• Delorentos – True Surrender

    Delorentos fifth studio album, True Surrender, boils down to one simple message: Cut the bullshit. Through intricate metaphors of escapism, bold images of desolate extradition from society and elusive references to the current, global political state, the Dublin outfit beg us to take a step back and ask ourselves: Is this the world we want to be living in? From observations of panic to eventual acceptance, the 2012 Choice Music Prize winners take us on a journey through some manner of existential crisis, leading us ultimately to a state of acceptance. The album opens with a recurring, focal image of an…

  • Track Record: Kieran McGuinness (Delorentos)

    In this installment of Track Record, we hang out with Kieran McGuinness from Delorentos to discuss some of his favourite records from Arcade Fire to Television. Photos by Derek Kennedy. Paul Simon – Graceland People talking about this album often talk about the politics of it, and the controversy, or the African influences, but I love it because of the melancholy heart that lives below the happy surface. The title track alone never fails to give me goosebumps. This is the second album with African influences on this list, but I dunno why. Beach House – Teen Dream This is…

  • The Thin Air Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2014 (100-75)

    Twelve months, a billion tracks (probably) and a ridiculously impressive crop of new, emerging musical talent the island of Ireland over: yes, 2014 was been very generous indeed on the ol’ new music front. In a year when (the altogether sonically disparate) Girl Band and SOAK signed with Rough Trade, Adebisi Shank broke hearts in parting ways and Hozier “did a Kodaline” by going positively stratospheric – more on that later – innumerable lesser-known acts have also been slogging away in the garage, creating some of the very best sounds here or anywhere else on the face on the planet. In the first of a two-part feature,…

  • Festival Mixtape: Indiependence 2014

    Hands down one of Cork’s finest annual festivals, Indiependence returns to Mitcheltown’s Deer Park across the weekend of August 1-3, headlined by hip-hop overlords Public Enemy, London post-punk trio White Lies and Tom Odell. Better still, this year’s festival boasts some of the very finest acts, of every conceivable ilk and genre, that fall comfortably under the banner “homegrown”. Whether you look to the cosmically-inclined rapture of Cork’s The Altered Hours or Belfast-based indie-pop quartet Go Wolf, amongst several others, the veritable cream of Ireland’s musical crop will be nicely represented across the weekend. Check out the full line-up for the festival…

  • Gigs of the Week: Arcade Fire, Hands Up Who Wants To Die, Wellington Weekender

    The World Cup has proven to be quite the entertaining sporting event thus far (even if it hasn’t been very kind to England). If you can manage to pull yourself away from the spectacle, there are the usual host of gigs and festivals happening right across the country throughout the week, so let out Gigs of the Week help you out in finding the best football alternative. The Wellington Weekender: Delorentos, Girls Names, Lisa O’Neill and more – The Workman’s Club, Dublin; Friday June 27 – Sunday June 29 Well, how about this for an absolute cracker of a festival? Check…