• The ddr. Radio Logs. Entry #1: Why Radio?

    February 2, 2023 - By 

    In the first of a new monthly series by residents of Dublin Digital Radio, exploring their practice and the craft of radio-making, ddr. co-founder and Time Slip host Seán Finnan asks: “Why radio?” As of this month, Dublin Digital Radio is starting a new column in The Thin Air. Each month, the radio logs will focus on a different resident who contributes to the ever-expanding range of music and sound that has found a home on the station’s stream. Our approach to the column will aim to be as varied as the attitudes to radiomaking found on our platform; residents,…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 27th January

    January 27, 2023 - By 

    Taking in every corner of the island, here’s the very best tracks of the week from This Ship Argo, Perlee, Meltybrains, Myles McCormack, Ailsha and more This Ship Argo – Flowers, Sparks, Fireworks Flowers, Sparks, Fireworks by This Ship Argo Perlee – Lampshade Meltybrains? – You Myles McCormack – To Better All Things To Better All Things by Myles McCormack Jam Hades – The Edge Jam Hades · The Edge Of Regret Ailsha – Sucker Stoat – Let’s Be Strangers Seba Safe – Afterlife

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 20th January

    January 20, 2023 - By 

    It’s a real red letter day for Irish music, with new music from some Ireland’s finest acts. Check out our pick of them, featuring Lisa O’Neill, Arborist, New Pagans, Frog of Earth, David Kitt, CMAT, Danny Carroll, Ailbhe Reddy, Hands Up Who Wants To Die, No Spill Blood and more. Lisa O’Neill – Silver Seed Arborist – Dreaming In Another Language CMAT – Mayday Robbie Stickland – Time To Say Goodbye To My Old Self Time To Say Goodbye To My Old Self by Robbie Stickland Hands Up Who Wants To Die – L’inconnue New Pagans – There We Are John No Spill Blood –…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 13th January

    January 13, 2023 - By 

    The first new track drop of 2023 already has already provided a few gems, with fresh cuts from exciting new records from M(h)aol, Meltybrains, modernlove and many more. Mhaol – Therapy Meltybrains? – Ease That Mind Curtisy x Cillian – 7PM Five to Two w/ JarJarJr – Song 50,000 modernlove. – Ruin Your Night Somebody’s Child – I Need Ya Abe Soare – Oasis

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Releases of 2022

    December 28, 2022 - By 

    As we rapidly approach our 10th birthday in May, it’s safe to say we’ve never been as assured of the game-changing depth and breadth of independent music on these shores. Granted, it could well be a hallucination caused by the sway of the ever-present now, but has it truly ever been better? Spending time with the following albums, EPs & compilations, spanning every sub-genre under the winter sun, we would need some persuading. Your move, 2023. Revisit our Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2022 100. Peng Weng – Six Of The Best Of The Worst Of Peng Weng Six Of…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2022

    December 22, 2022 - By 

    “We’re excessively confident we’re set for another year of genre-spanning, forward-pushing greatness.” It feels like an actual aeon since we signed off our Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2021 feature this time last year. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been positively inundated with sounds that fit that description and then some. The ever-arbitrary designation of 100 – as opposed to, say, 250 or 300 tracks – has felt near impossible to adhere to, but we’ve found it has once again served its purpose. Without that curious limitation, we’d be in the even more frustrating position of having to dump hundreds of streaming embeds below and…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 2nd December

    December 2, 2022 - By 

    On this, the final Bandcamp Friday of 2022, delve into the very best Irish releases of the week from Extravision, Krea, Two Nice Catholic Boys, Thumper and more Extravision – Land of a Thousand Unwelcome Advances Land of a Thousand Unwelcome Advances by Extravision Krea – Last Day Of The Year Two Nice Catholic Boys – Seconds Seconds by Two Nice Catholic Boys Hatchet Field – Beneath The Black Mountain Beneath The Black Mountain by Hatchet Field Thumper – Summer Assault Stef and the Sleveens – Give My Regards To The Dancing Girls Moving Statues – You Look Like You’ve…

  • Track Record: Alanah Smith (Problem Patterns)

    December 1, 2022 - By 

    Alanah Smith from Belfast-based feminist queerpunks Problem Patterns selects the albums that left a huge impression on her life from Bikini Kill to Charly Bliss. Photos by Jane Donnelly. Dark Times – Give Dark Times are a band who reinvigorated my love for punk, and more specifically, made me want to try my hand at it properly again. I’m fairly certain I’ve put them on every single list when anyone asks me about influences for Problem Patterns. I found their song, ‘Girl Hate’ years ago, which just blew my mind when I first heard it. It was just a chaotic…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 25th November

    November 25, 2022 - By 

    Aoife Wolf – The Wetlands EP Alpha Chrome Yayo – Tom Waits is There Tom Waits Is There by Alpha Chrome Yayo Meltybrains? – Space Ghetto Celica – Celica EP 02 Celica EP 02 by Celica AOIBHA – When You Hold Her Christian Cohle – Strength Constant Supply – I Keep Hitting Every Wall, Baby Lobotomy by Constant Supply I Have a Tribe – Teddy’s Song Driven Snow – Flickers of You Willzee – Eclipse   Photo credit: Aaron Cunningham

  • Monday Mixtape: M Stevens & The Ghasts

    November 21, 2022 - By 

    Popical Island founder and M Stevens & The Ghasts main man Mike Stevens reveals some of his all-time favourite songs, from Silver Jews and Weyes Blood, to Wilco and Lankum Birds by M Stevens & The Ghasts Brigid Mae Power – ‘Mother in the Sky’ At the end of a recent gig of hers in the Bello Bar, I said to an embarrassed Brigid Mae Power that it was maybe the best gig I had ever seen. In the cold light of the next morning, I cringed not a bit, realising it wasn’t just the drink talking, that it was…