• Inbound: Gracepark

    August 7, 2019 - By 

    Hailing from Artane in North County Dublin, Gracepark is an eight-piece art collective consisting of three rappers (Matthew, Conor and Dara), one singer (Femi), one producer (Charlie), two photographers/videographers (Cian/Luan) and their manager (Remi). It’s a project that combines aspects of visual artistry with numerous variants of the Hip Hop genre, creating a sound that is unheard of elsewhere in Ireland’s Hip Hop community. They are undoubtedly one of the most exciting collaborative efforts on the Irish music scene. Jack Rudden had the pleasure of meeting up with the collective to discuss Stephen King, the prolific nature of Hip Hop…

  • the arts column: August 8th

    August 8, 2019 - By 

    This week we’ve details on a pair of exhibitions that are opening this weekend in Kilkenny as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, a live performance in Derry, a new show opening in Dublin and details of a studio residency. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Exhibition Opening | Butler Gallery, Kilkenny This Saturday, August 10th, sees the opening of a new exhibition in Kilkenny’s Butler Gallery featuring the work of New York based artist Amy Cutler. Titled Colloquies, the show is Cutler’s first in Ireland and…

  • Shooting Star: Remembering Elliott Smith Playlist (1969-2003)

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    On October 21st 2003, one of the most naturally-gifted, boundlessly resonant singer-songwriters of his era, Steven Paul “Elliott” Smith bookended his story in Echo Park, California. He was thirty-four years old. Having spent several years lauded as a troubled genius, his reported suicide kickstarted the creaky old myth machine into gear once more. But whilst destined to remain “that Good Will Hunting guy” for countless people not too au courant with, say, Quasi’s discography, the outpouring of confusion and raw grief on that day in October 2003 was unprecedented, bringing into sharp focus the extent to which Smith was regarded in the lo-fi…

  • Heavy Pop: An Interview with THVS

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their eagerly-anticipated debut album in Belfast’s Voodoo on October 12, we catch up with THVS, a Belfast-based three-piece whose emphatic “heavy pop” craft is on the very cusp of breaking through. THVS straddle a line between heavy sounds and pop music sensibility. How has the project evolved from your previous incarnations? Michael: I think that very part of it in and of itself is the evolution, the pop sensibility. In any previous band I’ve been in that was very much balked at so I think that step has lead us to a wider sound. Who…

  • Beatyard 2019 @ Dún Laoghaire

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    Beatyard is a very different festival to your standard Irish festival. Boat parties and a concrete setting make for a different experience than the typical field fare. Families litter the audience and Bodytonic pieces are everywhere you turn from the Wigwam stage to the Eatyard area. Setting a festival in such a centralised area is no mean feat but Beatyard manage to pull it off with unique elements and a stellar line-up. This year’s Beatyard predominantly caters to dance fans with an occasional spot of pop music. The Main Stage boasts a number of big-name festival acts whilst the Wigwam…

  • Watch: Ten Ton Slug – Hunting Ground

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    Galway sludge metal quartet Ten Ton Slug have long been masterfully crafting some of the finest riff-led, crushing metal on the island and with international slots amassing, their debut album is set for release next year. The first single to be taken from the LP – and their first release since 2017’s Blood and Slime – is the  ‘Hunting Ground’, and if its sonic pulverisation is anything to go by, 2020 looks to further galvanise the band’s status. The single was recorded & produced by Ciaran Culhane, and its occultist, paranoia-inducing video was filmed at Cavan’s stately See House, directed and edited by Pádraig Conaty. Check out more on…

  • Björk to Bring Cornucopia Tour to Dublin

    August 5, 2019 - By 

    Björk will bring her Cornucopia tour to Dublin later this year. As well as shows in London and Glasgow, the Icelandic artist will bring the immersive theatre show – which was developed last year – to the 3Arena on November 28th. Tickets go on sale this Friday. Pre-sale tickets go on sale at 10am on Thursday.

  • Pas Moi/Not I @ Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival

    August 5, 2019 - By 

    A broken mind is a terrifying notion. Once gone, so too, has a large slice of the humanity. Isn’t that why we hurry past the insane, with their babbling interior monologue, on the street? It’s a brave playwright who subjects an audience to the mad jabbering of a fractured mind, delivered relentlessly  at the speed of thought for a dozen minutes. And in the pitch black, with only the speaker’s mouth illuminated. Samuel Beckett, who was many things, was nothing if not a courageous writer. Beckett’s Not I, a powerful and unsettling portrait of the isolation of madness, returned to…

  • Stream: Sorbet – Born Purple feat. Mícheál Keating

    August 2, 2019 - By 

    One of Irish music’s bona fide polymaths, Chris Ryan – Robocobra Quartet leader and Hot Cops, Just Mustard & Hunkpapa producer – has unveiled his new collaborative project. Aptly titled Sorbet, it offers a fresh palette to a string of musicians upon which they can “write tangentially from their usual process to avoid creeping burnout.” As masterfully understated as you’d hope from its creators, Sorbet’s first iteration is a subtly brooding piece which unfurls with repeat listens. Ryan’s distorted, at-times claustrophobic beats, muted piano, lay  by an incredible falsetto-heavy vocal performance from Mícheál Keating, frontman of Limerick experimental alternative trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons. Mícheál said of his lyrical approach: “The imagery in the verse comes…

  • Festival Mixtape: Stendhal Festival 2019

    August 2, 2019 - By 

    Set to return to Limavady across 15-17th August, Northern Ireland’s only unmissable summer festival – and three-times winner of Ireland’s “best small festival” – Stendhal is shaping up to be just as memorable as its last few outings. Ahead of our festival preview next week, we’ve whittled the year’s bill down to a twenty-track mixtape, featuring SOAK, Basement Jaxx, Kitt Philippa, Sister Ghost, New Pagans, Kíla, Talos, Elma Orkestra & Ryan Vail, Malojian, Lisa O’Neill, Bouts, Arvo Party and more. Go here to buy tickets to this year’s festival.