• Do The Strand: A Catch-Up With Phil Kieran

    April 16, 2024 - By 

    Ahead of its final live performance of The Strand Live this Saturday, 20th April, Belfast producer and techno legend Phil Kieran talks to Andrew Moore about constant evolution, AI’s impact on music and his masterfully ambitious new studio album Photo by Sean McMahon Originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Thin Air Buy tickets to The Strand Live, featuring Phil Kieran and the Ulster Orchestra, here It’s 5:32pm on a grey Monday afternoon in Belfast and electronic composer Phil Kieran is quietly working away in his studio. Located in the old Strand Cinema – and the new Strand…

  • Inbound: HART

    October 4, 2023 - By 

    From Sheffield to Bangor in Northern Ireland, UK producer HART is blending dusty boom-bap and sweaty-basement garage to enthralling effect. The artist’s debut LP, Moon Jazz, focused on the romance between jazz and hip-hop, lending influence from the trip-hop sounds of Bonobo and Massive Attack. But as the seasons change and winter lets go of its cold embrace she finds herself meandering towards the memories and influence from the underground parties of the Steel City. “I started producing when I was in Australia,” she says, “but I’ve been really into music since I moved to Sheffield. It’s got a big…

  • Inbound: Pat Lagoon

    July 6, 2023 - By 

    Pat Lagoon isn’t surprised that you don’t know many hip-hop acts from Waterford. The Irish MC caught local inspiration from artists such as Waterford-via-Congo producer Murka Murcury and the Flatbush Zombie-stylings of rap collective Sons Phonetic, whilst taking in the transatlantic sonics of Kaytranada, Mac Miller, Anderson Paak and Mick Jenkins. Combined, it makes for a melting pot of funk, soul, hip-hop and trap influence. Dropping his first track, ‘Love Bites,’ in 2018 before going on to release a string of singles and an EP with Rikshaw, temptation to join the Irish brain-drain and relocate to somewhere like London has…