• The Co-Present Returns

    The Co-Present on Radiomade.ie have been providing one of Irish music’s most valuable independent services, and resume their 3pm Saturday afternoon slot on February 6 with the inimitable BP Fallon and 21st century Irish national treasure, drag queen and gay rights activist Panti Bliss. It’ll no doubt be a fantastic, honest chat with the show’s perennial host, Dwayne Woods (below). As ever, the show will feature some live music, this time from cross-border atmospheric-folk-pop duo Saint Sister. The young act, featuring Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre, have in no time become one of the hot prospects on the island, playing with Arcade Fire’s Will Butler following a performance…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 50 Irish Releases of 2015 (50-41)

    Ahead of our annual Top 100 Irish Tracks of the Year countdown later this month, we’re counting down our Top 50 Irish Releases of 2015 (that is to say EPs and albums) every day this week. And rather than giving the game away too soon, we’ve opted for the age-old descending option, starting with 50-41. Dig in. 50. Screamingparent – The Completist Back in April, Dudley Colley of Dublin’s Dudley Corporation AKA Screamingparent released his ten-track debut of “spare-room recorded bedroom classics”. Call it his first solo “misadventure”, it was recorded in between school runs and nappy changes. True story: The Guardian SC somewhere…

  • Stream: Saint Sister – Castles

    “My mother is lonely/My father speaks only to himself  My sister’s in danger/Her lover’s a stranger.” Undoubtedly the jewel in their lulling folk-pop crown, there’s a real immediacy poise to the lyrics of Irish Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister. With their debut EP, Madrid, set for release via Trout Records on Friday, November 13, their latest single ‘Castles’ confines that intimate, instantly relatable savoir faire to four minutes of gossamer-like song, relaying succinct, unspoken truths of – perhaps unmistakably Irish – family life. Recorded in a short, purportedly “intense” session at Noise studio, Co. Kerry by Alex Ryan of Hozier, Madrid…

  • Stream: Saint Sister – Blood Moon

    Having made a big impression at Hard Working Class Heroes last weekend, Irish duo Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister have hit the ground sprinting with their new single, ‘Blood Moon’. Taken from the band’s forthcoming Madrid EP – set for released via Trout Records on October 30 – the track is a brilliantly earworming three minutes of drifting and empyrean folk-pop. Madrid was recorded in a short, “intense” session at County Kerry’s Noise studio by Alex Ryan of Hozier. Stream ‘Blood Moon’ below. Photos by Deborah Sheedy.