The Pictish Trail – Secret Soundz Vol.1
Well well, this is rather good. Johnny Lynch has spent so long slaving away at the Fence Records coalface that it seemed he might keep his own musical endeavours on the backburner forever. Well he’s pulled his finger out and spat something out at last, and the results are bloody excellent.
This record is quite Fencey in many respects, with a fairly familiar combination of acoustic balladry teased and perverted by electronic glitchery and atmospherics. The Earlies play on a few of the songs here too, as they did on labelmate King Creosote’s breakthrough KC Rules OK.
It’s a different animal though, Secret Soundz. It leans more toward the bleepery of Found, and Johnny’s love of Hot Chip shows through immediately on the introductory instrumental Secret Sound #2. As if to reassure us that he’s not going to do anything too weird he slips from that straight into the gorgeous All I Own, followed by the equally excellent I Don’t Know Where to Begin. In fact, this record is forever slipping back and forth between these two places, such that it’s almost like a naughty schoolboy who occasionally catches himself gazing wistfully out across a misty harbour, and instantly resolves to do something mischievous immediately lest he be seen as going soft.
As with the latest/forthcoming King Creosote album, this particular gem is only going to be available at gigs until early September, when it is properly released. KC and PT are touring together this Summer, and Johnny is playing some live shows with Bristolian Rozi Plain as well, so there’s plenty of opportunity to do yourselves a favour.
It’s been a while, but it’s definitely been worth the wait. I may not warm to maybe one or two songs – Winter Home Disco never quite seems to hit stride, for example – but this is a really good album.
The Pictish Trail – I Don’t Know Where to Begin
The Pictish Trail – Words Fail Me Now
