• Album Stream: Son of the Hound – Cheers, Sound, Good Luck

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Presumably, Michael McCullagh doesn’t much like to relax. When he’s not overseeing an equally popular web series (The Also Rans) and podcast (Mad Notions) the Belfast-based Omagh musician makes anthemic guitar-pop in the guise of Son of the Hound. Today marks a big milestone in his career to date. Soundtracking “the overarching feeling of being alive, scared and hopeful in 2019”, Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is a debut album that distills that restlessness, as well as an urgent sense of seizing the moment, to ten tracks that burst with heart, humanity and countless star-shaped hooks. Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is launched at Belfast’s Limelight 2…

  • Premiere: Mob Wife – Captain Care A Lot & Hellsong

    February 8, 2019 - By 

    Following the release of debut single ‘Warm Water’ in August, Belfast’s Mob Wife are back with new double A-side Captain Care A Lot / Hellsong. Recorded by Chris Ryan at Start Together Studios, with striking artwork by Billy Woods, the release strikes a midpoint between the dissonant fury of Metz or Unwound, and the melodic vulnerability of Pile. A contrasting couplet, ‘Captain Care A Lot’ continuing down the narrative & noise-ridden path of twentysomething angst and confusion laid by ‘Warm Water’, sardonically chronicling mass depersonalisation as a result of social media. ‘Hellsong’ is a more inward-looking exploration of disintegration, through the maelstrom of substance abuse, isolation and depression; in eschewing the…

  • Watch: Bouts – Love’s Lost Landings (Part 2)

    January 18, 2019 - By 

    Next week, Bouts will release their highly-anticipated second album, Flow. It’s an release that finds the Dublin quartet distilling their star-shaped, and instantly recognisable brand of indie rock down to nine tracks. Doubling up as the long-awaited full-length follow-up to 2013’s Nothing Good Gets Away, the album – which was recorded by Fiachra McCarthy in Dublin – is an emphatic return effort at a time when carefully-crafted guitar music is experiencing a long-overdue renaissance. Coming off the back of singles ‘Face Up’ and ‘Love’s Lost Lost Landings (Part 1)’, the newly-released ‘Love’s Lost Landings (Part 2)’ is an irresistible shoegaze-leaning burst revolving around Barry Bracken’s…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 50 Irish Releases of 2018 (#50-26)

    December 13, 2018 - By 

    Each December, when we sit down to compile, order (and re-order) our end-of-year lists, a few familiar patterns emerge: though an undeniable bastion of forward-moving sound – and despite what the UK’s more kneejerk music press have been sold as of late – Dublin is not Ireland; there’s always enough feature-length curios released across the calendar year to warrant, if we were so audacious, a Top 200 Releases; and, more than ever, the self-released EP continues to hold its own in the face of even the most monied, PR-wielded long-player. This year was no different. Delve into #50 to #26…

  • Watch: Dreaming of Jupiter – Fading

    November 27, 2018 - By 

    Fast-rising Dublin three-piece Dreaming of Jupiter have eked out their own niche from a wide-spanning palette of nocturnal neo-soul, ambient, alt-pop and beyond. It’s a creative honing, with an emphasis on real attention to detail, that has served them well on their debut EP, Fading. Its title track is a perfect case in point. It’s serves up a shapeshifting four minutes of nuance and melody, driven home by vocalist Gough’s effortless vocals. Dreaming of Jupiter launch Fading at Dublin’s Button Factory on Thursday night. Support comes from Roe and Xo Mo. Stream the EP and watch the video its title track below.  

  • Album Stream: Blue Whale – Process

    November 9, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s Blue Whale have long been something of a sonic law unto themselves. Big words and no mistake, but if you’ve managed to catch them wield what their very own brand of what the Quietus have called the band’s ilk of “chaotic, yet controlled experimental rock”, you’ll know that the high praise is justified. Six years on from their debut three-track release – and countless awe-inspiring live shows later – the quartet launch their exceptional debut album, Process, at Belfast’s Menagerie tonight (Friday, November 9). Over ten tracks, it’s a release that contorts the confines of instrumentalism, all while distilling the band’s singular brand of…

  • Watch: Bouts – Love’s Lost Landings (Pt. 1)

    October 19, 2018 - By 

    Five years on from the release of their debut album, Nothing Good Gets Away, Dublin indie rock quartet Bouts resurfaced back in May with ‘Face Up’. The lead single from the band’s highly-anticipated second full-length, Flow, frontman Barry Bracken called it “a no-filter, punch the air plea for staring things down and pushing on through.” Second single ‘Love’s Lost Landings (Pt. 1)’ picks up the pace in emphatic fashion. Accompanied with visuals from Paris/London-based French photographer Gwenaëlle Trannoy (link below) it’s an equal parts slick and starry-eyed burst of indie rock from the re-emerging Irish four-piece, centreing around frontman Barry Bracken’s…

  • Watch: Glass Wings – Believe

    October 10, 2018 - By 

    Belfast artist Stephen Jones AKA Glass Wings has unveiled the video for his new single, ‘Believe’. The latest track to be taken from his forthcoming debut album, Everything and Nothing, it’s a slick and urgent blast of the fast-rising songwriter’s alt-pop craft. Hosted by Bird & Bramble, Glass Wings’ debut is officially launched at Belfast’s Black Box on October 19. You can buy and stream the single here. Have a first look at the visuals below.

  • Premiere: The Mad Dalton – Spirit of Rocky

    October 8, 2018 - By 

    Belfast-based alt-folk singer-songwriter Peter Sumadh AKA The Mad Dalton has unveiled the video for his new single, ‘Spirit of Rocky’. Taken from Dalton’s full-length debut album, Open Season, the single – one of Sumadh’s strongest to date – now comes accompanied with Elspeth Vischer-directed video, with camera work by Ayrton McGurgan. Trigger warning: may contain an oversized, sax-wielding bunny. The Mad Dalton play Belfast’s 39 Gordon Street on Thursday, October 11th.

  • Album Stream: Arvo Party – II

    October 3, 2018 - By 

    When Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party unveiled his self-titled debut album last July, we quickly learnt that we were dealing with something pretty special. Having previously established himself as a formidable one-fourth of erstwhile Belfast alt-rock heroes LaFaro, and later with GOONS, it made for a feature-length curveball from a musician who has seemingly, and rather quietly, mastered a whole different palette of sound. The dancefloor nocturnalism of ‘Grube’ hit home hard. The widescreen ambience of ‘Thirty Five’ was a spectral tidal of ambience on mute. ‘Null Set’, meanwhile, proved an unravelling eight-minute centrepiece, and a track that continues to…