• Maija Sofia Announces Debut Album, Releases Lyric Video For ‘Edie Sedgwick’

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    Long a favourite here at The Thin Air, Dublin-based Galway artist Maija Sofia has announced details of her forthcoming debut album, Bath Time. Set for release via Trapped Animal Records in the Autumn, news of the debut comes accompanied with Sofia’s exquisite new single, ‘Edie Sedgwick’. Recorded and mixed by Chris Barry in Alfionn Studio, it’s a typically bewitching effort from the musician, marrying wistful lapsteel lines with sparse guitar, cello and Sofia’s skeletal confessionalism. “The song is about the demise of a relationship that was spiralling beyond anything that I could salvage,” said Sofia. “I wrote it during a summer I spent…

  • Watch: Yankari – Change Your Ways (Mago Mago)

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    Far be it from us to make a sweeping statement, but no one – and we repeat: no one – in Ireland can hold a live audience captive to rhythm quite like Afrobeat collective Yankari. We played their 2017 single ‘Enyimba‘ to death, and at last they’re back with ‘Change Your Ways (Mago Mago)’, the first single taken from their debut album, set for release through Hipdrop Records later this year. Masterful in their updating and expanding of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, the band offset its infectious groove with loaded cultural symbolism; the band sought out kids from Dublin’s inner city to sing Mago Mago’s…

  • Squarehead Announce New Album, Release New Single ‘Morning’

    June 19, 2019 - By 

    Hands down one of the country’s very best indie bands, Squarehead have announced details of their long-awaited new album. Six years on from the release of the stellar Respect, Roy Duffy, Ian McFarlane and Ruan Van Vliet will release the aptly-tiled High Time via Strange Brew Records on September 27th. Produced, once again, by Lesley Keye, the album – which is said to reflect the personal growth of the band over the last few years – also features keyboardist Ruadhan O’Meara of Magic Pockets and No Spill Blood. As well as the album’s artwork and tracklisting, stream new single, the…

  • Premiere: Little Gem Band – Corolla Pinions

    June 19, 2019 - By 

    It’s a fact universally acknowledged that many of the country’s finest forward-pushing acts exist somewhere right on the periphery. Fronted by Andy Walsh, Dublin’s Little Gem Band – a self-proclaimed coming-together of “Earth based creators of music cosmiche” – are one such act. Eponymously named at the city’s independent record label and shop, the band will release a new LP, Friyay 13, both digitally and via limited edition pink cassette on June 21st. Recorded at Jigsaw and mastered by Stephen Quinn at Analog Heart, it will be launched at Jigsaw on the same date, with support from MaryCarl Luyos and School Tour.…

  • Video Premiere: Great White Lies – Fear

    June 18, 2019 - By 

    Led by singer Siobhán Shiels, one of the gems of Derry’s thriving experimental jazz & weirdo pop scene are Great White Lies. They last week tackled Brexit scaremongering with single ‘Fear’, for which we’re pleased to be premiering the video today. Accompanying Shiels in the band are Comrade Hat, aka Neil Burns on keys, incredible young double bass player Jack Kelly, Ruth McCartney on vocals & ukulele, with Luke Beirne on drums, who deftly weave around her composed & repetitive, yet evocatively uneasy vocal. ‘Fear’ is the first single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album, Chrysalis, which is set for an Autumn release. It was inspired…

  • Watch: No Oil Paintings – Something Like The Truth

    June 14, 2019 - By 

    Two years on from the release of their well-received second EP, Too Close to the Sun, fast-rising Belfast quartet No Oil Paintings have returned with their most emphatic single to date, ‘Something Like the Truth’. Across four minutes of ascending, fist-clenched intent, the harmony-driven ‘Something Like the Truth’ firmly positions the four-piece as one of Ireland’s finest, most forward-pushing alternative folk outfits. Accompanied by a stellar video courtesy of By Elephant, the single is equal parts equal parts socio-political and earworming gem focusing on the increasing lack of humanity in modern society. Bolstered by the soaring backing vocals courtesy of brothers…

  • Watch: HEX HUE – Numbers

    June 11, 2019 - By 

    In the short time that it’s been out there, ‘Numbers’ by Belfast’s Katie Richardson aka HEX HUE has caught the attention of tastemakers further afield, including Clash and The Line Of Best Fit. It stands to reason: as debut singles go, it’s a luminous burst of alt-pop from an artist that we’ve long come to associate with earworming and emphatic sounds. Filtering the influence of everything from percussive-centric electronica and Scando pop to introspective indie, the single comes accompanied with a video courtesy of Jonathan Beer. Delve in below.

  • Girl Band Announce New Album, Live Dates & Video For Shoulderblades

    June 6, 2019 - By 

    Earlier today, we rather giddily shared ‘Shoulderblades’, the emphatic new single from Dublin quartet Girl Band. Now, comprehensively sealing the deal on the release is long-time collaborator Bob Gallagher’s new accompanying video, featuring Oona Doherty. Mirroring the song’s erratic and frenzied push-and-pull, not least viva frontman Dara Kiely’s trademark expulsions, Doherty’s performance is an accomplished, at times suitably brutal accompaniment to hands down one of the Irish tracks of the year thus far. Better still is the news that many Girl Band fans have been hoping for. The band will release their second album, The Talkies, via Rough Trade on September 28. Produced…

  • Watch: Panik Attaks – Terror

    June 6, 2019 - By 

    When a band or artist describe themselves as “no-nonsense” it usually means one thing: they are, consciously or otherwise, bound to a certain one-dimensionality, incapable of or unwilling to progress. Not so Dublin five-piece Panik Attaks. Comprising Rob Walsh of Cold Comfort, Republic of Loose’s Mick Pyro, Trevor Keogh of New Secret Weapon, Thumper’s Alex Harvey and Rian Trench of Solar Bears, the band’s brand of spitting, scuzzed-out, no-nonsense punk betrays cohesion, forward-moving spirit and fist-clenched intent in equal measure. New single ‘Terror’ takes that M.O. and runs with it. Featuring a stellar (not to mention instantly distinctive) video courtesy of SCAN, it’s a…

  • Watch: Girl Band – Shoulderblades

    June 6, 2019 - By 

    In their absence over the last couple of years, Girl Band’s reputation has only grown and grown. Much of that stemmed from uncertainty. Would we ever see them perform again? Would new music ever see the light of day? The afternoon of May 13th brought an answer. The Dara Kiely-fronted quartet – who, in such a short period of time, proved one of the most influential Irish guitar bands since My Bloody Valentine – would return with a new single, ‘Shoulderblades’. Sure enough, hyperspace near caved in on itself. Girl Band were back. Released today, it is, in no uncertain terms, a…