Scottish New Music Round-up: March 2022

When we spoke to Johnny Lynch during the height of the pandemic he told us he’d been listening to a lot of early !!! records and had in turn been working on some new “quite aggressive”, “quite uptempo” music. It’s been almost a year since that chat and so now exists Island Family (18 Mar, Fire Records/Lost Map), his fifth album as Pictish Trail, and it certainly lives up to Lynch’s promise.

There’s so much going on in the titular opening track alone, from Beta Band weirdness to meaty programmed drums and ice cream van twinkles, but somehow it all works; on this song alone you can practically picture Lynch roaming aimlessly around the Isle of Eigg in search of "the new sound", and we’re delighted to report we think he might have found it; glitchy beats, unconventional song structures and thick riffs abound.

Mining from his love of artists like Fever Ray, The Flaming Lips and Liars, fans of Animal Collective and Deerhoof will also find something to like on Island Family. Pictish Trail’s fifth record has truly allowed Lynch to fully explore the sort of sounds he loves to play around with making for his weirdest, most experimental and most exciting record yet.

Following a collaborative appearance alongside Joell. at Wide Days in 2020, Edinburgh artist Billy Got Waves returns this month in his own right with Rocket Boy Act 1, the first in a three-part album release. Featuring the undeniable pipes of Young Fathers’ Alloysius Massaquoi on B.O.A.W., it’s a strong opening gambit from Billy Got Waves which doesn’t let up across its four tracks. Due on 4 March, the level of vulnerability found across Act 1's lyrics, paired with pristine production from Glasgow’s S-Type and Nottingham-based beatmaker Baygee, we’re already excited for the next two chapters.

From one Edinburgh artist to another, Lewis McLaughlin releases his debut album Feel the Ground You Walk Upon on 25 March via Monohands Records. The most striking thing about this record has to be McLaughlin’s voice and the utterly captivating way he enunciates his words, making everything he sings feel like a long-held hug. At times he sounds like a Scottish Nick Drake (especially on Still Looking); you can also just about hear the influence Bon Iver has had on this young artist. This debut record is a great introduction to an exciting talent.

Set for initial release on 5 March as a 64-page book with digital download and lathe-cut 7”, the latest release from the Blackford Hill label comes from Scottish-Indian writer, musician and academic Arun Sood. Titled Searching Erskine, it's a response to the uninhabited island of Vallay, just off the northwest coast of North Uist, where Sood’s grandmother Katie MacNaughton once lived.

From Alice Allen's mesmerising cello on Taigh Mòr and the unsettling piano on Above, An Abandoned Piano I and II, to Sood’s rich spoken word entries and the eerie quality of fractured conversations found across the record which offer glimpses of what life was once like on the island, Searching Erskine is a powerful body of work, deftly blurring the boundaries between ambient, folk and classical. Playing out almost like a film, Searching Erskine comes to a beautiful conclusion with Crossing (ft. Rachel Sermanni), which acts as a sort of ‘closing credits’ number, the kind that keeps you in your seat at the cinema long after the lights have come up.

Another intriguing release this month comes from Istanbul-born, Glasgow-based Isik Kural, whose latest album in february arrives on 25 March via RVNG Intl. The album’s 12 tracks float by like a lullaby, each of its compositions made up from chance loops and found sounds which include everything from the flapping of pigeon’s wings to the tinkling of bicycles; the addition of Kural’s childlike vocal delivery across some of the tracks only adds to the soothing lullaby-nature of this gorgeous record.

Known for his work in The Phantom Band, Duncan Marquiss releases Wires Turned Sideways In Time on 4 March via Basin Rock. On this, his debut solo record, Marquiss places the guitar front and centre, combining powerful manipulations of electronic guitar with acoustic ambience, making for a satisfyingly filmic experience that you’ll want to delve into again and again.

Elsewhere, Happy Particles return this month with Every Room In My House Is In Darkness; Lomond Campbell is back with Lost Loops (25 Mar), made up of cuts from LŪP that would’ve otherwise been lost to the cutting room floor; Blanck Mass releases his Ted K OST (18 Mar); Peter Cat releases The Magus EP (18 Mar); inspired by the ongoing climate crisis, Steg G releases Surface Pressure (18 Mar) featuring a whole host of guest vocalists including Nova and Empress to Solareye and Conscious Route, and Arab Strap release their Aphelion/Flutter 7” (4 Mar). The Ninth Wave’s latest – and final – record Heavy Like a Headache arrives on 11 March, and Franz Ferdinand release their greatest hits record (pick up our March issue for a chat with Alex Kapranos). Finally, celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March, Hen Hoose pairing MALKA and AMUNDA release the gloriously bouncy and vibrant On the Up.