I’ve very much been enjoying the latest album from the Pictish Trail, Future Echoes. Check out the two videos for the singles from the album ‘Far Gone (Don’t Leave)’ and ‘Dead Connection’ below, as well as reading my review of the album over on God Is In The TV.

Pictured above is Johnny Lynch AKA The Pictish Trail. As you’re almost certainly aware (if you have followed the Scottish DiY scene at all in any way shape or form) he used to run the Fence label together with Kenny Anderson AKA King Creosote..

Johnny Lynch now runs Lost Map Records and has signed to Moshi Moshi Records in London. Having released Secret Soundz Vol. 1 & 2 separately in 2008 and 2012 respectively (read my review of Vol. 2 here), the two albums will be released as one package through Moshi Moshi on June 9.

‘Wait Until’ is the new single. He also headlines Big Day In at Edinburgh’s Electric Circus this Sunday (April 20).

For more forthcoming gigs see here, including in-stores over the next week or so and a full tour in May.

The Pictish Trail -‘Secret Soundz Vol. 2’ (Fence)

So, it would be terribly easy to be flippant about this release and simply state that it’s the follow-up to the Fence head honcho’s debut (hence the ‘vol.2’ bit). But that would be missing the point and doing Johnny Lynch a terrible injustice.

See, the reality is that this is really a rather beautiful and really wonderful album. Like many Scots artists, melancholy and beauty run through his work (I could reel off a list of names here, but that would be missing the point. Go and do your own research.) The term ‘folktronica’ has become derrided and sneered at -but what our hero does here on his second album is to produce an album that ably mixes, well, folk and electronica, and produces something really great. And the thing is, you can mix up styles as much as you like -but at the end of the day, it’s still important to be able to turn them into coherent songs, dammit, and this album certainly succeeds on that.

Some tracks like ‘Wait Until’ have more of a definite experimental electronic feel, while others, such as ‘Sequels’ and ‘Of Course You Exist’ are more of an investigation into how folk music might sound. And sure, this album will be poured over by Fence’s ever-growing band of devotees, and lauded and parised in Scotland -but if there’s any justice, the reach and adoration will be far further afield than that.

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Secret Soundz Vol.2 is released by Fence on January 21.