2014 he’s been releasing tracks and videos with the Backshed Inc. collective, allowing him the freedom to develop his increasingly idiosyncratic sound. Last year’s ‘Workflow’, in both it’s production and hard-hitting, rhythmic flow, owed a lot to the earlier work of Kendrick…

  • Watch: Bad Sea – Solid Air

    January 23, 2017 - By 

    When it was released back in September last year, TTA’s Aoife O’Donoghue said ‘Solid Air’ by Dublin duo of Ciara Thompson AKA CMAT and Alan Farrel Bad Sea had “a wistful quality that evokes nostalgic memories of hazy summer days.” Ahead of what’s expected to be a busy 2017 for the fast-rising pair, they have just unveiled Ricardo Deakin’s video for said debut single, a narrative-driven, nicely presented accompaniment impressively reflecting the hidden fragility that can often underpin a relationship. Have a peek.

  • 17 For ’17: Fears

    January 23, 2017 - By 

    There’s something otherworldly about Constance Keane, and her solo project, Fears. The music here is remove from what Keane was making as the drummer of the feminist/animal welfare punk group M(h)aol, though keeping that distinctive dark tone. Her latest single Blood, a follow-up to 2015’s Priorities is a journey through alternative pop, with dark and looming synths and minimalist vocals, reminiscent of both BANKS and FKA Twigs. Produced and written by Constance, and mastered by Huntley Miller (Bon Iver, Tallest Man on Earth, The Staves) the track wouldn’t be unusual to hear on a John Carpenter soundtrack, or indeed in…

  • Repeal: A Night In The Key of 8 Announced

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    The sustained momentum and effort of the Repeal Project in Dublin and throughout the country over the last while has been nothing short of extraordinary. Founded by Anna Cosgrave, the campaign has sought to give a loud voice to a silenced issue, and has succeeded far and beyond anyone’s expectations. But with the final, biggest still to be scaled, however, Repeal Project are hosting a massive fundraising show – A Night In The Key of 8 – at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Sunday, April 23. With contributions to come from Panti, Roisin Ingle, Ailbhe Smyth, Tara Flynn and Una Mullally,…

  • Watch: I Have a Tribe – After We Meet

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    Patrick O’ Laoghaire AKA I Have a Tribe has unveiled a chirpily nostalgic video for ‘After We Meet’, a track which initially appeared on his LP for Gronland Records last year, Beneath A Yellow Moon.  The track, which on the album was presented in a delicately wrapped package of piano, vocals and fractured drums, is given a make-over for its forthcoming single release. Featuring a soulful and rich guest vocal from Mary-Kate Geraghty, the track now bounces with a cosmic jubilance with added bass, spiralling keys and shivering guitars. The video is directed by Myles O’Reilly, who was also behind the video for…

  • Chavez – Cockfighters

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    It’s been twenty years since New York’s Chavez have graced our ears with their angular, discordant interpretation of punk. Having never officially split, the promise of new material was alway on the cards, but the members’ other commitments with likes Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Zwan, Run The Jewels and Mike Judge made it substantially less tangible. But like their twisted, asymmetrical music would suggest, Chavez will always find a way to catch you off guard. That’s what their latest EP, Cockfighters, is, a trifle of a release designed to destroy any preemptive obituaries and to announce that they are alive and well…

  • 17 For ’17: New Pagans

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    While new bands are The Thin Air’s raison d’être, new bands full of familiar faces are always a particularly mouthwatering prospect. Featuring Cahir O’Doherty of Jetplane Landing/Fighting With Wire and Claire Miskimmin of Girls Names on guitar and bass respectively, along with Balkan Alien Sound’s Conor McAuley on drums and vocalist Lyndsey McDougall, New Pagans are a veritable supergroup of Irish talent to rival Miskimmin’s other side project, Cruising. With one double A-side single to their name so far featuring the tracks ‘I Could Die’ and ‘Lily Yeats’, the latter is a paean to one of the oft-forgotten sisters of…

  • Album Premiere: Switzerland – Long Gone

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    Set for its launch upstairs in Whelan’s on Friday, January 27, Long Gone is both the first release of 2017 from Popical Island and the debut album from Dublin quartet Switzerland, a band comprised of members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers and Paddy Hanna. Having premiered its stellar lead single, ‘Starting Out’, just last month, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first listen of the album, a ten-track release that goes some distance to confirm their arrival as serious contenders. Recorded with the help of Fiachra McCarthy, who has previously produced Squarehead, Brian Walsh from the band says of the early writing…

  • Premiere: Guilty Optics – And So It Goes

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    In the sixth issue of our physical magazine, Joe Madsen said Dublin trio Guilty Optics “proudly steer clear of poppy trends”, an observation that came to full-blown fruition in July last year via ‘The Kayapo Ghosts’, the virulent lead single from their forthcoming album Colossal Velocity.  The equally commanding successor to that opening gambit, ‘And So It Goes’ is a five-minute post-punk burst “confronting the role government plays in our lives, it’s desire for control and its previous attempt to abolish the senate.” Dig below.

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Introducing Guerrilla Sessions

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    So, here’s the story, right? I like to fuck about with music projects that really turn me on. As someone put it to me recently, “… I want it to freak me out”. Nicely put. I’m just messing around with music projects that fire me up and I guess like any other broadcaster, you try to curate something that is worthwhile, that is new and challenging, and then just maybe you might do the ultimate and capture lightning in a bottle. That probably sounds selfish and indulgent of me. But at least it’s not just me in the media game…