Between his fifth and sixth album as Pictish Trail, Johnny Lynch decided to rework tracks from the former album into pared-back affairs, working well alongside two new instrumental compositions. The three “Island Family” tracks, now with harp and cello, are converted from bright psych-pop to primal but muscular, lightly psychedelic, quirky folk which fans of everyone from The Beta Band and Beck to James Yorkston, Martha Ffion, Mitski and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy may enjoy.
Isle-of-Eigg dwelling electro-acoustic psych-pop wonder Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch, released his fifth album “Island Family” in 2022 to critical acclaim from all from The Observer and The Times to Mojo, Uncut, Loud & Quiet and BBC 6 Music. As he works on a much-anticipated follow-up, Johnny has decided to revisit the family of songs that made up “Island Family” once again, and present “reduxes” of three of them in brand new, stripped-back form, recorded together with a specially assembled trio of musicians:
Semay Wu on cello, Gillian Fleetwood on harp, and long-time collaborator Susan Bear on keys/bass. The resulting EP, “Follow Footsteps”, will be released on limited-edition 12” vinyl in a gold-foil print sleeve, via Lost Map Records on September 13th, 2024, as well as on digital platforms via Fire Records. Pictish Trail will be playing some of these re-duxes live at tour dates throughout the summer and autumn, including at Green Man in August, in his 22nd consecutive appearance at the Welsh festival.
By putting the wild, untamed euphoric-bucolic psychedelia of ‘Island Family’, ‘Melody Something’ and ‘Nuclear Sunflower Swamp’ through a softer filter – complimented by a pair of short incidental instrumentals in ‘Follow Footsteps’ and ‘Flowers Rising Into The Black’ – Pictish Trail has discovered delicately kaleidoscopic new resonance in the songs.
About the making of the “Follow Footsteps” EP, Johnny writes: I’ve been working on writing songs for my sixth album as Pictish Trail for the past year, and wanted to try out something a bit different. “Island Family” came out just as lock-down restrictions were being lifted. It was an energetic, noisy, and distorted record, very much mirroring the frustration of being kept at home. Over the course of the next two years, I performed it loads with my full band, multiple headline tours, playing a ton of festivals, as well as supporting artists such as Pavement and Mogwai. The shows were sweaty and loud; making a racket felt cathartic.
“I’ve worked closely with my dear friend Susan Bear for the past 10 years – releasing music she made with her band Tuff Love, as well as solo stuff under her own name (including this year’s album, “Algorithmic Mood Music“). She’s also been a member of the Pictish Trail live band since 2014, as well as performing with other Lost Map acts. A staple of the Glasgow music scene, she also performs with The Pastels, Sacred Paws, Goodnight Louisa and does sound design and composition for theatre productions.
“Suse got in touch with me after one of my solo shows, saying she wanted to record the songs acoustically, capturing the intimacy of the performance. For years I’ve resisted doing anything like this, as a way of fighting off the dreaded ‘folk’ term – which seems to follow me wherever I go, whether I release an electronic-dance record or an industrial noise pop song.
“At the very start of 2024 I travelled down to La Chunky Studios in Glasgow, spending a few days recording guitar and vocal takes, along with Suse on electric piano and bass. We worked on three songs from “Island Family” – they sounded beautiful, but immediately we knew that they would benefit from some further accompaniment.
Pictish Trail’s critically acclaimed first pair of albums “Secret Soundz Vols. 1 & 2″ released in 2008 and 2013 respectively were gloriously eclectic slices of lo-fi folk-pop, later revived as a deluxe double-vinyl in 2014 by Moshi Moshi. His third album “Future Echoes” was released to further critical acclaim in September 2016, and went on to be shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award by popular vote, before being re-issued by Fire Records in the summer of 2018. His fourth album “Thumb World” was released on Fire Records in February 2020.
When not putting out his own music as Pictish Trail, Johnny is a fulcrum of Scotland and the UK’s independent music community. Through his label Lost Map Records, he champions a diverse and idiosyncratic array of talent.
The Fat Angel Sings 