• The Thin Air’s Top 100 Tracks of 2020 (#50-1)

    December 17, 2020 - By 

    Ah, 2020 eh? Unless you were living off the grid in a self-made banana bread house whilst rocking yourself gently to various iterations of ‘Happy Birthday’ as you washed your hands, then you will know that despite collectively living through the pandemic there were plenty of Irish songs to get excited about. 100 to be precise. We’ve listened to them on repeat since we couldn’t attend gigs, raves, or house parties so we’re certain we’ve selected the finest this little locked down island has to offer. It’s safe to say this year epitomised the true meaning of community in this…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 50 Irish Releases of 2020

    December 20, 2020 - By 

    In years to come, when someone asks me what The Thin Air was and represented, I’ll likely direct them to features like the one you have just opened. Much like other publications of our ilk – Nialler9, The Last Mixed Tape, Goldenplec and others – we spend 52 weeks of the year relentlessly championing what truly makes Irish music special and, very occasionally, genuinely world-beating. We all do it in different ways, and to slightly different audiences, but the impetus and desire to shine a light on what we have is one and the very same. Although they’re almost never…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – December 4th

    December 4, 2020 - By 

    It’s the first Friday of the month, which can only mean one thing: it’s Bandcamp Friday. If you’re going to pick up some great new Irish music, best make it today. Here’s our round-up of the best of this week, including Loah x Bantum, Flowers at Night, Saint Sister x Lisa Hannigan, Bleeding Heart Pigeons, Swimmers Jackson, Problem Patterns among others. Loah & Bantum – NGLA /////// [seacht line] – Hawk On The Cliff hawk on the cliff EP by /////// Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Real Connection (Arvo Party Remix) Real Connection Remixes by Bleeding Heart Pigeons Saint Sister x Lisa…

  • Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Stir

    June 8, 2020 - By 

    Four years after working with Virgin Records for their 2016 debut Is, as well as supporting the likes of Pixies and Father John Misty, Limerick’s Bleeding Heart Pigeons leave the pressures major label navigation on their second LP, Stir. Released on their own label Hlym Records – a play on the Old Norse word hlymrekr – from which their hometown gets its name – Stir is the most authentic portrait of the band yet, with its DIY nature allowing them to fully lean into their experimental sensibilities, while leaving plenty of room for pop verve. Previously acclaimed for their unconventional, hook-fuelled psych-pop, Stir opens a new…

  • Album Stream: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Stir

    May 22, 2020 - By 

    While it’s early days yet, Limerick’s Bleeding Heart Pigeons have just made their claim to one of the Irish albums of the year. Arriving four years on from their debut album Is, Stir was written and recorded in a small converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick and finds the threesome in alchemical form. From opener, the sorcerous ‘Bubble Boy’ to closer ‘Good Dogs Never Die’ – a track that doubles up as one of many peaks on display here – it emphatically consolidates the Michael Keating-fronted band’s forward-pushing alt/indie craft down to twelve tracks. Stir by Bleeding Heart Pigeons

  • Watch: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Trapped (VR Music Video)

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    We’ve featured a fair rake of Irish music on TTA today (there is most definitely something in the water) and none more worthy than the latest from Limerick trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons. Conjuring everyone from Grizzly Bear to Caribou, the Mícheál Keating-fronted band’s new single ‘Trapped’ is a nuanced and unravelling triumph. Taken from the band’s forthcoming second album, Stir, the song features strings from none other than Post Punk Podge and comes accompanied by a stellar monoscopic BR video, courtesy of Keating, with assistance from Graham Patterson, Conor Buckley and Hugh Heffernan. Watch below. Stir is released on May 22.

  • Stream: DIY LK – Bed Covers Vol. 1

    April 14, 2020 - By 

    A vital presence in the country’s ever-evolving independent scene, DIY LK tirelessly fly the flag for homespun Limerick sounds, all while going beyond the call of duty to accommodate artists and micro-scenes from beyond. It’s a rare breed of collaborative initiative that hasn’t faltered in the time of pandemic. The collective have just released Bed Covers Vol. 1, a new charity covers compilation in which seven Limerick bands (Anna’s Anchor, Bleeding Heart Pigeons, Casavettes, Cruiser, Hey Rusty, His Father’s Voice and Scenes) cover each other’s material in aid of Doras Luimní, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that support the rights of…

  • Bleeding Heart Pigeons Announce New Album ‘Stir’

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    Four years on from the release of their acclaimed debut album Is, experimental pop trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons have announce its long-awaited follow-up, Stir, accompanied by lead single, the prescient ‘Real Connection’. Written and recorded in their converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick, the band have been together for twelve years, having signed to Virgin Records as teenagers in 2013 and since moving on to their own new imprint Hlym Records. Stir is set for release on May 22. In contrast to the “album-oriented” process of Is, the band described their approach in Stir as being more song-focused – “each song is its own little world”. Infectious and…

  • Preview: Féile na Gréine 2019

    August 12, 2019 - By 

    It’s no longer up for debate: right now, the network of promoters, venues and artists that make up Ireland’s extraordinary DIY music scene (singular) is the strongest and most homogeneous that it’s ever been. From Dundalk, Cork, and Belfast to Letterkenny, Dublin, Derry and beyond, incalculable good people are putting on world-beating shows and festivals, featuring acts of every ilk and every conceivable corner of the island. No area or sound is being overlooked. No band is stranded in the arse-end of nowhere after a show. Blind, sweeping reverence for Dublin as some sort of untouchable bastion of Irish music…

  • Stream: Sorbet – Born Purple feat. Mícheál Keating

    August 2, 2019 - By 

    One of Irish music’s bona fide polymaths, Chris Ryan – Robocobra Quartet leader and Hot Cops, Just Mustard & Hunkpapa producer – has unveiled his new collaborative project. Aptly titled Sorbet, it offers a fresh palette to a string of musicians upon which they can “write tangentially from their usual process to avoid creeping burnout.” As masterfully understated as you’d hope from its creators, Sorbet’s first iteration is a subtly brooding piece which unfurls with repeat listens. Ryan’s distorted, at-times claustrophobic beats, muted piano, lay  by an incredible falsetto-heavy vocal performance from Mícheál Keating, frontman of Limerick experimental alternative trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons. Mícheál said of his lyrical approach: “The imagery in the verse comes…