• Watch: Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra – I didn’t love you when I said I did and I don’t now

    February 14, 2021 - By 

    On this, a day of unilateral disappointment and self-loathing, we’re delighted to share some reprieve in the form of a new single from one of the most exciting guitar bands to pop up on our radars in the last year, Dublin trio Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra. ‘I didn’t love you when I said I did’ more than delivers on the promise of their prior two singles, as the band increasingly look to be held in the same breath with the likes of the fast-rising Pillow Queens and Maija Sofia. Recorded & mixed by Sean Montgomery Dietz at Annesley House, its understated wooziness is enveloped in a maelstrom of crushingly…

  • Monday Mixtape: Loner Deluxe

    February 8, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his third album next month, Galway’s Loner Deluxe aka Keith Wallace (also founder of independent label Rusted Rail) guides us through his all-time favourite songs from Nico, Can, Mercury Rev, Silver Jews, Neu! and more Loner Deluxe’s Field Recordings is released on March 5th Mercury Rev – Frittering   I’ve loved this song for so long that when I heard Cian Ó Cíobháin play it recently on air on his An Taobh Tuathail radio show on RnaG I nearly levitated off the couch. This song and its parent album turn 30 this year and I’ve…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – February 5th

    February 5, 2021 - By 

    It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for: the first Bandcamp Friday of 2021. If you’re going to pick up some great new Irish music, best make it today. Here’s our round-up of the best new tracks, LPs & comps from Woven Skull, The Department of Energy, Bangers ‘n’ Breakups, Arvo Party, Joshua Burnside x Sorbet, Slomatics, Any Joy, Tolü Makay & more. Woven Skull – Space City: Live In Glasgow Woven Skull – Space City – Live In Glasgow by Woven Skull The Department of Energy – Lee Lines (Landscape Mixtape) Lee Lines (Landscape Mixtape) by The Department of…

  • Pete and Jamie, Jamie and Pete

    February 3, 2021 - By 

    On Thursday, 14th January 2021, Jamie WhatsApped me with a private Soundcloud link and message that read, “Very sneak peek at Pete’s solo record. Just finished producing and mixing last night”. I was doing something, probably footering about with the Air Fryer I got for Christmas, so I didn’t listen to it. I didn’t listen to it the next day either. Or the day after. 3 days it lay in my phone, falling down the WhatsApp chat list with every new message that came in. Then I remembered, and stuck it on. It is – and I’m not being excessive…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – January 29th

    January 29, 2021 - By 

    HALLI – Body Never Lies Elaine Mai – No Forever (feat. MayKay) Wyvern Lingo – Only Love Only Light Ciarán Ruby – Landfall / March of the Dispossessed Sun Mahshene – The Righteous One The Righteous One by Sun Mahshene Laoise – Gravy Chósta – Rush Hour Badhands – Indian Ocean Toshín – She Elina Filice feat. Cat – First World Problems Alex Gough – FOREVER CLASSIC (Live At The Clinic) Bunkhouse – Bunkhouse LP Bunkhouse by Bunkhouse Ye Vagabonds – I’m A Rover Emiji – Larimar (feat. Hvmmingbyrd) Nylophone – Shy One   Arthuritis – My Ass, Around the…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – January 22nd

    January 22, 2021 - By 

    After a relatively fallow couple of weeks there, here’s the very best Irish tracks released this week, featuring Myles Manley, Sal Dulu, Uladh + Joshua Burnside, A Smyth, Tolu Makay, This Ship Argo, Rory Nellis, The Gauze, Lauren Bird and more Sal Dulu – Girl Sal Dulu · Girl Myles Manley – Shiteshow This Ship Argo – Hiding Like a Coward In The Smoke Always the Bees: Never the Honey by This Ship Argo New Pagans – Christian Boys Kieran O’Brien – Arms Open Without End by Kieran O’Brien Joshua Burnside – The Only Thing I Fear (Uladh remix) The…

  • Monday Mixtape: Maija Sofia

    January 25, 2021 - By 

    Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia talks us through some of her all-time favourite songs, featuring Kate Bush, Planxty, Katie Kim, Joni Mitchell and more. Katie Kim – Pause I keep coming back to Katie Kim’s 2012 album Cover & Flood since watching her collaboration with Radie Peat. It’s such a special record to me, I came to it as a teenager and deeply fell in love with its strange, ghostly world of genuinely amazing songwriting and murky, deep sea drones and reverbs. I’m such a Katie Kim fan it’s almost embarrassing, and this song literally makes me cry, I keep going…

  • Monday Mixtape: Fears

    January 18, 2021 - By 

    Musician, producer and TULLE Collective founder Constance Keane aka Fears gives us a run-down of some of her favourite tracks right now, from Mitski and Francois Hardy, to Laura Groves and Hannah Peel. Laura Groves – Foolish Game This is off A Private Road, which came out in December. The entire EP is stun, but this video transports me to a world I wanna be in. Laura is an incredible songwriter and I’m really excited seeing her release self-produced music now too. Hannah Peel – Emergence in Nature From her upcoming album Fir Wave. This song only came out but I…

  • An End-of-Year Catch-up With Ray Blackwell of DeBarra’s Folk Club

    December 31, 2020 - By 

    Back in 2015, we had a wonderfully insightful chat with Ray Blackwell, the manager of beloved Clonakilty venue DeBarra’s Folk Club. Five years on, the landscape of Irish live music is – if only temporarily – barely recognisable. Ahead of what will hopefully be the steady resurgence of the live music industry, we catch up with Blackwell to discuss the challenges, highlights and future of De Barra’s in 2021 and beyond. Photos by Bríd O’Donovan Hi Ray. It’s hard to believe that we last spoke to you back in 2015. A lot has changed in the meantime. Before touching on this…

  • The Thin Air’s Alternative Christmas Playlist 2020

    December 21, 2020 - By 

    It may seem like a curse, but surely it’s more of a blessing that we’re not being collectively subjected to the same ten Christmas songs blasting from club and pub PAs on loop this year. In fact, if you ask us, the continuing shiteshow that is 2020 is yet more reason to take musical roads less travelled. For our part, we’re pleased to present our Alternative Christmas Playlist, featuring Yo La Tengo, Big Star and Mazzy Star to The Fall, Galaxie 500 and Deerhoof.