• Under The Drum Festival Announces First Ever Programme

    July 26, 2024 - By 

    A brand new music festival set at the foot of the County Antrim Hills, just thirty minutes from Belfast, is set to hold its first ever iteration on Saturday 28th September. Set just outside Ballyclare, it takes its name from Drumadarragh, one of the hills overlooking its intimate setting of Breckenhill. Atop the bill are NI Music Prize-winning alternative folk artists, the supremely talented Joshua Burnside and Arborist, with the likes of indie-psych quartet Junk Drawer, Galway garage punk masters Oh Boland, Derry alt-pop artist Roe, experimental rock quartet Blue Whale, Brand New Friend, Cian Nugent, London act Arliston, Susie Blue, jangle-pop master Neil Brogan, Demi O’Hara…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 26th January

    January 26, 2024 - By 

    It’s an absolutely stacked week for new Irish music, with releases including the long-awaited debut album from NewDad, MELTS, Alpha Chrome Yayo, PANIKATAX, Thom Southern and more NewDad – Madra MELTS – Figment PANIKATAX – Rejection Alpha Chrome Yayo – Last Repose of a Lonely Florist/Taro’s Box (300 Years) Home for Hitodama by Alpha Chrome Yayo Thom Southern – Hey What’s Happenin’? Wynona Bleach – Swim In the Bay Neil Brogan – Line Check Anamoe Drive – The Finder’s Keeper Lilla Vargen – Belong JyellowL – Judas Niamh Bury – Budapest

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 30th June

    June 30, 2023 - By 

    On what’s been yet another stacked week for Irish music, delve into new tracks and releases by Rachael Lavelle, ØXN, Brigid Mae Power, Neil Brogan, Jafaris, Kelley and more. Rachel Lavelle – Let Me Unlock Your Full Potential ØXN – Love Henry Brigid Mae Power – Dream From The Deep Well Dream from the Deep Well by Brigid Mae Power Neil Brogan – Yrs Truly Yrs Truly, by Neil Brogan Jafaris – Breaking Bread Keeley – Floating Above Everything Else Floating Above Everything Else by Keeley Rory Nellis and Philip Watts d’Alton – The Evening Light Caoi De Barra –…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – November 5th

    November 5, 2021 - By 

    It’s Bandcamp Friday once again, and it’s been yet another stacked week for Irish releases. Dig into best of them below, featuring Elaine Malone, Sinead O’Brien, Autumns, Son Zept, Natalia Beylis, Eimear Reidy and more Elaine Malone – Mantua MANTUA by MANTUA Autumns – DSS Dubplate DSS Dubplate by Autumns MF Doom – Great Day (Son Zept Remix) SON ZEPT · MF Doom – Great Day (Son Zept Remix) Big Daisy – Without Dreams Without Dreams by Big Daisy Neil Brogan – Evening Primrose EP Evening Primrose EP by Neil Brogan CMAT – No More Virgos Sinead O’Brien – Girlkind…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – July 30th

    July 30, 2021 - By 

    From right across the island, here’s the very best Irish tracks of the week, featuring Meljoann, Malaki, Bicurious, Mano Le Tough, John Francis Flynn, JJ Bloom, Delacy and more. Meljoann – I Quit I Quit (single) by Meljoann Malaki – Head Highs Bicurious – I Can Hear Them Too Mano Le Tough – Together CARSTEN2X – Beaucoup John Francis Flynn – ‘Bring Me Home, pt. ii: I Would Not Live Always JJ Bloom – Cool Kids Oscar Blue – Backyard Mafia Delacy – Rewind

  • Video Premiere: Neil Brogan – New Development

    July 30, 2021 - By 

    As frontman of Sea Pinks, Belfast’s Neil Brogan established – and consistently re-established – himself as one of the island’s most distinctive songwriting voices. On albums such as Dreaming Tracks and Soft Days, he delivered nuanced, sun-bleached indie-pop sound and made it sound effortless. Last year, Brogan ventured out solo with Life Itself, a stellar four-track EP, and Weird Year, a collection of demos with all the markings of an artist at his peak. Taken from his recent album – and one of the Irish albums of the year at that – Magnolia Day, new single ‘New Development’ distils this fact down to exactly…

  • Neil Brogan – Weird Year

    December 16, 2020 - By 

    It was only this summer that Belfast jangle pop trio Sea Pinks announced they were calling it quits after ten years, but frontman Neil Brogan has wasted no time in readying solo material, with debut Life Itself already appearing a mere month after his old band’s final EP Crocuses. Not that it should have come as any surprise. During their decade long run, Sea Pinks were always one of the most reliably prolific bands in the country, pumping out an impressive seven albums in that time on Brogan’s own CF Records, initially as the frontman’s bedroom recording project while drumming in…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – October 2nd

    October 2, 2020 - By 

    It’s the first Friday of the month, which can only mean one thing: it’s also Bandcamp Friday. As ever, if you’re going to pick up some great new Irish music, best make it today. Here’s our round-up of the best of this week, including Denise Chaila, Kynsy, Arvo Party, Katie Kim, Neil Brogan, Ailbhe Reddy and, because we couldn’t possibly choose just one track, A Litany of Failures Volume III. Denise Chaila – Rí Rá Go Bravely by Denise Chaila Go Bravely by Denise Chaila Various Artists – A Litany of Failures Voume III A Litany of Failures: Volume III…

  • Remembering Scott Walker: Neil Brogan on Nite Flights by The Walker Brothers

    March 27, 2019 - By 

    The first song I reached for when I read Scott had passed was ‘Nite Flights’. Something about the strange, languid defiance of this song has always lifted me. The four tracks Scott contributed to the Walker Brothers final album represent the pivotal moment in his discography, the hinge that connects Scott Walker the faded 60’s pop star to latter-day avant Scott. The album itself was a contract filler, recorded in 1978 when the Walker Brother’s reunion had worn out a brief mid-decade welcome. They could have hashed out a few covers and called it quits, instead they each decided to…

  • Premiere: Winterlude – Winterlude II

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    Winterlude is an occasional song outlet of Neil Brogan, better known as the singer and guitarist of Belfast’s perennial bittersweet janglers Sea Pinks (who released 7th album, Rockpool Blue, back in September). But were Sea Pinks tend towards vibrant colour, Winterlude is a much more muted, understated prospect. Following on from 2015’s Four Songs, now available for the first time on all digital outlets, the two new songs on Winterlude II strip things right back. Brogan’s voice floats over a murmured Spanish guitar on ‘Thrown Chorus’, before pulling back to reveal a barren panorama of double tracked cello and skeletal piano. ‘Frozen Lake (Fade)’ is even more sparse sounding, just…