• Stream: Kineograph – I Can See 3 People

    On Friday, December 3rd, Cork composer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Waldron-Hyden releases CAPRICORN, his stellar full-length debut in the guise of Kineograph. Following on from the release of Future Life Continuity, a genre-warping feat released under his own name in early 2020, Capricorn walks the line between conventional and experiential, in pursuit of a release that – among other things – tries to emulate rhythms the artist encountered naturally throughout the everyday, be it the countryside or in the city. Speaking about the release, Waldron-Hyden said: “Where Future Life Continuity was about investigating the presence of life after death, CAPRICORN almost…

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

    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…

  • Album Stream: Mark Waldron-Hyden – Future Life Continuity

    Back in the mists of time – Monday – we happily premiered ‘I Can’t See You: Where Did You Go?’ by Cork musician Mark Waldron-Hyden. Subtly scopic and immersive in all the right places, it doubled up as a suitably emphatic first taste of his stellar new album, Future Life Continuity. Released today via Cork imprint Sunshine Cult, it’s a masterfully mottled full-length effort that, perhaps more than any other Irish release we’ve heard this year thus far, fully rewards a repeated listen – not least on good speakers or headphones. Recorded over a two-month period, “in pretty intense solitude” in his studio…

  • Premiere: Mark Waldron-Hyden – I Can’t See You: Where Did You Go?

    On Wednesday, Cork artist Mark Waldron-Hyden releases an album that is surely going to go down as one of the Irish titles of the year. Recorded over a two-month period, “in pretty intense solitude” in his studio in the Nagle mountains of rural North Cork, Future Life Continuity is a clear-cut statement of intent, melding singular abstract ambience via prismatic noise and first-rate polyrhythmic forays. Lead single, ‘I Can’t See You: Where Did You Go?” is one of many gems here. Across five minutes, it makes for a masterfully shapeshifting trip, melding widescreen, Kranky-leaning ambience with submerged Brainfeeder-esque textures. Featuring visuals by Con O’Brien, have a first listen to…

  • Album Stream: Mark Waldron-Hyden – Stream Segregation

    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…