• Preview: Matmos @ Sonic Lab, Belfast

    May 29, 2019 - By 

    Few modern outfits have collaborated and flaunted convention quite as abundantly (or consistently) as Matmos. The San Francisco experimental electronic duo, aka M.C Schmidt and Drew Daniel, have spent the last three decades banging heads together – as well as lining up with the likes of Terry Riley, The Kronos Quartet, David Tibet, the Rachel’s, Lesser, Wobbly, Zeena Parkins, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra – to carve out an increasingly singular sonic trajectory. At the heart of the duo’s implicit manifesto is a uniquely curveballing and reliably curious M.O: from sampling everything from freshly-cut hair and washing machines to an array of plastic objects, to…

  • Bitflower Bb – Mastalgia

    May 24, 2019 - By 

    The word “Mastalgia” is a medical term referring to the heavy, dull tight breast pain commonly experienced by most women, and usually without utterance. It’s also the name of the new six-track record from Dublin’s Bitflower Bb (the side project of DJ and producer Dream~cycles.) A lush, evocative blend of electronic and organic sounds, it’s a close, intimate collection of bedroom-pop songs produced throughout 2017-2018. Simultaneously dreamy and affecting, at times Mastalgia recalls the lo-fi experimental pop of Galway-native, Dublin-based Maria Somerville or the vast soundscapes of Grouper, but overall, it’s an undeniably unusual record.  The title’s reference to a private, interior…

  • Monday Mixtape: Bullitt selects Soul Jazz Records

    May 13, 2019 - By 

    This Saturday, May 18, the Bullitt Courtyard will host a summer sound system from esteemed label Soul Jazz Records. The label was founded in London in 1992, with the idea to draw “cross cultural connections” between soul, jazz and reggae through compilation albums. Almost 3 decades on, Soul Jazz has expanded its style and breadth – still releasing landmark retrospectives, but also sending contemporary, underground vibrations into the world. Pete and Scott will be your musical guides at Bullitt, playing across funk, soul, jazz, ska, reggae, dancehall, Latin, disco, punk, hip-hop, house, electro, UK & worldwide beats. Here, Bullitt resident DJ Jonny Carberry selects 20 of his…

  • Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky – Droneflower

    May 10, 2019 - By 

    Ethereal gothic folk and experimental post-hardcore are convenient, if broad, brushstrokes to describe the individual styles of Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky, but those labels would be to do both a disservice. Theirs at first seems a disparate pairing that might never otherwise have come about save for the fact that they both drank in the same Brooklyn bar. Nadler though has previously dabbled with Scott “Malefic” Conner of black metal outfit Xasthur, among others, not to mention a single released with John Cale earlier this year. Brodsky, best known from the heavier realms of Cave In and Mutoid Man,…

  • Premiere: Queen Bonobo – The Lord Does What He Wants

    April 25, 2019 - By 

    Currently studying music and living in Derry, Maya Goldblum aka Queen Bonobo is a singer-songwriter hailing from the tightly-knit community of Sagle, Idaho. On May 10, Goldblum will launch her debut album, Light Shadow Boom Boom, at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry. Ahead of that, we’re pleased to present a first listen of its latest single, ‘The Lord Does What He Wants’. Engineered by Niall Doran, mixed by Ben McAuley and mastered by Stephen Quinn, it’s an unraveling alt-folk gem also featuring Daryl Coyle on co-production and drums, Jack Kelly on double bass and James Anderson on percussion. “I started writing ‘The Lord Does…

  • EP Stream: Rebekah Fitch – Lies We Tell Ourselves

    April 15, 2019 - By 

    That Belfast artist Rebekah Fitch has emerged as one of the country’s most promising solo artists propositions over the last couple of years has come as no surprise to us here at The Thin Air. Tracing the fast-rising vocalist and multi-instrumentalist’s increasingly distinctive brand of alt-pop singles like ‘Not Myself’, ‘Need To Feel’ and, most recently, ‘Poison’ brim with momentum, focus and – above all else – pure inspiration. You’ll find this in abundance on ‘Lies We Tell Ourselves’, a new, four-track EP that underscores Fitch’s upward course – one that, as we’ve suggested before, is surely imminently destined for the world stage.

  • Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising

    April 8, 2019 - By 

    Escapism has never been more vital, or available. We turn to art, film, and music for distraction, transportation, and if we’re lucky, a temporary sense of freedom. It’s more difficult than ever to switch off the effect of the 24-hour news cycle, but Titanic Rising, the fourth studio album from Weyes Blood, reminds us that there is always solace to be found on the big screen and beyond. Natalie Mering offers an unprecedented defence of escapism, at the core of which lives a propensity for romance. Named for the 1997 blockbuster – not the 1912 voyage – Titanic Rising is…

  • James Yorkston – The Route to the Harmonium

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    It’s been five long years since Scottish folk singer James Yorkston’s last solo album – 2014’s The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society – though he’s certainly not been resting on his laurels in that time. As well as turning novelist and podcaster (spinning esoteric tunes on ‘46-30’), he’s put out two highly acclaimed albums in quick succession with his new trio, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – a sort of folk-fusion collaboration with his regular double bass player Jon Thorne and Indian sarangi player Suhail Khan (a third album is already recorded and ready for release early next year). All the while, though, he’s…

  • Preview: Brian Irvine Ensemble @ Brilliant Corners Jazz Festival

    March 5, 2019 - By 

    It was at last year’s Brilliant Corners when the Brian Irvine Ensemble ended their 6-year hiatus, and for good reason. Irvine cuts a singular figure not just in Northern Irish music, but worldwide, as one who embodies the spirit of the perpetually open-minded Brilliant Corners and all that jazz music encompasses, by pushing ever forward, with only a slight glance at anything that preceded.  The ensemble comprises around a dozen in number, drawn from varying backgrounds of contemporary classical, jazz & improvised music in Europe & Russia. As with many of artists comprising the Brilliant Corners 2019 lineup, their performances give themselves entirely over to neither formless improvisation…