• The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2016 (#49-1)

    December 22, 2016 - By 

    Well, there we have it: twelve months, innumerable tracks, and – despite the mild trauma it has incurred having to do it all over again – our top 100 Irish tracks of the year. It wasn’t easy but we got there, y’know? Go here for #100-75 and here for #74-50. Your move, 2017. 49. Roisin Murphy – Ten Miles High 48. Ships – Around This World 47. Jealous of the Birds – Tonight I Feel Like Kafka 46. R51 – Elephant 45. Hiva Oa – Seskinore mk ll (part 1) by Hiva Oa 44. Galants – Evergreen 43. Saint Sister…

  • Vault Lines: Ciaran Lavery

    December 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of playing a special one-off show with strings at Belfast’s The MAC tonight (Monday, December 19), Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery waxes lyrical on his love of a lesser-known Luke Kelly gem, ‘The Sun Is Burning’. I’m somewhere between 14-16 years old and I’m standing in the kitchen of my house. Luke Kelly is playing. We grew up with some version of Luke Kelly and The Dubliners’ Greatest Hits or collection of songs to as far back as I can remember.  I’m not sure if I understood the depth of the music or lyrics but I do know that I…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2016 (#100-75)

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    As much as the whole process can skim close to the torturous, few things in this er, business rival the sheer satisfaction of sifting through a full year of music in order to attempt to carve out some semblance of a Top 100. And whilst descending, close-ended lists of this kind are almost exclusively arbitrary exercises nullified by good ol’ subjectivity, there’s something intrinsically important about taking a broader snapshot of music released in the twelve months just gone, offering up our very own take on what stood out best, strongest, and most emphatically of all. Make no mistake, it’s been a…

  • Stream: The Thin Air’s Death Culture Blues #3 on Dublin Digital Radio

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    Despite a little technological hitch, we returned with Death Culture Blues on Dublin Digital Radio last night spinning two hours of psychedelic, experimental and ambient sounds in the varied vein of Füxa, William Basinski and The For Carnation. Check out the full playlist (which, it seems, features no less than four umlauts) and listen back to the show in full via DDR’s Mixcloud below. Death Culture Blues returns to Dublin Digital Radio on Thursday, December 22 from 8-10pm. 1. Silver Apples – Ruby 2. Bruce Haack – Party Machine 3. Amon Düül – Yeti (Improvisation) 4. Michael Turtle – Spooky Boogie…

  • Inbound: Hiva Oa

    December 15, 2016 - By 

    Despite having released a debut album and EP back in 2012 while based in Edinburgh, Hiva Oa had gone pretty quiet until recently. As it turns out, a relocation back home to Ireland was on the cards for core members Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy, not to mention a change in direction. Where that previous work traded on a sparse, minimal folk sound mainly built around guitar and cello with occasional forays into loops and effects, their aptly titled new EP mk2 (part 1) sees those electronics completely take over their sound, with single ‘A Great Height’ perfectly juxtaposing sinister…

  • Annual Irish Festive Single Round-up

    December 14, 2016 - By 

    Let’s face it: it takes a veritable sleigh-full of brass to release a festive single in this day and age. Thankfully, though, we’re blessed with a handful of homegrown artists that know how to do it and do it right. So, from now until Saturday, December 24, we’re going to update this very post with every single festive single of note from a small medley of inspirited Irish artists. To kick us off, we have Aghagallon’s Ciaran Lavery, Derry’s Our Krypton Son, Belfast’s Rory Nellis and Die Hexen, Kilrea’s Robyn G Shiels and Dublin’s No Monster Club. Ciaran Lavery – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 50 Tracks of 2016

    December 14, 2016 - By 

    All thanks to some pretty unfathomable political, social, economic and psychic shitstorms, 2016 has provided the almost perfect milieu for some serious sonic escapism over the last eleven and a bit months. And, of course, there were good times, too – many of which featured some of the finest feature-length and one-off soundtracks imaginable. So, ahead of unveiling our annual top 100 Irish tracks of the year in four installments over the next week or so, check out our Top 50 Tracks of 2016 – featuring everyone from Suuns, The Avalanches, Margaret Glaspy and Leonard Cohen to Gnod, Frank Ocean, Car Seat Headrest and King Gizzard and The…

  • For The Love of Art

    December 12, 2016 - By 

    There was a time when a person could have dreams of being creative, of writing that novel, recording that album, or starring in that movie that would make everything OK. And there was a time when those dreams might actually come true. But that seems like such a long way away from the current vantage point. Liberties Press have recently come under scrutiny after several of their authors have made allegations of business irregularity. Despite books being on the shelves, several writers have spoken out about not being paid, and a new policy of charging money for manuscript submissions has…

  • Stream: The Thin Air’s Death Culture Blues #2 on Dublin Digital Radio

    December 9, 2016 - By 

    Having kicked off with its inaugural outing last week, we returned with Death Culture Blues on the new-fangled – and most excellent – Dublin Digital Radio last night from 8-10pm. And as with show #1, the order of the evening was experimental and cosmically-inclined sounds, featuring everyone from Mica Levi, Documenta and Wet Hair to Alice Coltrane, Bardo Pond and Maximum Joy. Check out the full playlist for show #2 and stream it in full below. 1. Broadcast – Pendulum 2. Tonstartsbandht – Black Country 3. Isotope 217 – Solaris 4. PVT – Community 5. Maija Sofia – Dreamscape 6. Mica Levi –…

  • Inbound: Jesse Heffernan

    December 8, 2016 - By 

    Jesse Heffernan’s musical style has developed and matured naturally with each experience and influence met by the Dublin singer songwriter throughout his varied trajectory. The laid back, atmospheric tendencies of his expanding catalogue draws from the modes of articulation perfected by classical figures (Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison and John Martyn) and specific elements of contemporary musicians such as the lo-fi guitar reverb of King Krule’s early single, ‘Out Getting Ribs’, which is re-enacted on Heffernan’s ‘Electric Shoes’ This diversity gives density to his mellow melodies and soulful vocals which effortlessly lull you into a state of uninterrupted calm, a rarity…