• 17 for ’17: Beach

    January 23, 2017 - By 

    The spirit of psychedelia is alive and well and living in the heart of Dublin, or at least that is what Dublin based five-piece Beach would have you believe. The quintet has spent the last few years finely honing their brand of everything but the kitchen sink psych into a well-oiled machine. Even a cursory glance at the band reveals a vast depth and scope at their very core. These are not minor or modest compositions. They’re huge ambitious beasts meandering through an unpredictable, almost endless series of twists and turns. As you listen closely you can pick out these…

  • 17 for ’17: Damola

    January 27, 2017 - By 

    Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland mightn’t be known as hip-hop hotspots, but it’s these unexpected influences that seem to characterise Damola’s music. He cites listening to his parents’ Jamaican music as a child in Nigeria as his earliest influence, although he didn’t start performing until he was a teenager in Dublin, making up raps to impress his friends. Since 2014 he’s been releasing tracks and videos with the Backshed Inc. collective, allowing him the freedom to develop his increasingly idiosyncratic sound. Last year’s ‘Workflow’, in both it’s production and hard-hitting, rhythmic flow, owed a lot to the earlier work of Kendrick…

  • Watch: Bad Sea – Solid Air

    January 23, 2017 - By 

    When it was released back in September last year, TTA’s Aoife O’Donoghue said ‘Solid Air’ by Dublin duo of Ciara Thompson AKA CMAT and Alan Farrel Bad Sea had “a wistful quality that evokes nostalgic memories of hazy summer days.” Ahead of what’s expected to be a busy 2017 for the fast-rising pair, they have just unveiled Ricardo Deakin’s video for said debut single, a narrative-driven, nicely presented accompaniment impressively reflecting the hidden fragility that can often underpin a relationship. Have a peek.

  • 17 For ’17: New Pagans

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    While new bands are The Thin Air’s raison d’être, new bands full of familiar faces are always a particularly mouthwatering prospect. Featuring Cahir O’Doherty of Jetplane Landing/Fighting With Wire and Claire Miskimmin of Girls Names on guitar and bass respectively, along with Balkan Alien Sound’s Conor McAuley on drums and vocalist Lyndsey McDougall, New Pagans are a veritable supergroup of Irish talent to rival Miskimmin’s other side project, Cruising. With one double A-side single to their name so far featuring the tracks ‘I Could Die’ and ‘Lily Yeats’, the latter is a paean to one of the oft-forgotten sisters of…

  • Album Premiere: Switzerland – Long Gone

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    Set for its launch upstairs in Whelan’s on Friday, January 27, Long Gone is both the first release of 2017 from Popical Island and the debut album from Dublin quartet Switzerland, a band comprised of members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers and Paddy Hanna. Having premiered its stellar lead single, ‘Starting Out’, just last month, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first listen of the album, a ten-track release that goes some distance to confirm their arrival as serious contenders. Recorded with the help of Fiachra McCarthy, who has previously produced Squarehead, Brian Walsh from the band says of the early writing…

  • Premiere: Guilty Optics – And So It Goes

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    In the sixth issue of our physical magazine, Joe Madsen said Dublin trio Guilty Optics “proudly steer clear of poppy trends”, an observation that came to full-blown fruition in July last year via ‘The Kayapo Ghosts’, the virulent lead single from their forthcoming album Colossal Velocity.  The equally commanding successor to that opening gambit, ‘And So It Goes’ is a five-minute post-punk burst “confronting the role government plays in our lives, it’s desire for control and its previous attempt to abolish the senate.” Dig below.

  • Watch: Evvol – Comfort Fit

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    The steady evolution of Berlin-based Irish/Australian duo Evvol has been a joy to behold. Having dropped their debut EP under their previous moniker Kool Thing back in early 2012, singer Julie Chance and Australian multi-instrumentalist Jane Arnison have unravelled a darkwave-pop aesthetic that manages to marry nuance with real connotation. Where last year’s ‘Physical L.U.V‘ was “a truth-telling story about motivations and expectations”, new single ‘Comfort Fit’ is a release that confronts how we understand and embody comfort. Shot on DV cam, the video for the new single was inspired by fashion photographer Steven Meisel’s notoriously uncomfortable and subsequently banned Calvin Klein ad campaign from 1995. Shot…

  • Album Premiere: Exploding Eyes – Exploding Eyes

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    In his review of this, the Dublin progressive garage-rock trio’s self-titled debut album, TTA’s Trev Moran said Exploding Eyes “greets you with a welcoming invitation to something a little less serious and a lot more fun.” Sure enough, the ten-track release is something of a feature-length celebration of cutting loose without overthinking the dynamism that makes their craft so instantly gratifying. Having formed just over a year ago, the band – comprised of members of The Things, Cheap Freaks, Humanzi and The Mighty Stef – bursts forth from a lineage spearheaded by masters Blue Cheer, Mountain and Cream on the likes of…

  • EP Premiere: NERVVS – A Mixtape of Love Vol. One

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s finest self-proclaimed “sick-wave” (noise rock, to you and I) duo NERVVS caught our attention back in 2015 with their debut EP, Death House. In the two years since, the pair have been active on the scene in Dublin, sharing scenes with some TTA favourites including That Snaake and Naoise Roo. Produced by Chris Barry, who has worked with Myles Manley and Cat Palace, their forthcoming EP A Mixtape of Love Vol. One is – to get a little alliterative – a fervent, five-track slab of first-rate, fucked-off fury conjuring the likes of Nomeansno, Bleach-era Nirvana, Fugazi, Butthole Surfers, early Flipper and Sebadoh at their…

  • Premiere: Deadman’s Ghost – Antidote

    January 17, 2017 - By 

    Shot at various scenic locations in Northern Ireland including the Belfast hills, Lough Shannagh in the Mournes and Gobbins Path, the video for ‘Antidote’ by Belfast musician, producer and DJ Jason Mills AKA Deadman’s Ghost is a fitting accompaniment to a song that grasps forth in attempt to move on from old habits, thoughts and attachment. A highlight from Deadman Ghost’s third album Hypocritical Oath, which is out now via Ephem Aural, you can have a first look at Mills and Ben Jones’ video for the single below.