• Interview: Baths

    “Selfishness plays a very positive role for me. I have to love it to death or I can’t remain involved with it.” So says twenty-four year old Californian electronic producer Will Wiesenfeld AKA Baths. Having developed a particularly crippling bout of E Coli in 2009 that left him bed-ridden and unable to write music for months, he positively channelled this skirmish with mortality into his second full-length release, last year’s masterfully bleak and heart-wrenchingly beautiful Obsidian. If Nietzsche’s immortal adage “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” rings true, Wiesenfeld’s sophomore effort embodied a distinctly do-or-die spirit. With…

  • The Record: And So I Watch You From Afar @ Start Together Studios

    In he latest installment of The Record, Jill Moffett exclusively shoots North Coast post-rock quartet And So I Watch You From Afar record their forthcoming fourth studio album at Belfast’s Start Together Studios. Produced by Rocky O’Reilly, the record – expected to be released next year – will be the follow-up to the band’s 2013 Sargent House debut, All Hail Bright Futures. And So I watch You From Afar will play a Sargent House label show at Dublin’s Button Factory Wednesday, August 27. Check out the photos from Start Together below.

  • Festival Mixtape: Forfey Festival

    Taking place across the weekend of August 1-3, the wonderfully intimate and unaffected Forfey Festival returns to Forfey Farm near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh with easily one of its strongest line-ups to date. As is its custom, homegrown folk and acoustic acts make up the majority of this year’s line-up, but there is also a wide range of electronic and rock artists – everyone from Hornets to Affleck – performing across the festival’s three days. Go here to buy tickets for the festival and check out our ten-track Festival Mixtape – including the likes of More Than Conquerors, Ciaran Lavery and Go Wolf (pictured) – below.

  • Inbound: DANI

    DANI brings something extremely unique to the term “singer-songwriter” here in Northern Ireland. Dabbling between slapping and tapping her guitar strings, her songs are gentle, charming little pieces which ring softly in your ears with their raw, dream-like textures. I caught up with her to discover what’s in store for her in the coming months, including her new EP in which she is collaborating with none other than Mike Mormecha of Mojo Fury and Malojian. Hi Dani. Last year you released an EP, It Speaks for Itself. How have things changed since then? Have you got anything in the works? Yeah,  I released…

  • Meb Jon Sol: Worried Man, in A

    I pressed the dusty keys of the old upright near the entrance of the barn. It let out a brace of discordant notes in the close summer heat and left little finger silhouettes in the dirt on the ivory. ’I shouldn’t be here,’ I thought, ‘and it won’t be long until I’m found out.’ The barn was out the back of a farmhouse around the back roads of Leitrim. It had been converted into a studio, but it seemed to have fought valiantly against the conversion. Rusting car parts and stumped farm tools scattered around the stony garden surrounding the…

  • Festival Mixtape: Indiependence 2014

    Hands down one of Cork’s finest annual festivals, Indiependence returns to Mitcheltown’s Deer Park across the weekend of August 1-3, headlined by hip-hop overlords Public Enemy, London post-punk trio White Lies and Tom Odell. Better still, this year’s festival boasts some of the very finest acts, of every conceivable ilk and genre, that fall comfortably under the banner “homegrown”. Whether you look to the cosmically-inclined rapture of Cork’s The Altered Hours or Belfast-based indie-pop quartet Go Wolf, amongst several others, the veritable cream of Ireland’s musical crop will be nicely represented across the weekend. Check out the full line-up for the festival…

  • Friday Mixtape: Owen Strathern (Oh Volcano)

    In the first of a new weekly “thing” here at the Thin Air (sometimes “thing” sums it up perfectly, you know?), Oh Volcano’s Owen Strathern delivers the inaugural Friday Mixtape, featuring some of his all-time favourite tracks – everyone from Talking Heads to The Magnetic Fields. Stream the playlist and read Owen’s thoughts on each track below. Future Islands – Seasons (Waiting On You): “I saw this track on Letterman and pre-ordered their album right away. The guy is mesmerising and this song is incredible.” Caged Animals – Teflon Heart: “I heard this track a few years ago and just heard an instrumental of…

  • Inbound: Jamie Neish

    Ahead of his solo performance at the latest Volume Control show at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre, Rebekah Wilson sits down with the sonically ambidextrous Jamie Neish. Not merely content with drumming in one of Northern Ireland’s finest and most promising alt-rock outfits,More Than Conquerors, Neish is also an auspicious unaccompanied artist in his own right – something he happily discusses alongside the rise and restlessness of the aforementioned Belfast band. Photos by Sam Stronge Hey Jamie, how’s it going? It’s going very well, thanks! Good stuff! So, for anyone who hasn’t heard your music before how would you describe your…

  • Video exclusive: Arborist – Border Blood

    Officially launched on Friday, July 18 at Belfast’s Flow Yoga Studio, we’re very pleased to present an exclusive first-look at the video for ‘Border Blood’, the new single by Belfast-based band Arborist. The lead single from the Mark McCambridge-fronted band’s debut album, Home Burial, the track was recorded by Ben McAuley – also a member of the band – at Belfast’s Start Together Studios. Several local musicians – including core members McAuley, Richard Hill and James Heaney, as well as the likes of violinist Luke Bannon and trumpeter Linley Hamilton – perform on the song. The video was shot and edited by…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… July

    Death From Above 1979 – Trainwreck 1979 (Last Gang Records) The stonking great bass thump on Death From Above 1979‘s 2004 record You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine was an undeniable part of the duo’s past successes. Ten years later and we are finally getting another taste. Their sound hasn’t evolved drastically, but with the new track ‘Trainwreck 1979’, its obvious that the band is out to make a statement, a reaffirmation of what they can do with a bass and a roaring vocal hook. NehruvianDoom – OM (Lex Records) The second track to be unveiled from NehruvianDoom‘s debut album, ‘OM’ is a…