• Premiere: Cal Folger Day – G.B.S. (Live)

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    You best believe we enjoy the wonky and wondrous pop of Dublin-based New Yorker Cal Folger Day. Having raved about her since 2014, the multi-instrumentalist chanteuse has recently been occupied with The Woods and Grandma, a stellar pop-opera that she released, via a documentary on Lyric FM, back in December. Featuring an all-star band comprising Phil Christie (O Emperor, The Bonk) on keys and vocals, Daniel Fox (Girl Band) on bass, Nick Boon on guitar, and Solamh Kelly (Myles Manley) on drums, the project toured across the U.S. in January. This week, Day heads off to perform Hamburg and Berlin. Backed by Aoibhinn O’Dea,…

  • Line-Up Announced for Coaster 2019

    April 30, 2019 - By 

    The line-up for the second outing of Portrush one-day festival Coaster has been revealed. Taking play at Atlantic Bar and Babushka, this year’s event – a self-proclaimed “summer gathering on the Nort Coast celebrating local music” that we’re pleased to co-promote – includes Arvo Party, Blue Whale (pictured), Fox Colony, Catalan! and several more acts. See the full line-up below. Tickets are on-sale now.

  • Chromatics Set For Dublin Show

    April 30, 2019 - By 

    Portland, Oregon synth-pop band Chromatics are set to play Dublin. Taking place as part of their Double Exposure European tour, the Ruth Radelet-fronted band will play Vicar Street on October 22. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am, priced €28.50.

  • Album Premiere: Larry – Larry

    April 26, 2019 - By 

    Of the myriad Irish debuts that we’ve been itching to wrap our ears around in 2019, the self-titled first album from Dundalk’s Larry must surely rank up with the most eagerly-anticipated Comprising guitarist and vocalist Joey Edwards, bassist Aoife Ward and drummer David Noonan, also of Just Mustard, the band opted record with none other than Steve Albini at Chicago’s Electrical Audio last September. The result is a nine-track release that not only bears the imprint of indie rock trailblazers Sparklehorse, Wilco, Courtney Barnett and Pixies: it’s a record that finds Larry, assured and inspired, carving out special territory within the…

  • EP Premiere: Alpha Chrome Yayo – Malediction Boulevard

    April 26, 2019 - By 

    If you’re a regular reader of The Thin Air, you’ll likely be familiar with Belfast producer and musician Alpha Chrome Yayo. Fluent in the acrolect of synth-drenched retromancy, his output to date has taken a cue from everything from Giorgio Moroder and Steve Vai to the works of William Gibson and smoke-filled arcades. New EP Malediction Boulevard is his most assured and comprehensively impressive effort to date. Bearing the imprint of Gothic influence – namely the likes of The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure and Goblin, as well as the films of Lucio Fulci and David Cronenberg – it’s a four-track blitz…

  • Premiere: Queen Bonobo – The Lord Does What He Wants

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    Currently studying music and living in Derry, Maya Goldblum aka Queen Bonobo is a singer-songwriter hailing from the tightly-knit community of Sagle, Idaho. On May 10, Goldblum will launch her debut album, Light Shadow Boom Boom, at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry. Ahead of that, we’re pleased to present a first listen of its latest single, ‘The Lord Does What He Wants’. Engineered by Niall Doran, mixed by Ben McAuley and mastered by Stephen Quinn, it’s an unraveling alt-folk gem also featuring Daryl Coyle on co-production and drums, Jack Kelly on double bass and James Anderson on percussion. “I started writing ‘The Lord Does…

  • Watch: Paddy Hanna – Frankly, I Mutate

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    When it was released early last year, Frankly, I Mutate doubly underscored Paddy Hanna’s status as one of Ireland’s greatest ever songwriters. Brimming with incision, melody, pathos and heart, the album’s title track confined all of that, and more, across its four minutes. Something of a live favourite at Hanna’s full-band shows since the album’s release – not least an especially memorable rendition at Primavera in Barcelona last summer – the song now comes accompanied with one of the Irish videos of the year. Directed by Niall McCann, it features Hanna and a boom mic navigating skylights, back gardens, leafy streets, front rooms, promenades and shallow seashores. Confused?…

  • Premiere: tribal dance – You Can’t Swim

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    It stands to reason that, among their wide range of influences, Dublin three-piece tribal dance tip their hat to fellow Irish experimental rock bands including Adebisi Shank, Meltybrains? BATS, And So I Watch You From Afar and the Redneck Manifesto. This is music propelled by the same deft, imaginative spirit that has made the aforementioned acts known and well-regarded far beyond these shores. Marrying DFA-leaning energy with J-pop-like frenzy, the band’s new single ‘You Can’t Swim’ reveals a band pursuing their own rapturous niche. Produced by Ben Bix of Meltybrains? and Sim Simma Soundsystem, it’s a song rooted in pop sensibility and a very patent desire to get…

  • Hard Working Class Heroes To Rebrand as Ireland Music Week

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    The country’s leading music showcase and conference, Hard Working Class Heroes has announced that it will rebrand as Ireland Music Week from this year onwards. Set to return to various venues in Dublin as an expanded five-day event across October 1st-5th, Ireland Music Week will, according to organisers First Music Contact, “build on [the] ever-growing importance of its strong independent uncompromising identity and continue to project a confident and inclusive sense of responsibility for Irish music in an international context.” Remaining central to its strategic mission is showcasing “50 of the most export-ready emerging Irish acts to the best of…

  • Premiere: Ordnance Survey – Chrome feat. Sean Mac Erlaine & Kate Ellis

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    Next month, Dublin’s Neil O’Connor aka Somadrone will re-emerge with a new collaboration album titled Relative Phase. Recorded at the National Concert Hall Studios in Dublin throughout 2017 and 2018, the album – which is released under the collaborative moniker Ordnance Survey – features O’Connor on various instruments (see the full impressive list below), Kate Ellis on cello, John McEntire (of Tortoise, The Sea & Cake et al.) on drums, Sean Mac Erlaine on alto sax, bass clarinet and electrics, and Linda Buckley with vocal processing. Across eight tracks, it’s a fully-realised, synth-worshipping triumph of dense textures and widescreen extemporization that attempts…