• First Acts for AVA Festival 2016 Announced

    January 27, 2016 - By 

    Having had a triumphant first outing last year (check out our review here) grassroots electronic and conference AVA will return to Belfast’s T13 on Saturday, June 4. With more yet to be revealed, Rødhåd, Mano Le Tough, Bicep, Optimo and Phil Kieran and more are amongst the first wave of acts confirmed to make an appearance. With its implicit manifesto of “collectively celebrating, amplifying and devloping the strong current of electronic music and visual arts talent that has and is emerging from Northern Ireland”, tickets for the festival – which will also include live lectures, Ableton workshops, Q+A with artists, label showcase and more – are…

  • Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year Shortlist Revealed

    January 27, 2016 - By 

    Launching tonight at Dublin’s Workman’s Club ahead of the official ceremony just down the road at Vicar Street on March 3, the shortlist for this year’s Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year has been revealed. Having been previously won by the likes of Gavin James and the Original Rudeboys, the following ten songs will go to a public vote: The Academic – Different All Tvvins – Thank You The Coronas – How This Goes Daithi – Mary Keanes Introduction Fight Like Apes – Pretty Keen on Centrefolds Hozier – Something New Gavin James – Bitter Pill Kodaline – Ready Otherkin – Ay Ay Pleasure…

  • Solar Bears’ Top Five Sci-Fi Films

    January 27, 2016 - By 

    Heavily informed by their nigh on savant-like love of film and film soundtracks, it’s no surprise the oeuvre of Dublin electronic duo Solar Bears to date has betrayed a decidedly filmic scope and air. With their stellar forthcoming third album, Advancement, very much continuing in said vivid vein, John Kowalski from the duo selects his top five Sci-Fi films, focusing on both the visual and musical. Photo by Dorje De Burgh. Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (Alain Resnais, 1968) A tale of splintered timelines and despair full of haunting choral music by Penderecki. Echoes running side by side before diverting on tangents. From…

  • Lessness @ Project Arts Centre, Dublin

    January 26, 2016 - By 

    Premiered at the Beckett International Season at London’s Barbican in June before being presented at the Galway International Arts festival, Dublin’s Project Arts Centre will play host to a four-night night run of the Irish playwright’s 1969 short story Lessness from January 27 to January 30. Set within a vast desert landscape, the performance features Olwen Fouéré, a beguiling physical presence with a phenomenal vocal technique, who invites the audience to reflect upon the many refractions of this profoundly evocative Beckett text. Tickets for Lessness range from €15 to €22 and can be purchased here.

  • Watch: Bouts – Allies

    January 26, 2016 - By 

    It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Dublin’s wanderlust-ridden Bouts. Five months on from the release of its lead single ‘Missteps’, the indie rock quartet have reappeared with their forthcoming debut EP’s emphatic follow-up, ‘Allies’. Featuring a brilliantly bizarre video courtesy of Eoin Heaney of Highly Stimulating Productions, the track is classic Bouts through-and-through, marrying urgent, starry-eyed melodies with noise-laced zeal. Bouts’ Unlearn EP will be released on February 29. Check out the artwork for the EP and watch the video for ‘Allies’ below.

  • Donum Dei w/ So Long Until the Seance, The Organ Grinders and Cavehill @ The Pavilion, Belfast

    January 25, 2016 - By 

    If you ever needed proof of just how varied the heavy music scene is in Northern Ireland you need only to check out last Saturday night’s Distortion Project gig lineup. Set in the Pavilion bar, it featured groove rock, punk rock, glam/horror metal and modern metal. Impressive, eh? First up were aforementioned groove rockers Cavehill (below), who are forgiven for their slightly too loud snare mike and late bass issues when we discover that due to the rugby match being shown, only the headliners had time to soundcheck. Rock and roll, man… their catchy brand of groove-heavy bluesy rock is…

  • Video premiere: Tobi The Dog – In Bits

    January 25, 2016 - By 

    Set to play our the first installment of Psykick Dancehall – our new Dublin with the most upstanding Medium Presents – we’re pleased to premiere the positively beatific video for ‘In Bits’ by Dublin’s “self-proclaimed lo-fi” three-piece Tobi The Dog. Set for release via their forthcoming, Little L Records-released debut album, Never Ever Ever, the video for the track captures the band and their friends (the veritable lads, no less) roaming the streets of the Dublin, running joyous rampage on the light rail system and beyond. According to Little L, “Visually, ‘In Bits’ feels like a grime posse cut reimagined through the…

  • Independent Venue Week: PORTS, Robyn G Shiels, Strength and DANI @ Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast

    January 25, 2016 - By 

    Along with Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and Independent Venue Week, we’ll co-host a genre-spanning showcase as part of this year’s Out To Lunch Festival at the Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday, January 30. Derry act PORTS are preparing for the release of their debut album, Devil Is A Songbird. Expect harmonies that are full of glory and songs that drill into the chambers of the heart. Robyn G Shiels is ready to unwrap the follow-up to his award-winning album Blood Of The Innocents. His line is intensity, terse yarns plus banjo. Strength have a lineage back to Derry’s Red Organ Serpent Sound…

  • The Thin Air Tuesday Throwdown: The Wood Burning Savages at Lavery’s, Belfast

    January 25, 2016 - By 

    Currently in the studio working on new material, Derry quartet The Wood Burning Savages have steadily built up their reputation as one of the country’s finest and most frenetic live outfits over the last couple of years. Ahead of what’s set to be a breakthrough year for the band, the Paul Connolly-fronted four-piece will play our next Tuesday Throwdown live show in the Back Bar of Lavery’s Belfast on Tuesday, January 26. Admission is free, doors are at 9.30pm. The Thin Air DJs before and after.