• Premiere: Damo Suzuki with Blue Whale and Paul Stapleton

    February 26, 2018 - By 

    Last May, we teamed up with Moving On Music to host a fully-improvised show with legendary CAN frontman Damo Suzuki, alongside experimental rock maestros Blue Whale and Californian improviser, sound artist, inventor and writer, Paul Stapleton, at Belfast’s Black box. Ahead of Blue Whale launching this year’s (sure to be brilliant) Brilliant Corners alongside A.R.C. in the same Cathedral Quarter venue this Saturday, we’re pleased to present a first look of Xray Films’ document of last May’s performance in full.

  • Monday Mixtape: Rian Trench

    February 26, 2018 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Dublin-based musician and producer Rian Trench reveals some of his favourite tracks. These are songs which, in his words, reflects his tendency to listen to music either on the aggressive or the subdued side of the fence. Photo by SCAN Current Value – Running German D&B legend. The first track from his 2008 EP – “Revealing the Concealed”. All four tracks on this play out like variations on the same idea, but this is somehow the most distilled. “Fear” is a close second. Scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. Brutal genius. Kyle…

  • The Thin Air’s Alternative Valentine’s Playlist

    February 14, 2018 - By 

    Sure, every second song is about love (or the lack of it) but that hasn’t stopped us from compiling our annual Spotify playlist of 30 songs that sum up the sometimes transformative, other times crushing realm of love pretty succinctly. Featuring Mojave 3, Elliott Smith, Nick Cave, James Blake, Grizzly Bear, Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine, Big Star, Father John Misty, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Magnetic Fields, Radiohead and more, you can stream and subscribe to it below.

  • Preview: RTÉ Choice Music Prize, Irish Album of the Year 2017

    February 4, 2018 - By 

    Since the inception of The Choice Music Prize – now in partnership with national broadcaster RTÉ – in 2005, the list of victors has been exceptionally varied making it close to impossible to cast a definitive answer on who will claim the bountiful cash prize and honour of releasing the best Irish album of the year. Over the last thirteen years, artists as diverse as Julie Feeney to Rusangano Family and The Gloaming to Villagers have won for their outstanding musical output. On paper, the ten albums nominated for 2017 can be broken down into as the following; seven hours…

  • Interview & Label Mixtape: Exploding In Sound Records

    February 7, 2018 - By 

    Formed in 2011, and based in New York City, Exploding In Sound Records is a tapestry of idiosyncrasy. Pile, for example, are regularly cited as the world’s greatest rock band. Big Ups’ Before A Million Universes was very possibly 2016’s finest noise rock record. The bubbling, emotional cacophony of Ovlov’s 2013 Am has developed its own posthumous devoted cult following, leading to the band reuniting for a second album; not to mention the label’s ability to function as an early outlet and jumping point for Speedy Ortiz, Porches, LVL UP and Palehound. It’s a community. Bands share members, shows and tours together, and there’s a very genuine…

  • 18 for ’18: Any Joy

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, Any Joy. Photo by Silvio Severino We’ve written platitudes on Cork’s tendency to function as Ireland’s bastion of cosmically-inclined guitar music, and its latest export is Any Joy, who, while tinted with the hue of its primary contemporary export, simultaneously demarcate themselves from the trappings of being a genre band, forever doomed to lay in…

  • 18 for ’18: Destriers

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, progressive hardcore quartet Destriers. Photo by Colum O’Dwyer As a hardcore fan, you often find yourself fighting genre jadedness. By its nature, every latest trend can seem yet another vessel that fits the sonic requirements but lacks dynamism or the genuine sense of vocal or compositional conviction that the foundations of punk are built upon.…

  • Third Chance Saloon? Revisiting Kilkenny’s Oscar-Nominated Animations

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Among the Irish nominations for the 90th Academy Awards, announced this week, was The Breadwinner, up for Best Animated Feature, from Kilkenny-based animation and design studio Cartoon Saloon. Based on Deborah Ellis’ novel, it follows a girl in late-90s Afghanistan whose father is unjustly arrested by the Taliban authorities, forcing her to pass as a boy in order to support her family. The film, which will receive its Irish premiere at the Dublin Film Festival next month and a wide release later in the Spring, is the company’s highest profile feature yet. In terms of Oscar nods, that makes it three out…

  • 18 for ’18: The Sunshine Factory

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, The Sunshine Factory. Photo by Abigail Denniston The Sunshine Factory want to be as inescapable as The Brian Jonestown Massacre. At least, that is according to an interview with The Thin Air last November where they also name dropped the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Spaceman 3 and Joy Division as influences. Unlike so many other…

  • 18 for ’18: Pillow Queens

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Pillow Queens. Photo by Ciara Brennan, taken at plantlife.ie Queer, feminist, socialist. How does one encapsulate the pulsating movements of culture and ideals that are currently sweeping across the world, and furthermore, how does one do so colloquially and naturally? Dublin based Pillow Queens have the answer, using more than just their…