• 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…

  • Video Premiere: Any Joy – Sun

    February 1, 2021 - By 

    The Sun EP, which may have slipped you by at the end of last year, saw Any Joy chip further away at their singular heady brew of psychedelia, internalised doom and post-punk to follow up on their wonderful 2017 debut album, Cycles. The band have shared with us their Adam Curtis fever dream of a video for its title track, created by frontman Oisin Dineen. He tells us “Climate disaster and human displacement are the happy subject matter of Sun. The video paints a colourful, post apocalyptic landscape, running down the clock.” Check it out:

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – November 27th

    November 27, 2020 - By 

    You know how, traditionally, the music industry starts to grind to a halt around this time of year? Irish music is having none of it in 2020. Here’s the very best tracks of the week. Tandem Felix – The Assassination The Assassination by Tandem Felix Ra Gerra – Terrified LAOISE – Movies Ten Past Seven – County Council (Live) NewDad – I Don’t Recognise You Messyng x Post Punk Podge – Still At The Music Proper Micro NV – You Knew Longer Than Me Any Joy – Sun EP Sun by Any Joy Eoin Dolan – Superior Fiction The Love…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Tracks of 2019 (#50-26)

    December 18, 2019 - By 

    In the second of a four-part series, we continue our island-spanning, genre-leaping countdown of the best Irish tracks released in 2019, from the spectral chamber pop of Rachael Lavelle to the masterful indie sway of Tandem Felix. Catch up on #100-76 and #75-51. 50. Rachael Lavelle – Perpetual Party 49. Zeropunkt – Bitch Nails Bitch Nails (free download) by ZEROPUNKT 48. Like Chandeliers – Scars 47. Rachael Boyd – Blind Spot 46. Kitt Philippa – Fahrenheit 45. Cherym – Abigail Abigail by CHERYM 44. Jordan Adetunji – Questions 43. Tau – Craw 42. James Joys – Fugitive Wound Fugitive Wound…

  • Premiere: Any Joy – The Sea

    March 25, 2019 - By 

    One of the great hidden gems in Irish independent music today are Cork’s Any Joy. Sublimating varied strains of psych, post-punk & indie rock, they manage to recall the quintessential Deerhunter-esque pop-conscious, experimentally-natured sound of internalised dreams. Their 2017 debut album, Cycles, was a minor triumph, and was followed up last year with ‘Sucker’, a track that was included on last year’s Irish compilation A Litany of Failures: Volume II. Their new single, ‘The Sea’, bears all the Any Joy hallmarks: alpine guitar lines, tension, an impenetrable, masked vocal, and a wall of sound, all imbued with tape adulation. It’s their finest work to date. Another self-recorded effort in…

  • Video Premiere: Any Joy – The Fall

    December 5, 2018 - By 

    Cork indie-psych outfit Any Joy have just unveiled the new video for new single ‘The Fall’. Soaked in reverb, it’s another out-of-focus opiate drip to distract from more pointed undertones. Following the band’s aesthetic & musical thread of reccurent patterns, the video was created by frontman Oisin Dineen. Of the track, the band says “It’s a soundtrack to a potential self-sabotage and ultimate demise. It could be an appropriate theme tune for the current state of affairs across the Irish sea.” ‘The Fall’ comes from Any Joy’s new EP – due out next year – following up on their excellent & hugely underappreciated 2017 debut LP Cycles and this summer’s ‘Sucker‘ from A Litany of Failures…

  • A Litany Of Failures Vol. II Announced

    July 3, 2018 - By 

    Following the limited release of cross-Ireland Little L Records compilation, 2016’s A Litany of Failures – featuring Oh Boland, Shrug Life, That Snaake and Junk Drawer – an expanded second edition has been confirmed for release on July 13. Set to be released on 180g gatefold double vinyl, as well as through Bandcamp, Spotify and the usual outlets, it features 18 acts from Belfast, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Dublin, Galway & Limerick. The DIY, co-op endeavour aims to provide an opportunity to perform outside each of their hometowns, shortening the mental distances between bands, and encouraging a cross-pollination of musical communities. Splitting costs between artists and the organisers, a sense of…

  • Video Premiere: Any Joy – Avert Your Eyes

    February 13, 2018 - By 

    Photo by Silvio Severino Propelled by paranoid immediacy, we’re pleased to unveil the visual feast that is the video for ‘Avert Your Eyes’ by Cork psych-tinged post-punk outfit Any Joy. When it comes to psychedelia, lyrical content commonly takes a vague supporting role, but as we said in our 18 For ’18 piece, it’s the throughline that ties the band’s concise, yet sprawling 2017 debut LP, Cycles together, as well as delineating them from many of their genre contemporaries. Created by New York-based commercial director, animator & collagist Mac Premo, the video is an attention span-grabbing visual overload that could as easily double as psychedelic propaganda masquerading as a Visit Modern Ireland tourist board ad. Borrowing as…

  • 18 for ’18: Any Joy

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, Any Joy. Photo by Silvio Severino We’ve written platitudes on Cork’s tendency to function as Ireland’s bastion of cosmically-inclined guitar music, and its latest export is Any Joy, who, while tinted with the hue of its primary contemporary export, simultaneously demarcate themselves from the trappings of being a genre band, forever doomed to lay in…

  • Any Joy – Cycles

    September 13, 2017 - By 

    Following its digital release earlier in the year, Cork psych-tinted post-punk outfit Any Joy release their debut album, Cycles on vinyl. The five piece, formed at the start of this year by Oisin Dineen, self-released the album earlier in 2017 digitally, Cycles. With all the hallmarks of a great post-punk indie rock record – glistening guitars, anxiety-fuelled lyrics centred around the cyclical nature of thought – its psychedelic hue, peppered with documentary samples & unexpected instrumentation while maintaining a healthy minimalism that avoids any air of pomposity, à la Parquet Courts; you can add Any Joy to the list of essential post-punk & psychedelic bands from a city…