• Premiere: Switzerland – Waste of Time

    May 14, 2018 - By 

    A song about “the futility of arguments and going with the flow” ‘Waste of Time’ by Dublin quartet Brian Walsh, Shane Murphy, Al Condon and Enda Canavan AKA Switzerland is, hands down, the finest dose of sleepy, jangle-heavy, Pavement-leaning loveliness we’ve heard in quite some time. Comprised of members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers, No Monster Club and Paddy Hanna, Switzerland will launch the single at Thomas House on May 19. You should go to that, and have a first listen to the single (and look at its video) below.

  • EP Premiere: Mike Paterson – Devils In The Water

    May 11, 2018 - By 

    The third release on Homebeat Presents, Devils in the Water by Germany-based, Cavan indie-folk singer-songwriter Mike Paterson is an EP that bounds with nuance, conviction and heart. The EP – imbued with tones of Sufjan and Bon Iver – is a lo-fi tale of Paterson’s “flight from difficult times in Ireland to his new adopted home.” From opener ‘First Song in Germany’ to closer ‘Open Up’, it serves a emotionally-driven four-track introduction to an artist who, despite making his presence known as frontman of Travis Oaks, has re-emerged with a voice and touch all his own. Have an exclusive first listen…

  • Video Premiere: Dott – Like a Girl

    May 1, 2018 - By 

    The month of May is now upon us and with the referendum on the 8th amendment fast approaching we’re seeing a rise of support from artists across the country, urging the people of Ireland to vote YES. We’re pleased to present the Irish premiere of  ‘Like a Girl’ by Dott, featuring a guest appearance from Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz. The video was made by Alison McDonnell-White and features members from Galway Pro-Choice, Galway Parents for Choice and Galway Roller Derby as well as lots of footage of recent marches for women’s rights in Galway. The band along with the many supporters in…

  • Premiere: Just Mustard – Pigs

    April 6, 2018 - By 

    Fast becoming favourites of ours here at The Thin Air, Dundalk five-piece Just Mustard fully caught our attention in September last year with the release of ‘Tainted’, a track we said was “made for soundtracking solitary, stoned night walks reflecting on what needs to be done.” Taken from their forthcoming debut album, Wednesday, new single ‘Pigs’ is another step up. A soporific meld of blissed-out textures and noise-soaked squalls, it taps right into that exact feeling that creeps in at great small Irish festival around the early evening. You know the one we’re talking about. According to the band, with Wednesday they have…

  • EP Premiere: Lasertom – Super Saor

    March 28, 2018 - By 

    One half of Choice Prize-winning Dublin duo Ships, Simon Cullen has made sublime electronic sounds under the Lasertom moniker for a number of years now. Having focused on the former project from the last couple of years, Cullen is back in solo mode via Super Saor, a brand new three-track EP, produced written and recorded this year. With all three tracks clocking in over 7 minutes ago, it’s a deceptively expansive, synth-drenched, earworm-heavy release brilliantly blurring the lines between electro, house and nu-disco. Featuring artwork by John Rooney, have a first listen to the EP in full below. Super Saor by Lasertom

  • Premiere: tethers – Television Dreams of Human Beings

    March 22, 2018 - By 

    Formed by friends, guitarist/vocalist Zach Trouton and bassist Dane Kemp, and later joined by drummer Alistair Brattle, tethers are a Northern Irish three-piece whose rock-pop sound bears the imprint of jazz and contemporary classical influence, as well as the lyrical influence of science fiction and folklore. Next month, the band will release their debut EP, Skinwalker, via their own imprint, Swallow Song records. According to the Lisburn-based threesome, they’re re-envisioning the term – which, in Navajo folklore, denotes a shape-shifting with that possesses the forms of animals – “as a future slang for artificially-enhanced humanoids”. Doubling up as both the release’s lead track and tethers’…

  • Premiere: Bosco Ramos – Mayflies

    March 19, 2018 - By 

    Belfast bass and drums punk rock duo Bosco Ramos made a sizable dent with the release of their fuzzed-out debut EP, Signs of Life, last year. Today, they’re back with their most emphatic single effort to date in the form of nuanced, unravelling alt rock blitz ‘Mayflies’. A song about “harnessing that thing which allows you to think for yourself and resist what you know to be wrong” it’s a typically groove-laden assault from Phil Brown (bass/vocals) and Callum McGeown (drums/vocals), rounded off with the pair’s progressively singular brand of melodic-yet-pummelling punk rock. In other words, we fucking love it. ‘Mayflies’ is…

  • Premiere: Agu – Ines

    March 6, 2018 - By 

    Originally from Poland, Agu is a Galway-based artist whose music embraces a variety of languages and musical influences. Premiered here, her new single ‘Ines’ is a wistful and nuanced confessional ode striking a midpoint between indie-folk, solo post-rock and ambient. Taken from her forthcoming new album – the Tony Higgins-produced follow-up 2015’s Ke Světlu (Towards the Light) – Agu has said of the single: “It reflects a period of my life that changed everything. It is about realising you are suffocating even though you don’t have to. All you need to do is to spread your wings and try to fly. Leave…

  • Premiere: The Shaker Hymn – Colour Of The Holy Sun

    March 5, 2018 - By 

    The follow-up to 2016’s gem-laced Do You Think You’re Clever?, Cork alt/psych-pop five-piece The Shaker Hymn will release one of the most anticipated Irish albums of 2018, Colour Of The Holy Sun, later this year Singer Caoilian Sherlock said of the album: “We don’t often write new songs out of an improv “jam” type of thing – but this started as a little two chords warm up at rehearsal a few months back. I went away and wrote a melody, and lyrically I was aiming for a joyous apocalypse kind of thing. A song to celebrate The Rapture heading our way.…

  • Premiere: Somadrone – Juniper & Lamplight

    March 1, 2018 - By 

    The second single from his forthcoming sixth studio album, Wellpark Avenue, Juniper & Lamplight by Neil O’Connor AKA Somadrone is a sublime, genre-warping reworking of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1969 song, ‘For Emily Where I May Find Her’. According to O’Connor, what began as a simple reworking, soon turned into a fully orchestrated soundscape where simple electronics weave to and fro. Referencing acts like Scott Walker and Air, harpsichords drive the instrumentation into a lush and psychedelic pool of sounds. Wellpark Avenue is out on April 10. Have a first look at the suitably cosmic visuals for the single below.