• Stream: Ryan Vail – We Drift We Wake/East Berlin

    March 29, 2017 - By 

    To mark this year’s World Piano Day – an annual celebration of the ivory keys, spearheaded by Nils Frahm – Derry producer and musician Ryan Vail has released two new tracks. As well as a sublime rework of his own ‘East Berlin’ (which was selected for Nils Frahm’s playlist for World Piano Day back in 2015), ‘We Drift We Wake’ makes for a wonderfully meditative, delicately sprawling piece that doubles up as an audio visual collaboration. with artist Hohxx_. Better still, both efforts reveal the sheer tonal and emotional range of Vail’s ever-growing musical palette. Featuring everyone from Martyn Heyne and Olafur Arnalds to…

  • Video Premiere: Oh Joy – So Swell

    March 29, 2017 - By 

    Hands down one of the country’s finest alt-rock propositions right now, Dublin three-piece Oh Joy first caught our attention last year with their single ‘Habits and Recreations’. Having come on leaps and bounds in the four years that have passed, the threesome are back with the video for their latest – and quite possibly great – single effort to date, ‘So Swell’. Accompanied by a perfectly throwback video courtesy of Carrot Gold Enterprises, the track is a fuzzed-out blast of pining indie rock conjuring the likes of Sebadoh via Built To Spill’s more ardent efforts. Have an exclusive first look and listen right below.

  • Russian Circles w/ Cloakroom @ Empire Music Hall, Belfast

    March 29, 2017 - By 

    Almost five years to the month since they played one of the shows of 2010 at the Speakeasy alongside a fast-rising Deafheaven, Russian Circles’ return to Belfast tonight doubles up as the first anniversary for local promoters and imprint Solid Choice Industries. If ever there was a performance to mirror the sense of occasion – and the spirit of independence and conviction – the Chicago instrumental trio’s appearance tonight ticked all the boxes. Providing this evening’s lone support is North Indian trio Cloakroom, a band who strike a keen – and subtly compelling – balance between their slowcore-tinged brand of post-hardcore with…

  • Castlepalooza Reveal New Acts

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    Having already announced the likes of Girl Band, Wild Beasts and Waze & Odyssey, Castlepalooza have today unveiled a new host of acts set to play this year’s festival, which returns to Tullamore’ Charleville Castle across August 4-6. With more yet to announced, joining the line-up: Oh Boland (pictured), Beach, Robocobra Quartet, Thumper, Le Boom, Frankenstein Bolts, Wolff, Aik J, Appella, Farah Elle, Participant, Rosa Nutty, Cinema, Damola, Phare, Nimino, Spud Gun, Video Blue, Show Fur, Tu-Ki, Lumigraph, Barry Redsetta, Apres Ski, Boca 45, Pete Isaac, Baz Hickey, HVMMINGBYRD, Let’s Sail, Phare and Beauty Sleep. Tickets for Castlepalooza 2017 range…

  • Watch: Bosco Ramos – Rolling Sea

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    Let be known: Belfast’s Bosco Ramos make a lot of pleasant racket for a two-piece. Taken from their forthcoming Signs of Life EP – which is set for release on March 31 and launched at Belfast’s McHughs on April 7 – Phil Brown and Calum McGeown’s earworming new single ‘Rolling Sea’ is a three-minute burst of fuzzed-out, Death From Above 1979-tinged alt-rock that, pretty rare as it is in the genre these days, doesn’t bury itself behind a veil of Americanised vocals. We’re all for singing in one’s own accent here at The Thin Air. Created by Brendan Seamus and Billy Woods, here’s the single’s video.

  • #SaveCQ Campaign Launched to Protect Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter Area

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    Over the last decade and a bit, Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has flourished to become the city’s cultural and creative hub, as well as the home of countless independent businesses and organisations. At the core of its rapid and vital growth – from the Black Box, Oh Yeah Centre and Established to The MAC, The Sunflower and the National – has been a mindset that encourages the entrepreneurial, rewards the independent and supports the artistically-inclined. But today, new campaign group – #SaveCQ – has been officially launched in Cathedral Quarter to galvanise public awareness of the current proposal for the new Royal…

  • Video Premiere: Maija Sofia – Persephone

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    Released last month, we said ‘Persephone’ by Dublin-based Galway artist Maija Sofia was a track that “married a wonderfully cloistered atmosphere with an intimate, lo-fi air”. A month on, Sofia has returned with an evocative, self-directed visual accompaniment. Inspired by vampire mythology and 70s horror cinema, the video was show on a “freezing” morning and edited by Irish filmmaker and blogger Ciarán O’Brien. Have a first look below.

  • Video Premiere: Citizen Nobody – Born Again Primitive

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    Set to release their self-titled debut album via Belfast imprint Ram Alley on April 28, Citizen Nobody are a band that “stand against the dominant culture of corporate fascism and subservience to the psychopathic political, economic and religious systems and their self-serving leaders that have come to dominate the lives of all the creatures on this planet in such a destructive way that has rendered people with a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness.” Drawing influence from influences as diverse as Van Morrison to NEU!, Bartok to Rev. Gary Davis and from Son House to transcendentalist philosophy, the trio’s new single…

  • Stream: Fionn Regan – Cormorant Bird

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Last month, Fionn Regan returned in style with ‘The Meetings of the Waters’, the title track from his forthcoming fifth studio album. Today he releases it’s equally beguiling follow-up in the form of ‘Cormorant Bird’. A swooning slice of masterfully-produced chamber-pop in the vein of Department of Eagles, the single suggests something especially special in the waiting for the full-length. The Meetings of the Waters is out on April 14 through his own imprint 常に愛TSUNENI AI/Abbey Records.

  • Watch: Myles Manley – Pasta Solo

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Inimitable English-born, Sligo-raiser, Dublin-based Myles Manley has just revealed the video for ‘Pasta Solo’, the first-rate B-side to his latest single. Filmed by artist Salvatore Fullam, and with a loose narrative thread based on a portrait of Manley, he’s leaning once more into the esoteric. It’s kitchen sink bedroom music, utilising – Tom Waits style – unorthodox instrumentation and deceptively intricate instrumental panache to share with us some of the sounds from a most unique of minds. The record, ‘Relax; Enjoy Yr Night Upon the Town’ is available in a limited 7″ release on midnight blue vinyl via Dublin indie imprint Little L Records.  Myles Manley officially launches…