• Watch: Landless – Via Extasia (Live at St Joseph’s Church)

    February 11, 2019 - By 

    If you’ve managed to catch them live recently, you’ll know that Dublin/Belfast-based vocal quartet Ruth Clinton, Meabh Meir, Sinead Lynch and Lily Power AKA Landless are a force to be reckoned with. Last week, the foursome effortlessly brought Belfast’s Sunflower to instant pin-drop silence. Hosted by the Sunflower Folk Club, it marked the first date of the foursome’s current run of Irish dates, which also took in Cork’s Quarter Block Party yesterday. A highlight from the foursome’s stellar debut album, Bleaching Bones, ‘Via Extasia’ reveals the wonderfully daedal arc and flow of the quartet’s traditional craft. It’s something that’s doubly on display on Joe…

  • Velvet Buzzsaw

    February 11, 2019 - By 

    What’s the point of art if nobody sees it? This is one of the questions posed by a character in Velvet Buzzsaw, a satire released last weekend on Netflix that wants to sink its teeth into the contemporary art world but fails to leave a lasting impression. The discovery of a series of revolutionary paintings by an unknown and reclusive artist sets off a feeding frenzy among the galleries, museums and art buyers based in Los Angeles. This space is dominated by critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), a man who views everything through the lens of critique but is struggling…

  • Talos – Far Out Dust

    February 9, 2019 - By 

    Talos makes a quiet but triumphal return with his sophomore release, Far Out Dust, the quick follow up to 2017’s Wild Alee. Far Out Dust represents a new sense of maturity from the Cork native, with more ambitious lyrics, and a confidence that was suggested but dormant before. While Talos – aka Eoin French – still plays with the ever-presented influences of artists like Brian Eno, Bon Iver and James Vincent McMorrow, there’s a distinct ‘80s pop influence on many of the tracks here, with hints of synth-pop artists like Hurts, or Years and Years. These influences aren’t surprising, given…

  • Premiere: Mob Wife – Captain Care A Lot & Hellsong

    February 8, 2019 - By 

    Following the release of debut single ‘Warm Water’ in August, Belfast’s Mob Wife are back with new double A-side Captain Care A Lot / Hellsong. Recorded by Chris Ryan at Start Together Studios, with striking artwork by Billy Woods, the release strikes a midpoint between the dissonant fury of Metz or Unwound, and the melodic vulnerability of Pile. A contrasting couplet, ‘Captain Care A Lot’ continuing down the narrative & noise-ridden path of twentysomething angst and confusion laid by ‘Warm Water’, sardonically chronicling mass depersonalisation as a result of social media. ‘Hellsong’ is a more inward-looking exploration of disintegration, through the maelstrom of substance abuse, isolation and depression; in eschewing the…

  • Alita: Battle Angel

    February 11, 2019 - By 

    Sometimes crappy films are interesting. Their failures flag up ludicrous studio decision-making, or a creative ego gone unchecked, or just a series of small misguided steps that, in retrospect, were so obviously the wrong path to go down. For those of us professionally curious about why stories do or do not work, these movies are instructive and shareable; the critics’ version of “Hey, smell this!”. But, really, most of the time, bad or boring movies are bad or boring in ways that are totally predictable. Watching them is an exercise in low expectations met. Alita: Battle Angel, Robert Rodriguez’s big-screen…

  • Meat Puppets Set For Dublin, Belfast and Limerick Shows

    February 7, 2019 - By 

    Arizona alternative rock heroes Meat Puppets will play three dates in Ireland in June. The band – who formed in 1980 by brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood with Derrick Bostrom – will play Limerick’s Dolan’s on June 7, Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on June 8 and Whelan’s in Dublin on June 9. The shows will take place as part of a tour marking the band’s new album, Dusty Notes, which will feature the band’s original line-up for the first time since 1995. Tickets go on sale this Monday, February 10 at 9am.

  • Premiere: Alpha Chrome Yayo – Breakfast In Daytona

    February 7, 2019 - By 

    It’s not every day, but every once in a while, a track will land in our inbox that just instinctively makes us want to punch the air. A textbook case in point is the new single from newfangled Belfast producer and musician Alpha Chrome Yayo. Bursting at the seams with pure-cut throwback goodness, ‘Breakfast in Daytona’ is a synth-soaked, SEGA-leaning gem from an artist who set out to chart the “excitement of one day at a sun-bleached race-track”. The musician put it best when he said, “Waking up with the drivers, crew members and spectators, this synth-wave single starts hazy and hopeful,…

  • Broods – Don’t Feed the Pop Monster

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    Georgia and Caleb Nott are no strangers to the mechanisms of a perfect pop song. The New Zealand sibling duo – better known as Broods –  shot to recognition with their debut single, ‘Bridges’, in October 2013 and have since managed to cultivate a sound that is at the same time carefully manufactured and authentic. After a brief hiatus, their third studio release, Don’t Feed the Pop Monster is a return to form, a neat presentation of pop songs that are both energetic and lyrically thoughtful. It’s a highly anticipated release from the pair, having both been doing solo projects…

  • the arts column: February 12th

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    In this week’s edition of the arts column we’ve details of the a series of events in the Douglas Hyde Gallery, open calls for writers, studio lets, talks as well as the final call for the LUX Critical Forum. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Talks, Tours and Walkthroughs | Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin There are a number of events taking place this week and next in response to the latest exhibitions in Dublin’s Douglas Hyde Gallery: Jumana Manna’s Wild Relatives and The Artist’s Eye: Haig Aivazian. Tomorrow (Wednesday 13th) sees…

  • Burning

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    True complexity and originality in film is something that is hard to come by these days. Managing to make a film that is entertaining at the same time is something that few achieve but South Korean writer-director Chang-Dong Lee (Secret Sunshine) has made a career out of it, though this is his first film since 2011’s fantastic Poetry. His latest, Burning, based on a short story called Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami — though I suspect William Faulkner’s novella of the same name is something to do with it as well — follows Jong-su, a part-time delivery man, and kicks…