• Watch: The Shaker Hymn – Sucking It Out

    Having supported Gaz Coombes at Cyprus Avenue on Saturday night – an apt local/international pairing if there ever was one – Cork four-piece The Shaker Hymn look back on a two month U.S. road trip as the spur for their de facto formation in 2012 having made “rudimentary teenage noises” since 2005. To say the least, the imprint of this rather curious, drawn-out gestation period shines through on the band’s new single, ‘Sucking It Out’. Revealing a band who seem to know each other’s musical anatomy inside out, it’s a perfectly discriminating release, tipping its hat to the likes of QOTSA’s more undemanding, subtly swaggering…

  • Watch: Sleep Thieves – High

    Set to play New York next week, Dublin threesome Sleep Thieves have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘High’. Directed by Canada-based Irish artist and filmmaker Claire Byrne in Toronto, the video presents an otherworldly Arcadia of tripped-out, anonymous fantasy land; one that fuses extremely well with the Sorcha Brennan-fronted trio’s dusky electro-pop.

  • Watch: Slomatics in Their Practice Space

    In a Thin Air we’re first we’re sharing footage a band’s band practice. But rather just any old band or any old practice, it’s Seán Zissou’s B&W mini-film of Belfast sludge-doom overlords Slomatics collectively self-exorcising themselves in behemothic adulation of the (very slow, most crushing) riff. Someone seriously needs to invent whiplash cream just so these guys can be sponsored by it. Watch the video – featuring additional camera by Dave Knox and audio recording/mix Thomas Parkes – below.

  • Watch: Abandcalledboy – LA Dick

    Any song with a main riff that evokes ‘Blindness’ by The Fall and an outro reminiscent of latter-day Tera Melos can only be a good thing in our books. Where are we going with this, you wonder? Wonder no more: Abandcalledboy have unveiled the video for their new single ‘LA Dick’, the suitably spazzed-out follow-up to their double single ‘George Best In Show/Paul Simon’s Daily Routine’, released back in March. Watch the video for the single –  created by Odhrain Soanes and Andrew Grafton – below.

  • Watch: GODHATESDISCO – Incredible Technology

    A mechanical, foreboding procession into tremulous reverb and possessed of foreboding, post-punk pace, GODHATESDISCO‘s new single ‘Incredible Technology’ walks a thin line between Krautrock restraint and post-punk alienation. Never will this be better represented than in the accompanying video, just released. A veritable option paralysis of found footage, rhetoric and stock film, all overlaid and bleeding into each other, it perfectly mirrors the song’s descent from signal to drained-out noise, a commentary on the prevalence of tech. GODHATESDISCO releases new LP ‘Great Radio’ on July 24th via Little Gem Records.

  • Watch: Malojian – Bathtub Blues

    The follow-up to the sublime ‘Communion Girls’, released back in February, Stevie Scullion AKA Malojian has unveiled the video for jaunty new single, ‘Bathtub Blues’. A brilliantly breezy effort, the video for the track features Scullion and his music-making cohorts Joe McGurgan and Mike Mormecha performing the track in a bathroom. We see what they did there. Malojian launch their new album, Southlands, at Belfast’s No Alibis on May 29 and 30. Buy tickets here and watch the video for ‘Bathtub Blues’ – directed by Tommy Keery – below.

  • Watch: Rory Nellis – Outdoorsman

    One of Ireland’s most naturally gifted songsmiths, Rory Nellis‘ music betrays an increasingly tangible sense of conviction and candor. Where no lyric or phrase feels throwaway, no chord progression or melodic flourish seems kneejerk or unconsidered. This almost meditative attention to detail is something that has often set his music apart from many of his peers, something that’s more than evident on his forthcoming debut album, Ready For You Now. Recorded with Phil D’Alton of Master & Dog, the album – currently available to fund on Pledgemusic – features a cast of local musicians including Herb Magee (formerly of LaFaro, now of Goons), Pete…

  • Watch: Sleep Thieves – You Want The Night

    A masterclass in woozy, nocturnal electro-pop, You Want The Night by Dublin three-piece Sleep Thieves is easily one of our favourite debut albums by an Irish band in… well, forever. A year on from its release, the Sorcha Brennan-fronted band have unveiled the video for its title (and arguably best track) ‘You Want The Night’ – and what a distance director Mike P. Nelson has gone to wonderfully, rather cinematically capture the song’s dark, marauding tangents.

  • Watch: Villagers – Everything I Am Yours

    Showing one man’s sad spiral of rejection on city streets, Villagers’ video for ‘Everything I Am Yours’ is a harrowing yet remarkably touching supplement to one of the highlights from their new album, Darling Arithmetic. Directed by Jeremy Thraves – responsible for videos for the likes of Radiohead’s Just, Blur’s Charmless Man and Sam Smith’s Stay With Me – the video cuts between the aforementioned struggle – one man’s desire for love and to be loved – and footage of Conor O’Brien performing the song on guitar, drums and piano. Make sure to check out our main interview feature with O’Brien in the current issue of…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Oh Earth (Live in The Pepper Canister Church, Dublin)

    Having spent the last week driving home their impossibly distinctive brand of experimental pop at SXSW, Dublin experimental five-piece Meltybrains? will play a special Thin Air show at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 alongside the equally unmissable Blue Whale. Sitting on the fence about attending? Relieve your behind by watching Bob Gallagher’s live video of ‘Oh Earth’ by Meltybrains?, filmed at Dublin’s wonderful Pepper Canister Church in February. Go here for the Facebook event for the Belfast show.