• Video Premiere: Elder Druid – Witchdoctor

    September 15, 2017 - By 

    Belfast-based sludge doom five-piece Elder Druid are self-proclaimed “Occult-laced riff dealers” on a mission. Having impressed with their debut EP, Magicka, in September last year, the band – who count the holy, hazed-out tetrad Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Kyuss and Sleep as key influences – will release their pummelling full-length release, Carmina Satanae, early next month. Produced by Niall Doran at Belfast’s Start Together Studio, the record is a fist-clenched, eight-track statement of intent from the fast-rising, Gregg McDowell-fronted band. A highlight from the release, lead single ‘Witchdoctor’ evolves from straight-up riff worship to the slowly bludgeoning self-exorcism of its Electric…

  • Video Premiere: Malojian – Ambulance Song

    September 11, 2017 - By 

    The highly-anticipated follow-up to last year’s Steve Albini-produced This Is Nowhere, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home by Malojian was partly recorded in a lighthouse off the coast of Northern Ireland. Speaking of the release, the band’s main man Stephen Scullion said, “A few months ago the British Film Institute and Northern Ireland screen contacted me to see if I’d be interested in playing a gig at a coastal location, with coastal-themed visuals from their archive to be used as a backdrop. This sounded very cool to me and the more I thought about it, I began to get really into the…

  • Premiere: The Shaker Hymn – Dead Trees

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Look far and wide but you’ll struggle to find a more consistent Irish act that Cork quartet The Shaker Hymn. Following a busy few months of extensive touring, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to breakout Irish film Handsome Devil, the band also found time to record their forthcoming third studio album. The lead single from that (which doubles up as the follow-up to last year’s stellar Do You Think You’re Clever) ‘Dead Trees’ is a wonderfully-crafted three-minute burst of slick, psych-tinged rock, conjuring the likes of Ty Segall, Supergrass, early The Coral and more. Recorded straight to tape by producer Brendan Fennessy,…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Hate It When You Have To Go

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    Few Irish bands have had a stronger 2017 than fast-rising North Coast quartet Brand New Friend. Having featured them as an Inbound one-to-watch act in our magazine this time last year, we’re pleased to present a first listen to the band’s virulent new single ‘Hate It When You Have To Go’. Clocking in at just over two minutes, the track – conjuring everyone from Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle ato early Ash – perfectly distils the Taylor Johnson-fronted foursome’s peerless brand of starry-eyed lo-fi indie-pop. Check out the band at Cosby Stage at Electric Picnic this Sunday at 2pm and a…

  • Premiere: Petty Youth – You Make Me Feel Good

    August 31, 2017 - By 

    A regular fixture in the city’s live scene over the last couple of years, Belfast three-piece Petty Youth are a band whose straight-up, no-frills brand of rock n’ roll aims straight for the jugular. A two-minute burst of breakneck garage rock, new single ‘You Make Me Feel Good’ – a single whose Bandcamp tags include “Buckfast” and “The Hives” – is a textbook case in point. Framed by their influence of various unaffected rockers of yore, this is music that, rather making excuses for itself, invites you to cut loose and leave the thinking to later. Have a first listen…

  • Premiere: Pale Rivers – West Point

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    One of our must-see Irish acts at Electric Picnic this weekend, Cork five-piece Pale Rivers released one of our favourite Irish tracks of 2016 – debut single ‘August 6th‘ – back in October last year. Having arrived in such promising fashion, the band have doubly confirmed with new single ‘West Point’. Accompanied by visuals Kevin McGloughlin and Mike Lee, it’s a wonderfully earworming effort betraying the band’s knack for combining inward-looking lyricism with their own brand of instantaneous alt-pop. Wrangling with spectres of the past as framed by the present day, this is a refined primal scream that broods as much as it…

  • Watch: Video Blue – Magpies at Dawn

    August 24, 2017 - By 

    We’re big fans of Video Blue here at The Thin Air. The London-based, Dundalk native’s brand of DIY indie-pop has rarely been far from our respective speakers since the release of his debut album Love Scenes in March of this year. Now the solo-crooner – real name Jim O’Donoghue Martin – returns with yet another single to be lifted from the album, and with some charming visuals to boot. Following the snappy minimalism of  ‘Hold Muzik’ and the scratchy insecurity of ‘Dust Moves’, ‘Magpies at Dawn’ is the LP’s slow-burning closer, all woozy guitars, layered vocals and subtle, glittery synths. We’ve said it before…

  • Premiere: Autre Monde – Village of Loomers

    August 22, 2017 - By 

    Without the faintest shadow of a doubt, Dublin quartet Autre Monde are one of the very best bands in the country at the minute. A stellar live proposition to boot, the Paddy Hanna-fronted foursome funnel their myriad influences in magnificent ways; bearing the imprint of but never kowtowing or passing off bygone sounds as their own. Concluding and very nicely capping off their opening four-track offering, ‘Village of Loomers’ – a self-proclaimed “indie ballad” of sorts – was recorded with Daniel Fox of Girl Band in Spring. Here, as with their previous material to date, Hanna, Padraig Cooney, Mark Chester…

  • Video Premiere: Chirps – Pink Noise

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    It’s been seven years since their debut album, Future Static Prologue, but Ballina-formed, Dublin-based shoegazey alt. rockers Chirps are finally gearing to follow it up with a second LP, from which we’re delighted to premiere first single ‘Pink Noise’. Featuring members of esteemed noisemakers like Hands Up Who Wants To Die, Wild Rocket, Crowhammer and Oilbag, their new album has been in the works over the last few years, gradually recorded by John ‘Spud’ Murphy – who’s also behind many of the finest independent Irish releases in recent years. A definite progression from previous work, Chirps have clocked up an astounding number of nods toward underground subgenres – most evidently shoegaze,…

  • Premiere: the 202s – Dash For The Exit (Real Love Doesn’t Lie)

    July 26, 2017 - By 

    Dublin trio the 202s have shared the third single from their forthcoming third album. Following from ‘Up In Thin Air’ earlier this year and ‘Oh My My’ in January 2016, the band’s own brand of indie-pop shines through once again on ‘Dash For The Exit (Real Love Doesn’t Lie). With a healthy dose of krautrock’s percussive clatter, coupled with ambient, melodic textures and a distorted vocal, the track is one that rests in your mind for hours after listening, tickling the nerves in head that nudge you back to it again and again. Our Will Murphy described the 202s as a band…