• Video Premiere: PORTS – The Few and Far Between

    February 7, 2017 - By 

    Having been busy in the studio recording new material, PORTS are currently gearing up for a trip to Kansas to showcase at the prestigious Folk Alliance International festival. A soaring peak from the Derry band’s debut album, The Devil Is a Songbird, ‘The Few and Far Between’ is a song that precisely distils the Derry band’s anthemic alt-pop craft. Marrying soaring crescendos with finely-woven instrumentation and sublime harmonies, it’s become something of a highlight from the Steven McCool-fronted band’s live shows as of late. Released as a single at the tail-end of last year, the song now comes accompanied with…

  • Premiere: Milky Teeth – Sleepiness and Weary Wit

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    Currently on some downtime from Cork’s The Shaker Hymn and John Blek & The Rats, lead guitarist and vocalist Robbie Barron has been busy writing and recording his own material under the solo moniker Milky Teeth. Conjuring the likes of his main influence in The Beatles, as well as Ed Harcourt, Elliott Smith circa XO/Figure 8, Friendly Fire-era Sean Lennon and Jon Brion, debut single ‘Sleepiness and Weary Wit’  is a first-rate slice of woozy throwback-pop, propelled by hooks, harmonies and a stellar full-band production. With a full-length album primed for release, have a first look and listen to the single.  

  • Pixies, alt-J and More Set For Inaugural Trinity College Park Summer Series

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    With the Irish summer festival calendar already bursting at the proverbial seams, Trinity College Park have announced a new summer series featuring headliners The Pixies, alt-J, Gregory Porter, Two Door Cinema Club, Bell X1 and James Vincent McMorrow.  Set to run from Thursday, July 6 to Tuesday, July 11, tickets for the shows – priced €44.05 incl. for Porter, TDCC, JVMM and Bell X1 and €54.65 for Pixies and alt-J – go on sale this Friday at 9am.

  • Aphex Twin Set For Forbidden Fruit

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    Set to return for its seventh installment on the June Bank Holiday Weekend (June 3-5), it’s been revealed that  Richard D James will headline the Sunday night of this year’s Forbidden Fruit festival in Dublin. With Orbital headlining the Saturday, Bon Iver topping the bill on Monday night and Flying Lotus, Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, Gordi and Paul Thomas Saunders amongst the acts for set for the Monday installment, it’s shaping up to be the strongest Forbidden Fruit line-up to date. Tickets can be bought here priced €145.50 for a 3-day weekend ticket.

  • Plastik Festival 2017 Launch

    February 9, 2017 - By 

    Returning this March is the biennial Plastik Festival. The weekend long festival was created in a collaboration with London’s LUX art agency, and is presented in partnership with Tempe Bar Gallery + Studios, the IFI and Dun Laoghaire’s iadt. 2015’s edition saw screenings, discussions and exhibitions in Cork, Galway and Dublin and featured a range of artists including Gerard Byrne and Sarah Pierce. 2017’s edition has already seen the announcement of Hilary Lloyd’s new show Woodall in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, with the show’s opening also doubling as the launch of the festival’s full schedule. Opening tomorrow Friday at 5pm be sure to catch this…

  • Susan MacWilliams @ Highlanes Gallery

    February 14, 2017 - By 

    Opening this Saturday, February 18th, in Drogheda’s Highlanes Gallery is Modern Experiments – a look at the work of one of Ireland’s most intriguing and beguiling artists: Susan MacWilliams. The exhibition features work from MacWilliams’ extensive back catalogue, with focus on her output since 1998 when she began to use video as a medium. The show is a cross-border collaboration between both the Republic and Northern Arts Councils, which saw the show open in F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio prior to Christmas, before been shown here in Highlanes, and then moving onto Uilinn in Cork and Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. You can…

  • Stream: Rory Nellis – Casual Discrimination

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    Taken from his forthcoming second album, There Are Enough Songs In The World, ‘Casual Discrimination’ by Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis is a song that wields subtlety like a scythe. With its wonderfully-woven alt-folk brood summoning the likes of Department of Eagles and Grizzly Bear, it’s a very timely song that tackles racism and discrimination with a poise, lyrical finesse and extraordinary harmonic command that we’ve found sets Nellis apart from many of his tale-telling peers. Having already released two singles from There Are Enough Songs In The World (which is set for release on Saturday, November 11) ‘Casual Discrimination’ is the third and latest…

  • Stream: Gadget and the Cloud – And I Told You Something True

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Outside of her relatively recent music-making as Gadget and the Cloud, Cork’s Kelly Doherty has been an active, respected voice as music writer, critic and campaigner for a few years now. Also an occasional contributor to The Thin Air (full disclosure and all that) Doherty launched the “sad ambient sounds” of GATC in late November, 2015 with October 31st, a debut five-track release of sparse, elegiac drones and bleeping sub-pop. Fifteen months on, released during a period of personal bereavement, ‘And I Told You Something True’ is a similarly minimal effort, bounding with choppy beats, quiet grace and fidgety, shimmering…

  • Watch: Fionn Regan – The Meetings of the Waters

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    What better way to make a long-awaited return than with a faultless new song and video featuring none other than Cillian Murphy? Having recently been sampled by Bon Iver on ‘00000 Million’, Fionn Regan‘s sublime, slow-burning ‘The Meetings of the Waters’ is the title track from his forthcoming fifth studio album, which is set for release on April 14. To say we’re excited about what the full-length has in store might a bit of an understatement. Get acquainted with the new release from the Wicklow singer-songwriter right below.

  • EP Stream: The 202s – Up In Thin Air

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    The 202s are a warm jumper of a band. Their sound is instantly familiar no matter which angle you approach it from, yet still comfortable and always enjoyable. Their specific brand of pop draws from a Bassetts assorted mix of music lover treats. Be it the Zero 7 ambience, the post-punk baritone vocals, those rock solid krautrock beats, the Yo La Tengo gentility or the glorious Kinks inflected melodies, all of the different sources trickle into the soundscape and provide a surprisingly large amount of enjoyment for even a casual pop culture obsessive. They’re the kind of group whose every…