• Premiere: Cat Palace – Cat Palace EP

    February 5, 2015 - By 

    Every once and a while you stumble across a voice that just stops you in your tracks. A self-proclaimed “devotional” artist, Dublin’s David Blaney AKA Cat Palace falls firmly within that bracket. Placed somewhere between The Blue Nile, Talk Talk, REM and Bonnie Prince Billy, his unaffected, ache-laced vocals and stripped-back acoustic liturgies forge to concoct something bordering on the mystical. Featuring singles ‘Cage’ and ‘Hear Me Lord’, as well as three other tracks, his debut EP commands, broods and sates in fine fashion, capturing an Irish singer-songwriter doing something very singular indeed. Cat Palace is released at Dublin’s Bello Bar on Saturday…

  • EP Download: Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    January 26, 2015 - By 

    Few young bands excel at their respective genre as convincingly as Belfast-based indie-rock trio Hot Cops. Set to play our Independent Venue Week show at Oh Yeah Centre on Friday night, the band have just unveiled their new release, #1 Babes, a four-track EP of cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems that instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. The EP was recorded by the band’s bassist Nathan Rodgers and mixed/mastered by Chris Ryan. Stream/download it (for free, if you so like) via Bandcamp below. #1 Babes by Hot Cops

  • Mogwai – Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1.

    December 15, 2014 - By 

    Another Mogwai release, another excellent title. Following on from solid yet divisive 8th studio album Rave Tapes, released earlier this year, Music Industry 3. Fashion Industry 1. is a short collection of remixes and unreleased tracks recorded in the same sessions, and if Rave Tapes‘ surprisingly restrained nature was main the reason for such divided opinion, then that shouldn’t be an issue here. Lead track ‘Teenage Exorcists’ includes vocals, a secret weapon Mogwai tend to unleash sparingly but effectively, and in fact it instantly establishes itself as one of the finest vocal tracks in their catalogue. While their vocals often…

  • Premiere: Polyglove – Cruzer

    October 16, 2014 - By 

    The Thin Air exclusively presents the premiere of Polyglove‘s brand new single Cruzer from their forthcoming Dialler EP, which we recently featured in the first print issue of our magazine. Now for a bit of back story: Wicklow/Dublin natives Niall Conroy and Stephen Maguire met whilst studying film and decided through a mutual love of sound and vision to create their own distinctive brand of ‘Baroque House’ steeped in analogue. They create their dark brooding music through entry level synths arranged in the form of a classic band. Cruzer gurgles along with a nostalgic feel like one of the Ocean loaders for the Commodore…

  • Ciaran Lavery Announces EP Details

    April 22, 2014 - By 

    Just over a year since the release of his exceptional debut album, Not Nearly Dark, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery has revealed details of his forthcoming new EP, Kosher. Set for release on June 19 at Belfast’s Black Box as part of this years’s Open House Festival, check out the EP’s tracklisting and wonderful artwork by DMC and Ben Connolly of Angel and Anchor below. 1. ‘Left For America‘ 2. ‘Sophomore Rising’ 3. ‘Boxer’ 4. ‘A Ragtime Song’ 5. ‘Orphan’ While you’re here, feel free to stream the jubilant ‘Orphan’ from Lavery’s forthcoming EP via Soundcloud below. Photo by Cathal Goodwin

  • Master & Dog – Things You Should Know

    April 8, 2014 - By 

    Opening on a languidly strummed major chord in the vein of Sparklehorse and Low, pronounced gently like a first breath awakening from sleep, the lead track from Things You Should Know by Master & Dog is a brief but exquisitely restrained tale delicately marrying terse admissions of self-doubt with a pervasive ghost of hope. From the off, repose and self-contemplation feels directly conducive to the effect, the opening prologue-like tale very much setting the tone for the quartet’s latest EP. “I’m scared of what you’re capable of,” parts the alt-folk band’s vocalist and guitarist Walter Thee Goon, the release’s rather refreshingly unambiguous…

  • EP Stream: ABandcalledboy – Abandcalledboy

    April 8, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to last year’s promising Dead Academics EP, Northern Irish schizo-punk trio Abandcalledboy have released their seven-track self-titled EP. Including the release’s lead single ‘Cliff Richard‘, the EP features the brims with the Ryan Burrowes-fronted trio’s now fully-formed grasp of fusing earworming melodies with pummeling weight. Over the course of seven tracks, and most impressively on ‘Serotonin’ and ‘Mirrorlover’, drop-tuned riffs meld with deceptively contagious vocal hooks and an unrelentingly impassioned delivery that confirms the arrival of one of the country’s most promising alt-rock bands of a generation. Abandcalledboy kickstart a string of UK dates in Glasgow this evening…

  • EP Stream: The Bedroom – The Graveyard of Ambition

    March 4, 2014 - By 

    Having well and truly shed the skin of his previous outfit, Eatenbybears, London-based, Galway-derived musician Olan Stephens AKA The Bedroom has self-released his debut EP, The Graveyard of Ambition. Accompanying the five-track release is the video to its fourth track, the stellar ‘Disconnect’. It’s the follow-up single to last year’s equally impressive ‘Basquiat’ and ‘The Big Up’. Watch the video for ‘Disconnect’ and stream/pay what you like for The Graveyard of Ambition below.  

  • Download: Documenta – Latvian Batman EP

    February 14, 2014 - By 

    Having piqued our interested with its lead track, a sublime cover of ‘TV (Girl On Fire)’ by The Perfect Disaster, Belfast drone pop outfit Documenta have unveil their full Valentine’s Day covers EP, Latvian Batman. Featuring the aforementioned take on ‘TV Girl On Fire’, the release also features a cosmically-enhanced cover of ‘Blue Flower by Americana dream pop band Mazzy Star and a special bonus track that comes with a (totally free) download of the EP. Rather than spoil it for you, check out the first two tracks via the stream below and download the full EP via Bandcamp here.

  • EP Stream: FAWS – Free Samples

    February 11, 2014 - By 

    The long-awaited follow-up to his 2012 EP, Blues Notes, Dublin electronic producer Faws has unveiled a new three-track EP, Free Samples. Featuring samples from the likes of Bobby McFerrin and Buena Vista Social Club, the EP is a typically shadowy and somnambulist effort from the Irish artist, peaking on the beautifully fragmentary melancholia of its closer ‘Ghetto Lover’. Stream the EP via Bandcamp below.