• TTA Session 11: Hiva Oa (Part 2)

    Ahead of the launch of their new EP, MkII (part 2), at Belfast’s Pavilion tomorrow night (Saturday, April 22) we’re pleased to present the second part of Colm Laverty’s TTA Live Session with Belfast’s Hiva Oa. Featuring the band performing tracks ‘So Many Lies’ and Badger’ the session features sound by Chris McCorry and Matthew Collings, camera by Brian O’Kane and Colm Laverty and editing by the latter. Go here to check out the first installment of the session, featuring the band performing ‘Seskinore’ and ‘Johnny Brazil’, highlights from their previous EP Mk. 2, Pt. 1.

  • TTA Session 11: Hiva Oa (Part 1)

    Tipped by us as ones to watch in this Inbound feature back in December, Belfast’s Hiva Oa released one of our favourite Irish EPs of 2016 in the form of the Mk. 2, Pt. 1. Having recently relocated back to the city from Edinburgh, Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy, along with live member Chris McCorry, are an act to keep an eye out on the live front over the next few months, not least their eagerly-anticipated appearance at this year’s Output at Voodoo in Belfast on Thursday, February 16 Ahead of that show, we’re pleased to present the first of a two-part live session…

  • TTA Session 10: Abandcalledboy (Part II)

    In the second installment of a two-part session, Irish noise quartet Abandcalledboy perform ‘Playdough’, that malleable, positively inedible toy we all worshipped as kids. Go here to check out the first part featuring ABCB playing recent single ‘L.A. Dick’. Filmed and edited by Colm Laverty. Sound by The Chris’ AKA Chris Ryan and Chris Brazier.

  • TTA Session #010: Abandcalledboy (Part 1)

    In the first of a two-part Thin Air Live Session, Colm Laverty captures ever-evolving positively idiosyncratic alt-noise quartet Abandcalledboy performing recent single ‘L.A. Dick’, a track we reckon(ed) calls to mind the likes of The Fall and Tera Melos. Sound by Chris Ryan and Chris Brazier.

  • Irrational Man

    Judge Thomas Spangler – the catalyst at the centre of Woody Allen’s latest dark-comedy, Irrational Man – is a creature of habit. Every day he jogs along the same route, drinks the same juice and stops to read the paper on the same park bench. His routine is, in fact, so constant and predictable that it actively plays a part in his own demise. Allen, too, follows a predictable routine. He exercises in the mornings, writes at the same desk all day, and watches baseball at the weekends. He once famously missed an Academy Awards ceremony because it clashed with…

  • Absolutely Anything

    On paper, Absolutely Anything sounds like a winning combination: not only does Terry Jones’s sci-fi comedy boast the (unofficial) screen reunion of the surviving Monty Python crew, but it’s also the final film appearance of the late, great Robin Williams – as a talking dog, no less. Despite everything, the film is wholly unremarkable, failing to generate more than a handful of chuckles throughout. Alongside lead Simon Pegg – who has helped pen some of the best British comedies in recent years – the talents of Messrs Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, (writer & director) Jones, Palin and Williams are all but…

  • Station to Station

    Doug Aitken’s Station To Station – a collagist multimedia project spanning numerous major US cities and “off-the-grid” locations – is an unusual experience. Recorded over a three-week, four-thousand mile trip in late 2013, Aitken’s film encapsulates all manner of experiences and ethea in relation to being on the road in a contemporary America. Filmed on-board and around a customised, neon-coated train, and through a series of live “happenings”, Station To Station is at once frenetic and contemplative, not only in its content, but also its kaleidoscopic structure. Collaborators range from world-renowned musicians (Patti Smith, Jackson Browne, Beck), to experimental artists…

  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

    Taking just as many cues from US and European independent cinema as the classic horror canon, first-time feature writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour meticulously crafts a striking new-wave romance, in, what could very well be, the finest vampire flick of the decade. “Vampire romance? Ugh!”, I hear you groan. Rest assured, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is more than the sum of its parts, worlds away from those much-loathed teen melodramas of recent years. Instead, Amirpour presents a dark, postmodern tale of loneliness and desire, set amongst the industrial ghost town of Bad City, Iran. A desolate town sucked…

  • TTA Session #007: Ciaran Lavery

    We’ve said it a few times before but some things just need repeating: Ciaran Lavery is easily one of the most naturally gifted Irish singer-songwriters of his or any other generation. With an extraordinary voice schooled in heartache and experience, Lavery’s restrained yet fevered acoustic tales harbour some truly wonderful turns of phrase and gently-strummed songwriting brilliance. Filmed/edited by Colm Laverty, and featuring sound by Chris Ryan, we recently captured Lavery performing two of his very best songs – ‘Shame’ and ‘Left For America’ – early in the morning outside Belfast’s iconic Duke of York on Corporation Street. As well delivering two superb renditions of both songs, Lavery…