ALBUM REVIEW: Pictish Trail – Island Family

Fire Records

Released: 18.03.22

A magical maelstrom of electro psych pop. Maybe not as immediate as the previous release Thumb World, but here we are on a journey. It is a voyage of personal discovery, experiencing twists and turns, spliced up beats, transcending tumultuous torrents or slipping gently into sensitive refrains. Nature versus machine. Melody against malady. Stilting sadness, or wild flowers of romance.

Grinding bass or a flowing river of synth’d delights. Flaming Lips, Beck and Gruff Rhys spring to mind in different parts; this is Pictish Trail, aka Johnny Lynch, isolated by the pandemic with his young family and immersing himself in nature on his Hebridean island home of Eigg. We experience with him a reawakening of the senses and it is electrifying.