• Playlist: World Poetry Day 2017

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    To mark this year’s World Poetry Day we’ve compiled thirteen songs from the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cure, James Blake (above) and Talking Heads directly inspired by poetry. Check out the playlist and accompanying poems/poets below. 1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand (Paradise Lost by Milton) 2. The Cure – How Beautiful You Are (The Eyes of the Poor by Baudelaire) 3. Talking Heads – I Zimbra (Gadji Beri Bimba by Hugo Ball) 4. Joni Mitchell – If (If by Rudyard Kipling) 5. Lana Del Rey – Body Electric (I Sing The Body Electric by…

  • Europe. Endless? 40 Years of Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” -TS Eliot  Nothing gave life to the potential of a common European consciousness, if you let me away with that word, quite like the neurons of railway lines that lie across its…

  • Playlist: Strike 4 REPEAL

    March 7, 2017 - By 

    Tomorrow – Wednesday, March  8 – The Thin Air staff will be participating in Strike 4 Repeal so we shall refrain from posting and sharing content in solidarity with the Repeal the 8th movement. As the strike also coincides with International Women’s Day, to mark the occasion we have compiled a 100 track, 6-and-a-half-hour playlist celebrating the many incredibly talent female performers our island has to offer from Lisa Hannigan, Heathers, Hvmmingbird, Saint Sister, Roisin Murphy, ELLLL, Naoise Roo, Die Hexen and BARQ to Aoife Underwater, LYRA, Nina Hynes, September Girls, Jealous of the Birds, DOTT, Sleep Thieves, EVVOL, Wounded Healer,…

  • Playlist: Choice Music Prize 2017

    March 7, 2017 - By 

    On Thursday evening, the 12th annual award will once again celebrate and acknowledge the best in Irish recorded music, with one winning act walking away with €10,000 on the night. Set to be chosen by a panel of twelve Irish music media professionals and industry experts, the following ten releases will vie for the prize: All Tvvins – IIVV (Warner Music) Bantum – Move (Self Released) Wallis Bird – Home (Mount Silver/Caroline International) The Divine Comedy – Foreverland (Divine Comedy Records) Lisa Hannigan – At Swim (Hoop Recordings) Katie Kim – Salt (Art For Blind Records) James Vincent McMorrow –…

  • Ain’t No Pity In The Mega-City: 40 Years of Judge Dredd

    March 6, 2017 - By 

    The war to end all wars. Senseless carnage on a scale unimagined. The East-Coast of what used to be the United States lies in ruins, occupied by foreign invaders. In the wastelands of the former Soviet Russia, a group of elite operatives infiltrate a nuclear bunker. Aiming the missiles at their enemies’ capital, a captive pleads for mercy. “Judge Dredd – don’t do it! There are half a billion people in my city – half a billion human beings! You can’t just wipe them out with the push of a button!” Dredd stares at the control panel, battered, bruised, but…

  • Copy of a Copy of a: A Strange Kind of Flattery With Lilys

    March 2, 2017 - By 

    There’s a moment on Lilys’ 1996 album Better Can’t Make Your Life Better, where you find yourself wondering “What exactly am I listening to?” It happens on the first track. For a first-time listener, it’s bewildering, a mish-mash of 60s jangle, R&B (in the old use of the term), and garage band scuzz. It sounds like the Monkees jamming with The Who on Jupiter. Which is a compliment, obviously. But if you’d been at all familiar with the Washington D.C. band, then it really was a curveball. Over the course of two well-received but obscure albums, Lilys had established themselves…

  • Playlist: 12 Irish Acts at SXSW 2017

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    As positively hectic as any festival on the face of the globe, SXSW has long been established as a veritable cornucopia of film, music and interactive media from far and very wide. And with festivals of much smaller scale: where the excess of choice becomes something of a burden, planning ahead and knocking up a makeshift “must-see” guide is next to obligatory to ensure FOMO doesn’t become an all-consuming spectre during your festival stay. Just as important is getting some essential listening in before heading off in said sensory abyss. So if you’re SXSW-bound this year and want to check out some…

  • Track Record: Craig McCloskey (Hornets/Destriers)

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    Craig McCloskey from Belfast bands Hornets and Destriers selects and waxes (ahem) lyrical about some of his most prized records, including Chelsea Wolfe, Baptists, Code Orange Kids, The Chariot and Booker T. & The M.G.’s. Photos by Dee McEvoy. Hornets release their new album, Witch Hunt, on 12″ coloured vinyl and digital download in April. Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis Chelsea Wolfe is relatively huge now, what with her song used in one of the Game of Thrones trailers, but I still prefer her older records that sound way less electronic/produced and a bit more folk-ey.  I love the intro track on this record,…

  • 17 For ’17: DIE HEXEN

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Extending from the north of Ireland to the east of Asia, the scope of DIE HEXEN – spatially, temporally, and ideologically – is vast and fascinating, executed in a fashion that marks this enigma of performance art apart from any other musician in the country. DIE HEXEN defies definition or categorisation, an identity and an idea constantly in flux. It’s a marriage of western and eastern concepts; of the unique post-World War II Japanese art theatre, Butoh, the dance of darkness; of myriad twentieth century cinematic, musical and pop-cultural influences; of personal experience and wilful passion. We’ve had glimpses of…

  • 17 For ’17: TOUTS

    February 1, 2017 - By 

    Three-piece Derry band TOUTS have quickly established a name for themselves in the local music scene and beyond by delivering incendiary live performances, underpinned with an ol-school punk attitude. Still in their teens, Matthew (singer/guitarist), Luke (bassist), and Jason (drummer) have opened for punk rock royalty in Derry’s own, The Undertones.  They’ve also played high-profile support slots and secured upcoming shows with Blossoms and The Coral. As a band, they have been sustained on a diet of stellar mod/punk rock throughout their formative years – who whilst indebted to pioneering artists – have quickly forged an identity of their own…