• EP Stream: Rebekah Fitch – Lies We Tell Ourselves

    April 15, 2019 - By 

    That Belfast artist Rebekah Fitch has emerged as one of the country’s most promising solo artists propositions over the last couple of years has come as no surprise to us here at The Thin Air. Tracing the fast-rising vocalist and multi-instrumentalist’s increasingly distinctive brand of alt-pop singles like ‘Not Myself’, ‘Need To Feel’ and, most recently, ‘Poison’ brim with momentum, focus and – above all else – pure inspiration. You’ll find this in abundance on ‘Lies We Tell Ourselves’, a new, four-track EP that underscores Fitch’s upward course – one that, as we’ve suggested before, is surely imminently destined for the world stage.

  • Stream: Peter J. McCauley – Anywhere My Love Will Go

    April 15, 2019 - By 

    Under both his given name and previous moniker, Rams’ Pocket Radio, Peter J. McCauley has been responsible for some emotionally dense and finely-woven balladry. Right up there with his most potent efforts to date is the brief but brilliant ‘Anywhere My Love Will Go’. With its delicate ebb and flow, it’s a masterfully minimalist, yet deceptively intricate tale of love and longing. ‘I wrote this song at a time when I was working on music projects with two groups of older people in Belfast,” McCauley said. “One in a centre in the West of the city and one in an Alzheimer’s unit…

  • Watch: Conor Walsh – Bars

    April 10, 2019 - By 

    Last month saw the bittersweet posthumous release of The Lucid by sadly-missed Co. Mayo composer and musician Conor Walsh. One of several peaks from the release (which you can pick up here) is ‘Bars’, a trademark minimalist gem from Walsh, marrying slow and unfurling textures with balmy, widescreen ambience. Equally parts meditative and resolute, it’s an effort that takes on a whole new layer of import via stellar new b+w video courtesy of Brendan Canty of Feel Good Lost. “Conor was an avid fisherman and a lot of his music is inspired by the organic rhythms and textures that you find…

  • Stream New Irish Grassroots Compilation: Live @ Fennor Lane

    April 10, 2019 - By 

    Tucked away amongst castle ruins and relics of history on the outskirts of Slane town, Mark Carolan runs the intimate Fennor Lane Studios. Like the encouraging number of grassroots Irish compilations and splits that have graced our Bandcamp accounts in recent times to act as connective tissue between previously-disparate scenes, Live at Fennor Lane was made with the same philosophy of shared elevation in mind, as Mark tells us: “The idea behind this album was simply to create a record worth listening to, and the live method of recording gives a characterful and natural feel to it. I hope we can bring new music to all the followers of each band involved in this project and help everyone to expand their audience. Aaaand it was great craic making it!” Featuring several of our favourite bands in the land, each more idiosyncratic than the last, contributions range from Slouch‘s submerged psychogroove, to the…

  • Album Premiere: Fixity – No Man Can Tell

    April 4, 2019 - By 

    Of the myriad forward-pushing acts we’ve featured over the years, Cork polymath Dan Walsh’s Fixity remains a singular and uniquely exploratory proposition. Backed by a revolving cast of sonic conspirators, the bandleader and multi-instrumentalist has carved out a uniquely collaborative niche driven by fierce extemporization. Released via the ever-reliable Penske Recordings on April 12, Walsh and an extended cast of Irish and international musicians weave new mastery on Fixity’s second album, No Man Can Tell. Produced by the Altered Hours’ Patrick Cullen, it’s a six-track featuring a veritable dream-team: Emil Nerstrand on flute and tenor sax, Kevin Terry on guitar and…

  • Album Stream: Son of the Hound – Cheers, Sound, Good Luck

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Presumably, Michael McCullagh doesn’t much like to relax. When he’s not overseeing an equally popular web series (The Also Rans) and podcast (Mad Notions) the Belfast-based Omagh musician makes anthemic guitar-pop in the guise of Son of the Hound. Today marks a big milestone in his career to date. Soundtracking “the overarching feeling of being alive, scared and hopeful in 2019”, Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is a debut album that distills that restlessness, as well as an urgent sense of seizing the moment, to ten tracks that burst with heart, humanity and countless star-shaped hooks. Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is launched at Belfast’s Limelight 2…

  • Stream: Uly – Redlight

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    Uly is the pseudonym of Dublin-based astrophysics graduate-turned multi-instrumentalist Rafino Murphy. Having found his feet playing with some of Dublin’s finest acts, such as Nealo, INNRSPACE and Over Being Under, Murphy started Uly as a solo project in 2018. This project combines lo-fi bedroom beats with hypnotic sonic landscapes to create hypnagogic tracks that are as groovy as they are dreamy. Having recently signed a deal with Dublin-based Faction Records, Uly has dropped his first single with the label, ’Redlight’. The track is a perfect example of Uly’s unique blend of funk and lo-fi, taking the listener down a rabbit hole…

  • Stream: Pat Dam Smyth – Dancing

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    When we last spoke to him, back in March of 2016, we reasoned that London-based Northern Irish troubadour Pat Dam Smyth stood tall as one of the country’s most distinctive and vital songwriting voices. Three years on, that theory needs underlining. Having recently signed to Belfast’s Quiet Arch, Smyth is back with a new single – the first for a forthcoming album – called ‘Dancing’. Reflecting on his life as a teenager in Belfast, it’s a pensive, full-band affair, bursting with pathos and Smyth’s singular melodic knack. Stream it below. Smyth’s second album is out in July 2019.

  • Bats – Alter Nature

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    At long last, one of Ireland’s finest, most singular time-signature-wielding visionaries are back. One of the figureheads in the Richter Collective sound that sculpted independent Dublin music some years ago, BATS are set to release their third album later this year. Titled Alter Nature, it’s been 7 years in the making. The album was recorded by Rian Trench and Robert Watson at The Meadow in Delgany. Frontman Rupert Morris says “It’s fully in keeping with BATS ethos of promoting science and reason over superstition and features songs about CRISPR technology, artificial intelligence, Christian science and a legendary giant hammerhead shark called Old Hitler.” Slated for release…

  • 19 for ’19: Elikya

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    More than any other group in Ireland, Elikya bleed history. Founded in Limerick in 2001 as a community choir of sorts, Elikya’s primary objective was to promote “multicultural diversity and integration through the sharing and promotion of Congolese music and culture”. Over the years, the group became a home for a coterie of legends in Congolese music. Drummer Trocadero — a child prodigy who started his career with the famous Congolese singer and bandleader Johnny Bokelo Isenge — joined them early on but it was 2017 when the group’s profile rose significantly. The iconoclastic Pepe Felly Manuaku, founder of the…