• The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2018 (#100-51)

    December 22, 2018 - By 

    Christ on a rickety sleigh, was this tough. But truth be told – it’s rarely easy. As we scramble to bang heads and attempt to assimilate, order and re-order the absolute deluge of excellence that has met our ears over the previous twelve months, it’s instantly clear that there will be some notable omissions. It’s equal parts unavoidable and unfortunate, but more significantly, it’s glowing testament to what we’re dealing with in every pocket of this island. Of course, we can’t – nor wish to – conclusively say this is “the best year for Irish music in recent memory” (the…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2018 (#50-1)

    December 22, 2018 - By 

    Christ on a rickety sleigh, was this tough. But truth be told – it’s rarely easy. As we scramble to bang heads and attempt to assimilate, order and re-order the absolute deluge of excellence that has met our ears over the previous twelve months, it’s instantly clear that there will be some notable omissions. It’s equal parts unavoidable and unfortunate, but more significantly, it’s glowing testament to what we’re dealing with in every pocket of this island. Of course, we can’t – nor wish to – conclusively say this is “the best year for Irish music in recent memory” (the…

  • Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

    December 21, 2018 - By 

    Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is the best super-hero film in at least ten years because it understands what drew our shy, fifteen-year old selves to comics in the first place, and what has been missing, at a fundamental level, from the cinematic work of D.C. and Marvel: delight. Delight in what comics look like and how they move; delight in the rich, weirdo possibilities of the comics universe, where men decked in primary colours make earnest speeches about saving the world; delight in how it feels to be a kid who finds out he can run up the sides of…

  • Quiet Arch Fourth Birthday Party

    December 20, 2018 - By 

    Belfast independent label Quiet Arch celebrate their fourth birthday this year, and to celebrate, they’ll be holding a concert featuring some of their foremost artists at Belfast’s Elmwood Hall on December 21. The bill is as fittingly eclectic as the label itself, and NI Music Prize-winning singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside, Derry electronic wizard Ryan Vail with Arco String Quartet, power-pop/folk craftsman Malojian, indie-pop quartet Beauty Sleep, with spoken word artist & poet Stephen James Smith as compère for the night. Tickets, priced £12, are available from Ticketsource. Doors open at 8pm.

  • 2018 in Film: 35 Highlights of The Year

    December 21, 2018 - By 

    To mark the end of 2018, we’ve sent our film writers rummaging through their scrapbooks for the year’s highlights. Here are the moments, scenes, performances and film-making achievements that we just couldn’t shake. 1. The ballroom scene in The Square In The Square, Ruben Östlund sets about unpicking the false civility of the modern urban beta male (Cales Bang’s museum director) with slow precision. But then, about two-thirds of the way through, he sets off a firework, in which a hulking performance artist (Terry Notary) goes full simian during a high society dinner, baboon screeches, smashing crockery and eventually grabbing a woman…

  • Premiere: Oranges – The Way You Look

    December 20, 2018 - By 

    Holding out throughout Oranges have held on until now to reveal the first single from their debut album, Hey Zeus, set to come out next year through arguably Ireland’s most consistently stellar independent label, Sligo’s Art For Blind. Recalling the Fall’s abrasive, minimalist approach to the rock’n’roll palette, ‘The Way You Look’ was one of 11 tracks captured in 6 hours with Stephen Quinn in a room on North Frederick Lane, Dublin in 2017 – and it sounds it, in the most immediate, alchemical fashion. Oranges comprise three musicians who’ve been involved in Ireland’s underground scene for years: G. Duffy on vocals & guitars, M.T. Durnin on bass, synth & vocals, and E. Kelly on drums. Stream ‘The Way You Look’…

  • the arts column: December 18th

    December 18, 2018 - By 

    In this week’s arts column we’re looking at shows that will be on over the festive period, featuring shows in Cork, Dublin, Belfast and Roscommon. Be sure to check out last week’s edition which details of two shows closing this week in Belfast and Dublin. [In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives @ The National Gallery of Ireland. Dublin 2018 was a year packed with anniversaries and centenaries, notably the 100-year anniversary of the end of ‘The Great War’. In Ireland it was also the centenary of the first time women were granted suffrage, in an election that also saw the begins…