• The Thin Air’s Second Birthday @ Twisted Pepper, Dublin

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    We’ll be celebrating our grand second birthday at Dublin’s The Twisted Pepper on Saturday, May 2. Kicking off at 6pm in the Twisted Pepper cafe with an exhibition of our magazine covers to date and selected work from our fantastic team of photographers. Following that we have Robocobra Quartet and Night Trap live in the Stage room with our headliners who will be announced on April 2nd. Rusangano Family (pictured) will be playing a special midnight gig for us in the cafe too along with DJ sets from BATS and Andy Walsh from Little Gem. More info to be announced…

  • 15 For ’15: Robocobra Quartet

    January 14, 2015 - By 

    Set to feature in physical form in our forthcoming January/February magazine, we continue our 15 For ’15 feature today with Belfast band Robocobra Quartet. Playing both our forthcoming Independent Venue Week and Girl Band shows, the Chris Ryan-fronted foursome are easily one of the country’s most forward-thinking and exciting acts of a generation. Check out our live session with Robocobra Quartet here. Words by Laura Carland, photo by Colm Laverty. The unique spectacle offered by the Belfast based four-piece is energetic, menacing, fast and loose. With influences as varied as 90s era hip hop, ska, jazz, DC Hardcore, rap and…

  • Stream: Robocobra Quartet – ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    We were going to post this yesterday but seeing as we featured the band in question in our latest live session – which you can and most certainly should watch here – this evening seems a little more opportune. A rather ingenuous hybrid of spoken-world punk, jazz and hip-hop, Belfast four-piece Robocobra Quartet have just let loose into the world their latest Double A-side: ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’. The former – featuring probably second most brilliantly abrupt intro in jazz-centric history – demonstrates the band’s more bold leanings, melting  shifting, shuddering rhythms, expertly atonal bass shapes and braying sax squeals with drummer/vocalist Chris…

  • TTA Session #004: Robocobra Quartet

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Undoubtedly one of the more ambitious and inimitable acts to emerge from Belfast this year, jazz-rap-punk four-piece Robocobra Quartet are a guitarless, sax -and-bass led, cymbal-spattered, improv-leaning, off-kilter time and rhyme-melding, Zorn-summoning, Mingus-hinting, Isotope 217 and Soul Coughing-echoing, decidedly forward-thinking force to be reckoned with. In the fourth of many more live sessions in the making, our resident videographer Colm Laverty captures the band perform two of their best tracks, as well as in conversation about their approach to songwriting, their “place” within local music, what the future holds in store and more. Keep an eye out for these guys…

  • Line-up announced for inaugural Output showcase

    September 30, 2014 - By 

    With just over a fortnight to wait, the line-up for the inaugural Output have been announced. Northern Ireland’s largest ever one-day conference and showcasing event, taking place throughout Belfast’s city centre and Cathedral Quarter on Thursday, October 16, it will see a series of free talks, workshops and pop-up gigs, attending by around 350 artists, businesses and creative students. We’re very happy to be involved, too. Teaming up with tastemaker par excellence Niall Byrne AKA Nialler9, we will host a most awesome showcase in the Black Box main room with Cork psych rock five-piece Altered Hours (pictured), Dublin electronic duo Contour, Derry…

  • Download: Robocobra Quartet – Artbook Flipping/Spring Rounds

    July 14, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to their double single ‘Threnody for Vengaboyz/Snake Charmin’, self-proclaimed “chamber punk” four-piece Robocobra Quartet have made their latest double single, ‘Artbook Flipping/Spring Rounds’, available as a Pay as You Like download. A heady and compelling sonic concoction evoking Soul Coughing, Gil Scott-Heron, Charles Mingus, Allen Ginsberg, Isotope 217, John Zorn and Rage Against The Machine, the quartet’s blend of hip-hop, jazz, beat poetry-inspired vocals (courtesy of drummer/vocalist Chris Ryan) and improvisational noise is captured very nicely over the two tracks, alliterative throwdowns blending with frenetic sax overtures and some wonderfully boss bass work. Stream/download the double-single via Abbreviated Records on…