• 17 for ’17: Damola

    January 27, 2017 - By 

    Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland mightn’t be known as hip-hop hotspots, but it’s these unexpected influences that seem to characterise Damola’s music. He cites listening to his parents’ Jamaican music as a child in Nigeria as his earliest influence, although he didn’t start performing until he was a teenager in Dublin, making up raps to impress his friends. Since 2014 he’s been releasing tracks and videos with the Backshed Inc. collective, allowing him the freedom to develop his increasingly idiosyncratic sound. Last year’s ‘Workflow’, in both it’s production and hard-hitting, rhythmic flow, owed a lot to the earlier work of Kendrick…

  • 17 For ’17: Fears

    January 23, 2017 - By 

    There’s something otherworldly about Constance Keane, and her solo project, Fears. The music here is remove from what Keane was making as the drummer of the feminist/animal welfare punk group M(h)aol, though keeping that distinctive dark tone. Her latest single Blood, a follow-up to 2015’s Priorities is a journey through alternative pop, with dark and looming synths and minimalist vocals, reminiscent of both BANKS and FKA Twigs. Produced and written by Constance, and mastered by Huntley Miller (Bon Iver, Tallest Man on Earth, The Staves) the track wouldn’t be unusual to hear on a John Carpenter soundtrack, or indeed in…

  • 17 For ’17: New Pagans

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    While new bands are The Thin Air’s raison d’être, new bands full of familiar faces are always a particularly mouthwatering prospect. Featuring Cahir O’Doherty of Jetplane Landing/Fighting With Wire and Claire Miskimmin of Girls Names on guitar and bass respectively, along with Balkan Alien Sound’s Conor McAuley on drums and vocalist Lyndsey McDougall, New Pagans are a veritable supergroup of Irish talent to rival Miskimmin’s other side project, Cruising. With one double A-side single to their name so far featuring the tracks ‘I Could Die’ and ‘Lily Yeats’, the latter is a paean to one of the oft-forgotten sisters of…

  • 17 For ’17: Woven Skull

    January 17, 2017 - By 

    Including Woven Skull in our 17 for ’17 list feels like a little bit of a cheat, seeing as they have been producing music together since 2008. The trio have been lurking quietly in rural Leitrim, making music that is as rugged, gnarled and atmospherically captivating as the landscape they operate within. Utilising raw experimental sounds and field recordings from woods, hills and abandoned houses as textural enhancers has given Woven Skull’s output to date a depth of space and size that is exhilaratingly tense. While most of their releases up to this point have been collections of assembled field…

  • 17 For 17: Rocstrong

    January 16, 2017 - By 

    Andre Bangala, otherwise known as Rocstrong, has made a triumphant arrival, emerging with a vibrant sense of swagger and style that many artists seem to never quite grasp. Having grown up in Terenure, the Congo-born artist writes and co-produces all his own material which encompasses a truly unique sound that can only be described as an energetic and refreshing explosion of funk, soul, electro-pop and rock. Following on from his 2014 win in the Hot Press/Alcatel Big Break competition, the ever-cool newcomer dropped his debut extended play, SOWG just last Summer, which boldly told the music world he’d arrived on…