• Watch: Tuath & Lunch Machine – Mountains and Grooves

    December 21, 2020 - By 

    If, when civilization returns to some vague semblance of normality, you ever find yourself in the supreme liminal realm that is Letterkenny, you could do much worse than seeking out two of the town’s finest bands, Tuath and Lunch Machine. Led by Rob Mulhern and Jude Barriscale respectively, they embody what makes their particular neck of the woods a bit of a scene unto itself. Today, we’re pleased to share the visuals for Tuath and Lunch Machine’s new collaboration, ‘Mountains and Grooves’. Spaced-out and sorcerous in all the right places, it’s a shapeshifting gem that – among other things – gives due consideration to the lesser-heard…

  • 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…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2020 (#100-51)

    December 16, 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 country…

  • Facilitating Connection: An Interview With Fears

    December 15, 2020 - By 

    We can almost count on one hands the acts who’ve truly pushed against boundaries and thrived in the most challenging year for creatives in modern history. One such person is Constance Keane, who – aside from recently reuniting feminist punk act M(h)aol – has started her own record label (TULLE), made some of the most interactive underground radio shows in Ireland, performed several live sets, released single ‘two_’ with top-notch remixes, and today she rounds her year out with the release of ‘tonnta’. The song and video have already started to gain global traction, with plays on KCRW and NTS, and had a bespoke Dublin-wide scavenger hunt for a PR campaign, complete…

  • Compilation Premiere: The Space Between – First

    December 16, 2020 - By 

    Something you might have noticed from our end-of-year lists is that one of the biggest trends of 2020’s imposed isolation has been the willingness of Irish artists to to come together remotely. Be it for a cause or for the sake of maintaining some sense of artistic worth, or simply born out of malaise – it’s that which comes out of the undergrowth that generally leads to the most fascinating results, and indeed, this year has landed us with a wealth of phenomenal compilations and collaborations across the island, giving a pre-built sense of community when things get back to normality. Today, we’re pleased to give you a first…

  • Video Premiere: Songs of Green Pheasant – Lucy Says

    December 8, 2020 - By 

    Over the years Galway imprint Rusted Rail have specialised in putting out a mottled array of homespun sounds. Their latest release is a textbook case in point.  Eight years on from his debut release on the label, Soft Wounds, When The Weather Clears by Duncan Sumpner aka Songs of Green Pheasant is another batch of wonderfully nocturnal paeans that double as a perfect soundtrack to taking cosy refuge from the growing winter cold. Evoking And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out-era Yo La Tengo, ‘Lucy Says’ is but one highlight here. Have a first look at the video for it below.

  • Album Stream: Tandem Felix – Tapley Sings​.​.​. The Hits! And Other Favourites

    December 7, 2020 - By 

    If you’re familiar with the lifestyle choices of Dublin songsmith extraordinaire David Tapley aka Tandem Felix, you’ll probably know that he’s partial to the occasional flagon or two of coffee. And it checks out. Off the back of his stellar latest single ‘The Assassination‘, he’s somehow managed to put together a thirty-track covers album to mark his 30th birthday today. Highlights abound. From opener, a take on Tammy Wynette’s ‘Stand By Your Man’ and Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’, to Sparklehorse, Celine Dion, Broadcast, ABBA and beyond, it’s a genre-spanning triumph, doubly confirming Tapley to be maestro like few others. “Today, on…

  • Q+A: Nathan O’Regan of Songbook

    December 1, 2020 - By 

    We catch up with Belfast-based musician and promoter Nathan O’Regan about the origins, success and upcoming – downright unmissable – festive installment of monthly invitational session Songbook on Tuesday, December 8th. Hi Nathan. First of all, for those not familiar with Songbook, briefly tell us about your original motivations for starting the night back in the summer of 2017. Songbook began with the intention of filling what I saw to be a massive hole in the Belfast music scene. Having started gigging here in 2013, I was lucky to have fallen in with an incredible group of players but was…

  • Myles Manley – Cometh The Softies

    November 27, 2020 - By 

    Myles Manley’s new album has been a long time coming. After a series of EPs earlier in the decade, along with ironically titled compilation Greatest Hits 2012-13, the last few years have only seen occasional singles emerge from the hive, though his live shows have promised plenty, with a string of new songs and a sterling three piece band lineup completed by Chris Barry and Solamh Kelly – the former expertly juggling guitar, bass and keys, while the latter takes his place as one of the country’s most impressive drummers, full of jerky, jazz-inflected rhythms across a kit that even…

  • Video Premiere: Field Trip – Weatherman

    November 27, 2020 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first look at the video for ‘Weatherman’ by Galway garage-pop band Field Trip. Heartfelt and subtly earworming in all the right places, the single – which is about “drifting apart from friends despite one’s best intentions – was recorded in a primary school at the end of 2019 alongside other tracks that the band will be releasing over the next while. And the video is something special. The band said: “It features clips from a 90s documentary entitled Clear The Streets, a feature on homeless people in Galway. It is co-directed by local legend Mark Kennedy who has since passed…