• Stream: Edward F Butler feat. Katharine Philippa – Futures Full

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of premiering its (really quite brilliant) video tomorrow, we highly recommend taking five minutes out of your evening to stream ‘Futures Full’, the new single by Edward F Butler featuring Katharine Philippa. Easily two of Northern Ireland’s more idiosyncratic musicians over the last couple of years, a collaboration between the pair should come as little surprise to anyone who has kept up with their respective journeys to date. Having both featured in Oh Yeah Centre’s Scratch My Progress programme (NB: Butler in his previous outfit HOWL) ‘Futures Full – “a song about relationships, purpose and identity – melds the very best…

  • Watch: Runaway Go – Lover to Lover

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Belfast indie-pop duo Fiona O’Kane and David Jackson AKA Runaway Go have long earned their stripes as one of the country’s finest purveyors of the genre. With their boundlessly compatible vocal styles, the pair’s music has always burst forth with a vitality and joie de vivre that’s never wanting in the realms of pathos and perspective. With their debut album, Alive, set for release in November, the duo have went down the PledgeMusic route with the aim to secure its release. In the meantime, they’ve given us a taste of what to expect from the record in the form of ‘Lover to Lover’, a wonderfully…

  • Watch: LORIS – Crazy

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Set to play Bad Bob’s on Friday, October 2 as part of this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin, Belfast electronic-pop quartet LORIS have built up a strong following since their inception in 2013. Speaking to BBC’s Across The Line back in May, the band said of their new single, ‘Crazy’: “We wanted [it]to be a really feel good song, and in true Loris style we wanted a big chorus. There are lots of different elements to this song, but we wanted the drums to really stand out to create a big sound. All the different parts make it really…

  • Watch: Ash – Machinery

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    One of our favourite tracks from their sixth studio album, Kablammo!, Ash have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Machinery’. Shot in Tokyo, the video sees Tim Wheeler performing the track in a snazzy karaoke bar, surrounded by a handful of people who fluctuate between looking rather confused and totally ecstatic. Either way, the drink is in, the sense is out and all is well. And what a hook. Ash play the following Irish shows in December: Tuesday, December 15: Olympia, Dublin Thursday, December 17: Roisin Dubh, Galway Friday, December 18: Cyprus Avenue, Cork Saturday, December 19: Dolans, Limerick Sunday, December…

  • Smalltown America All-Dayer: American Clay

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Having already featured the likes of Scottish headliners Carnivores, Derry punk outfit Lost Avenue and hotly-tipped duo Rosseau, the latest in our series of videos looking back at Smalltown America Records’ Sixth All-Dayer features  quartet American Clay and their track ‘Gutted’. Quintessential indie-rock stylings, this. We approve. Check out Paul Martin Brown’s video below and buy the STA All Dayer #6 live album here.

  • The Countless Other Gangs of Four

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Having recounted some exquisite tales for us in his previous alias of Meb Jon Sol last year – and with the release of his new single, ‘Pilgrim’, on Friday – Omagh songsmith Michael McCullagh AKA Son of the Hound returns for a new string of columns for The Thin Air. Photo by Tom Nicholl. The train shook the window as it passed. The fixings of the steel bunks shuddered and cream paint flaked from the wall, falling quietly as the noise of the train faded into the Dublin hum. ‘That’s why the room was so cheap’ I said. I heaved my guitar case on…

  • Watch: White Sage – Kassetten Stimme

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Citing Cluster, Harmonia and Neu! as key influences, the Kraut-soaked dream-psych of Dublin artist Andy Walsh AKA White Sage is right up our Kosmiche-inclined street. Following on from his debut EP under the moniker, Way Beyond Our Means, ‘Kassetten Stimme’ – the first track to be lifted from his forthcoming self-titled LP – is a cunning canvas of weaving cosmic sounds, analog synths, found conversations and braying guitar shapes, driven forth by palpitating drum machine rhythms throughout. Released via Little Gem Records this Friday, September 25, the video for the track – a suitably warped, phantasmagoric affair – was also produced by Walsh. Speaking about…

  • Album stream: Aaron Shanley – Metal Alligator

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    An eight-track, homemade, mini-album, Metal Alligator by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Shanley is a snapshot of an artist who threw complete caution to the wind in favour of reaping the artistic fruits of flux, providence and transformation. Having relocated to London, throwing himself into a heady maelstrom of writing and recording for both himself and others, Shanley took time to assemble this new release, the follow-up to Bedroom Tapes, released at the tail-end of 2013. Beginning on lead single, ‘My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)’, Metal Alligator was recorded “on various devices” throughout 2015 and features multi-instrumentalist Shanley performing “vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, fristleism, synths,…

  • Stream: The Altered Hours – Way of Sorrow

    September 21, 2015 - By 

    To say we have intently dug The Altered Hours‘ summoning psych wizardry over the last few years would be something of a towering understatement. Not unlike their fellow rebel county alchemists The Vincent(s), the band have always tapped into something primordial and rooted in darkly spectral, deeply charismatic allure; a conjuring that has only grown more potent and steadfast over time. With their fervidly-sought debut album, In Heat Not Sorry, set for release via Art For Blind Records/Penske Recordings in January, the Cork band have whetted our psych-inclined appetite yet further with ‘Way of Sorrow’, a brisk and purposeful burst of chugging force…