• Speedy Ortiz w/ Oh Boland & Trust Fund @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    October 20, 2015 - By 

    It is a mild enough night for October and the already-sweltering Whelan’s is slow to fill as garage-maestros Oh Boland take the stage but this doesn’t stop the three Tuam lads from throwing everything at the gathered few. This is never clearer than in the sweat dripping from the floppy hair of bassist Eanna MacDonnacha or the spit clinging to the mic from Niall Murphy’s rapid-fire vocals. Oh Boland own the stage with their diminutive frontman clattering about the stage as though he is about to collapse but always keeps it together – nearly a metaphor for their entire set.…

  • The End of an Era: Radar 2005-2015

    October 20, 2015 - By 

    “Institution” is a word that seems to be all too wantonly applied to every other gig night across the country nowadays. After ten years positively both capturing and shaping local live music in the North of the country, Radar at Belfast’s Queens Student Union is most definitely an exception to that rule. Ahead of its final (inevitably somewhat emotional) outing on Thursday night, Brian Coney chats with Radar founder and main man Damien McAdams about the decade-long highs and highlights of a soon to be much-missed Belfast institution. Hi Damien. It should go without saying but Radar is and was a…

  • The Thin Air Tuesday Throwdown: Rory Nellis @ Lavery’s, Belfast

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    The first of three forthcoming Tuesday Throwdown live shows in as many weeks in November, we’re delighted to host a free show with Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis at Lavery’s Belfast Back Bar on Tuesday, November 10. One of the highlights of this year’s Sounds of Belfast festival, this full band show is an unmissable opportunity to catch easily one of the country’s most naturally gifted songsmiths of a generation in such an intimate, limited capacity space. Also frontman of Seven Summits, Nellis’ music betrays an increasingly tangible sense of conviction and candor. Where no lyric or phrase feels throwaway, no…

  • Stream: Daithi – Mary Keanes Introduction

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    For as long as we can recall, Galway’s Daithi has always operated on an inimitable sonic plain, forging electronica with classical in a squall of fearlessness and vision. The latest manifestation of that experimental quest, ‘Mary Keanes Introduction’ features his 90 year old grandmother reminiscing about romance in her youth in the West coast of Ireland. Primed as a perfectly-paced and framed introduction to his forthcoming Tribes EP, the track fuses two distinct worlds – that of the old and that of the new – to spawn something so innately joyous that you would struggle to find it anything but wonderfully accomplished. Speaking of the track, Daithi said, “A…

  • Stream: Sea Pinks – Depth of Field

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year on from the release of the stellar Dreaming Tracks, Belfast threesome Sea Pinks have re-emerged with new single, ‘Depth of Field’. Yet another masterfully sanguine slice of melancholia from the Neil Brogan-fronted band, the track – relating ambivalence and doubt in ways they mastered many moons ago – is the first taste of what to expect from their forthcoming new album, Soft Days, which is set for release in January via CF Records.

  • Out To Lunch Festival Reveal First Acts

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    An all but medicinal annual distraction from the January blues, Belfast’s Out To Lunch have revealed the first wave of acts to grace their eleventh outing at the start of next year. Including Conor O’Brien’s Villagers at the Mac, a book reading from Isy Suttie at the Black Box, an adaptation of Steinbeck classic Of Mice and Men, comedy from Sarah Kendall and shows from the likes of Beardyman, East India Youth, Jim ‘The King’ Brown and Aoife O’Donovan, this year’s bill is already shaping up very nicely indeed. Check out the full Early Bird line-up and secure tickets here.

  • Stream: Defcon – Reach Out

    October 16, 2015 - By 

    Released via London’s Kinnego records, Belfast producer Connor Dougan AKA Defcon has woven some real magic on his new, three-track EP, Reach Out. According to his Bandcamp page, Dougan has “taken the lesser-travelled route of low-key experimentation and refinement, and has arrived at something unique, informed by leftfield hiphop and crate-digging, but also modern dub trickery and bass weight.” Check out our review of the EP in the October issue of our magazine online here. Reach Out by Defcon

  • Playlist: Mercury Music Prize 2015

    October 16, 2015 - By 

    From Wolf Alice, Slaves and Jamie XX to Ghostpoet, Aphex Twin and our very own SOAK, the 2015 Mercury prize shortlist is a typically diverse affair once more this year. With this year’s prize held in association with BBC Music, the winner will be announced on Friday, November 20. Our money’s on Jamie XX but, of course, we’d be delighted to see SOAK take it. In the meantime, check out our Mercury Music Prize 2015 playlist below.

  • Stream: Pleasure Beach – Dreamer to the Dawn

    October 15, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the ashes of Yes Cadets, ‘Dreamer to the Dawn’ by Belfast five-piece Pleasure Beach bears the urgent hallmarks of the likes of overlords Arcade Fire, The National and The War on Drugs. The follow-up to their very well-received debut single ‘Go’ (which we featured here) the band’s new single is a streamlined slice of zealous electro-pop. If Springsteen snuck into Beach House’s studio circa the recording of Teen Dream and magic came to pass, this would surely resemble the result. ‘Dreamer to The Dawn’ is taken from the band’s debut EP of the same name, which will be released via…

  • Watch: Contour – Paradise Lost

    October 15, 2015 - By 

    Dublin duo Anna Doran and Conan Wynne AKA Contour have always kept us on our toes here at TTA, steadily releasing material that constantly seems to be growing more and more inimitable and suggestive of big things in the pipeline. Lifted from their Champion Sound-released EP Blessed With Weird Things, the pair’s Paul Mahon-directed video for new single ‘Paradise Lost’ is an ambitious, experimental audiovisual milestone on their journey to date.