• Video Premiere: Arthuritis – Left Over Seas

    January 31, 2020 - By 

    Experimental electronic auteur Arthuritis has released his first new music of 2020, the jarringly spacious, let claustrophobic second single from his new Ornament of the World EP, ‘Left Over Seas’. The masterfully edited 3D-animated blend of the real and digital was created by Aodhagán O Riabhaigh, accompanying Arthuritis’ mesmerisingly glitch-laden work to a tee. Continuing on the conversation opened in the abstract anti-capitalistic satire of previous single ‘Condo‘, Arthur says “the single deals with the separation in our society between those in corporate business/celebrities/etc and the average person and how either could easily be in each others position. I like to try to see from other perspectives,…

  • the arts column: February 6th

    February 6, 2020 - By 

    This week we’ve got details on a number of new exhibitions opening, a pair of artists’ talks, an artist in residency programme as well as the launches of some yearly artistic programmes all happening in events across Cork, Dublin, Sligo, and Carlow. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Exhibition Closing| Backwater Artists Group, Cork Today and tomorrow are your last chances to see Cara Farnan’s work in Cork’s Backwater Artists Group. The exhibition, which is Farnan’s first solo show, is titled Sometimes the river flows backwards – drawn from the…

  • the arts column: January 14th

    January 14, 2020 - By 

    This week we’ve got details on some talks, tours, open calls and last calls for exhibitions around the country. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Exhibition & Talk | Turner @ National Gallery of Ireland Historically, January is Turner Month at the National Gallery of Ireland and 2020 is no different. Continuing the trend over the last few years Turner’s work will be shown alongside other artists, with a selection gleaned from both his contemporaries and those he influenced. Turner’s watercolours, and those of Paul Cézanne, John Singer Sargent…

  • Kosmische Kristmas 6

    December 20, 2019 - By 

    That most seasonal of Irish underground krautrock supergroups celebrate that special time of the year with a night of “music that never happens again not happening again” for the sixth year running at Plugd this Sunday, 22nd December. The band features Cruiser’s Chris Quigley & The Sunshine Factory’s Jack Horgan on guitar, The Altered Hours’ Cathal MacGabhann on keys, Gilbert & Trá Pháidín’s Micheál Fitzgerald on Bass, Fixity/The Bonk man Dan Walsh on Drums & Flute. For just five euros, you can join them as they seek freedom through repetition until 1am. Walsh and MacGabhan will spin appropriate tunes before and after. Doors open…

  • Stream: Mantua – Mantua

    October 31, 2019 - By 

    The latest release from experimental Cork tape label Sunshine Cult is Mantua improvised live drone collaboration from accomplished singer-songwriter Elaine Malone (also of improvised group Hex & Land Crabs) and prolific fiddle player Niamh Dalton of Trá Pháidín. Across its two pieces – recorded in Plugd Records, Cork, Malone predominately leads with sepulchral harmonium work, her voice swollen with reverb. From this space, Dalton explores frayed ends with measured portent, attempting to uproot her foundations in traditional Irish & old-time music – and it’s this familiar flavour that makes Mantua’s eponymous debut so beguiling. Like cult collective United Bible Studies, the strength…

  • Video Premiere: Arthuritis – Condo

    October 18, 2019 - By 

    The latest thing to emerge from the mind of idiosyncratic polymath Arthuritis is an avant-pop fever dream. The glitchy ‘Condo’ – the sound of a brain puttering out before completing a factory reset – is as decidedly nausea-inducing as its uncanny accompanying video, masterfully shot & edited in three hours by CLAP Media’s Colm Walsh; recalling Twin Peaks: The Return, three selves are dragged down a cold, dark back-path adorned only by barriers and wet grass. It’s a perfect example of Arty’s latest approach, which explores the relationship between rhythm & time. He tells us: “One of the main things that influenced it was I looked at a…

  • the arts column: October 16th

    October 16, 2019 - By 

    This week we’ve details on a pair of a number of employment opportunites, an artist talks, a series of family friendly workshops, and an opening night performance. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.ne Opportunity | The Model, Sligo The Model in Sligo have recently announced that they are seeking applications for a new director. The role is on a five-year fixed term contract ,with the gallery advising that the below experience is required: “The successful candidate will have the necessary expertise and experience to lead and manage…

  • Album Premiere: Barry Wilson – Portrait

    September 18, 2019 - By 

    Never more than in the past few years has our national affinity for groove-laden jazz, funk & soul become something whose re-evaluation was overdue, what with Vulfpeck becoming one of Ireland’s adopted sons, and traditional offshoot, The Ollam. Over that same timeframe, multi-instrumentalist and composer Barry Wilson has been steadfastly crafting debut album, Portrait. Recorded across a multitude of studios in Ireland and Portugal, and featuring over 20 collaborators, it’s a focused, but eclectic collection of funk & neo-soul which feels emblematic of the spiritual ties between modern Ireland and soulful, intricately composed fusion. Portrait‘s initial recordings took place in Grawa Sound Studio in Porto, with…

  • Stream: Doubt – HD Tool

    September 3, 2019 - By 

    Flood co-founder Doubt will release his new EP, Steam Cycle, via the label on 4th October.  The Cork hard drum collective, run alongside fellow DJ/producers Syn and Tension, has become somewhat of a bastion for the niche genre since launching in 2017. With a sound defined by heavy, syncopated percussion and minimal (but very effective) electronic flourishes, the Flood crew have played alongside scene originators such as NKC. They have also become key reference points for the genre’s development thanks to a slew of digital releases on the label, their tracks becoming a trademark in many a DJ set and…

  • Album Stream: Mark Waldron-Hyden – Stream Segregation

    July 30, 2019 - By 

    Last month, we premiered the cavernous somnambulance of first single, ‘Did You Hide’, and today, founder of Cork-based label Sunshine Cult, and psychgaze act The Sunshine Factory, Mark Waldron-Hyden has released the debut album under his own name. Titled Stream Segregation, and out through his own label, the LP’s source material is a blend of field recording, acoustic instrumentation, synths and tape machines, and was written, recorded & produced by Waldron-Hyden. Its name came from a psychoacoustic phenomenon “in which a sequence of sounds is perceived as more than one auditory stream, each arising from a distinct acoustic source in the environment”. Mark goes on: “That’s what I wanted…