S3 10: August 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Firestations + more

August 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Trying to get his head back into festival-mode, PICTISH TRAIL is here to guide your ears through this month’s releases on Lost Map Records - including the return single from post-punk surrealists BAS JAN, the debut solo material from Savage Mansion’s ANGUS JOHNSON, and some hypnotic chanting from JENNY MOORE’S MYSTIC BUSINESS.

Laura and Bart give us another instalment of their LOST CHATS, inviting LAURA COPSEY from FIRESTATIONS’ into the hot seat this time - with some scintillating questions from Smash Hits Magazine, and a wee bit of chat about Firestations new Pixel Wilderness EP.

And in this month’s FIRST GIG WORST GIG we meet ANGUS JOHNSON (aka Craig Angus), who tells us of his first gig as a punter, and his worst gig as a performer.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Clip of Bas Jan - ’You Have Bewitched Me’

2. Clip of Angus Johnson - ’Trouble Of Mine'

3. Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business - 'He Earns Enough'

4. Clips of Firestations Pixel Wilderness EP and ‘Machine Country’

5. Angus Johnson - ’Something To Be Done'

To support Lost Map, and to listen to music featured in the programme in full, you should join our PostMap Club. A monthly membership starts at just £3, and you'll receive printed postcards delivered to your door every month, containing downloads of new music from the label. You also receive a membership badge, newsletter and discount codes for other stuff from our webshop. Visit lostmap.com/club for details on how to join.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 09: July 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ A.R. Pinewood + more

July 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Hi there pals, PICTISH TRAIL is here to guide your ears through this month’s releases on Lost Map Records - including some exclusive tracks from CALLUM EASTER, and a brand new single from MOLLY LINEN.

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Randolph’s Leap frontman ADAM ROSS, who talks us through his A.R. PINEWOOD project. Following the release of 2020’s No Life LP, Adam has recorded a new mini-album of vocoder ballads called Moonfire, 8 songs of heartbreak and interstellar exploration - with PostMap Club members getting first dibs.

FIRST GIG WORST GIG returns with ROZI PLAIN in the hot seat, accompanied by her pal Kate Stables, aka THIS IS THE KIT. They chat through their gigging memories, whilst waiting for their Greggs pasties at a services near Hellingly (just off the Hailsham Bypass, next to the Boship Roundabout).

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Clip of Callum Easter - ’System’ (Alt Version)

2. Clip of Molly Linen - ’The Day Starts'

3. Clips of A.R Pinewood - No Life LP and Moonfire EP

4. A.R. Pinewood - ‘Grandeur’

5. Rozi Plain - ‘Friend City’ (Delifinger remix)

6. Molly Linen - ’The Day Starts'

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 08: June 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Koppies

June 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Hullo, PICTISH TRAIL, here - with a round-up of all the music we are releasing through Lost Map’s PostMap Club this month. I’ve also got a bit of spooky chat / advice about a recent demo submission…

In today’s episode, we get to meet KOPPIES - a brand new collaborative project from singer songwriters Victoria Hume, Chris Letcher and Matthew van der Want, based in Johannesburg. They talk us through their debut EP, a co-release between Lost Map and South Africa’s legendary Shifty Records imprint. Follow them online, here: https://koppies.co.uk/

We’ve resurrected our THIS OR THAT gameshow, in which we ask YOU (the public) to pose the most taxing of questions to our roster of hot musical talent. Our contestants this month are Matt + Owen, aka KINBOTE + KISZES - a new electronic-pop collaboration from Edinburgh/East Lothian.

Finally we’ve got some news on a festival that Lost Map is helping to curate - JUPITER RISING. Taking place over 27th & 28th August 2021, just outside Edinburgh, there’s going to be performances from Pictish Trail, Alabaster dePlume, Rachel Aggs, Free Love, Romeo Taylor, Callum Easter and more. You can find out more by going to http://jupiterrising.art.

We close today’s show with ‘What You Think?’, the first single from Callum Easter’s forthcoming album, System. PostMap Club members will have received a code, for a discount on the limited edition LP, in bottle-green vinyl.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Clip of Firestations - ’Sun In Your Eyes'

2. Clips of Koppies EP

3. Koppies - ‘Hospital Song’

4. Kinbote + Kiszes - ‘GPA’

5. Callum Easter - ‘What You Think?'

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 07: May 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Monoganon + more

May 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Hullo, Pictish Trail, here. Please join me for approximately 52 mins of music and chat about all things Lost Map!

Every month we release music through our membership service, PostMap Club. This month we have previously unreleased tunes and a video montage of live sessions from John B McKenna, aka MONOGANON - who joins us from his home in Malmo for a hearty chat about squeaky chairs, Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, Brian Butterfield, Yung Lean, Busta Rhymes, Knightrider. Oh, and we also talk a wee bit about John’s music.

Check out the amazing sounds he has been creating through his Foundation Of The Teacherock label, over here: https://foundationoftheteacherock.bandcamp.com/music

In addition to this, there’s a brand new single from our good friend EMMA KUPA (Standard Fare / Mammoth Penguins), who also shares distant memories of live shows, in our regular First Gig Worst Gig segment.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Emma Kupa - ‘Happy Birthday'

2. Monoganon - ‘UFO’

+ a selection of clips from Monoganon’s album’s F A M I L Y, Killmens and Killmens II, plus Undermedvetenheten.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 06: April 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Molly Linen + more

April 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Once again, Pictish Trail brings you otherworldly sounds from Lost Map, going through the PostMap Club releases for April 2021.

Molly Linen joins us for some chat about her start in music, and the making of her new single ‘A Lot To Give’; we’ve got a guest postcard release from RKB Vitesse, who talks us through the mysterious world of remixes; and in First Gig / Worst Gig, Kate from Kid Canaveral joins us for possibly the most harrowing set of experiences yet. It might make you never want to go to a gig ever again.

And THIS OR THAT sadly returns with a very, very special A-list celebrity. Or maybe it’s an April Fool On The Hill?

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Kinbote - Clip of ’In The Rushes’ (live session)

2. RKB Vitesse - Clip of ‘Pledge Psychodrama’

3. Molly Linen - Clips of Outside

4. Molly Linen - ‘A Lot To Give’

5. Kid Canaveral - ’Skeletons’ (Synaesthete remix)

6. RKB Vitesse - Clips of Pledge Psychodrama EP

7. Pictish Trail - ‘Dream Wall’ (Good Dog remix)

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 05: March 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Alexia Avina + more

March 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Allow Pictish Trail to expel his hot air (chat, not farts) on a balloon ride from his home on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland, across the Atlantic and over to the other side of America, where we meet ambient-folk artist Alexia Avina in Portland, Oregon; with just enough puff, we travel back over to meet Firestations in Walthamstow, London, before returning almost full circle to sunny Glasgow for some gossip with Savage Mansion.

Once again, Pictish Trail goes through this month’s PostMap Club releases, playing brand new music from the Lost Map label - including tracks from Sulka, Savage Mansion, and an exclusive live session with Alexia Avina.

Ambient-folk artist, Alexia Avina tells us all about her start in music, the scene in Montreal and the making of her album Unearth, as well as the story behind the new live session she’s recorded for us. The full session video will be live-streamed on Thursday 11th March 2021, with free access for PostMap Club members.

In First Gig / Worst Gig, we are joined by Mike, Laura and Martin from Firestations - who show off their cool indie-credentials with anecdotes of the first gig they attended as punters … before shovelling the bleak reality of life in a band with tales of the worst gig they’ve ever played themselves.

Due to (un)popular demand, our regular feature THIS OR THAT has been cancelled this month - and has been replaced with a pilot for a new segment called Lost Chats. This month, staff members Bart & Laura talk the nitty-gritty with Craig Angus from Savage Mansion, about his new single, upcoming album, and also the link between dogs and terrorist organisations (terrierists?). This is a clip of a full episode that will be made available to PostMap Club members later in the month.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Sulka - Clip of ’Hollow Days’ / ‘Hollow Days (acoustic version)'

2. Savage Mansion - Clip of ‘Wig Wise’

3. Alexia Avina - Clips of Unearth + live session

4. Alexia Avina - ‘Know My Place’ (live session)

5. Firestations - Clip of ‘Low Ratio (Sunken Version)'

6. Savage Mansion - ‘Prizes’

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 04: February 2021 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Sulka + more

February 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

Featuring new music, erotic stories and some chat about Gary Jules flat-cap, his month’s episode of the podcast is as mysterious, harrowing and unexpected as an anonymous Valentines card written in a sticky brown liquid that you honest-to-god hope is dried blood.

Your host Pictish Trail rummages though the PostMap Club mail-bag, and plays some brand new music from the Lost Map label - including tracks from Firestations, Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business, and a remix by Callum Easter. There’s also an exclusive first play (in full) of an unreleased Pictish track, entitled ‘Dream Wall’.

This month’s episode also features a one-on-one interview with multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Lukas Clasen, aka SULKA - whose brand new album, Take Care, just came out on CD and cassette.

Rose Canaveral gets us in the Valentines mood with an erotic ghost story, that will definitely give you the willies.

In First Gig / Worst Gig, Suse Bear (aka Good Dog) unveils her pop-past, and shares two memories of terrible gigs that’ll make you thankful we’re still in lockdown.

And in this month’s edition of THIS OR THAT we are joined by a live studio audience for a special Mr & Ms. gameshow format, in which we have two members of Lost Map staff as contestants. Our social media manager Bart is pitted against our admin guru Laura. There’s a cash prize, but rest assured the chances of this lot winning anything are slim…

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Firestations - ’The Circular’

2. Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business - ‘Woman Is A Word’

3. Pictish Trail - ’Slow Memories’ (Callum Easter remix)

4. Sulka - Clips of Take Care, + ‘Fell Out Of A Sky’

5. Good Dog - ‘Jury Duty’

6. Pictish Trail - ‘Dream Wall’

To support Lost Map, and to listen to some of the music featured in the programme in full, you should join our PostMap Club. A monthly membership starts at just £3, and you'll receive printed postcards delivered to your door every month, containing downloads of new music from the label. You also receive a membership badge, newsletter and discount codes for other stuff from our webshop. Visit lostmap.com/club for details on how to join.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 03: January 2021 - PostMap Podcast

January 1, 2021 Pictish Trail

It’s finally 2021, and we’ve all survived. Our collective reward is a 45 minute podcast about brand new music on Lost Map Records. Hooray.

It’s the New Year, and Pictish Trail has celebrated by hiding from his children, locking himself inside his garden shed, and recording this very podcast with only a bottle of Babycham for company.

This month’s episode includes an in-depth interview with singer-songwriter Clémentine March, who tells us about her life in music, and the making of her new album Songs Of Resilience - which she recorded in just two days at the end of November.

In First Gig / Worst Gig, Alabaster dePlume takes us back to a time when he had extremely long hair, and chewing gum on his back … and that’s not even the Worst Gig.

And in this month’s edition of THIS OR THAT we punish an undeserving Ed Dowie with a non-stop assault of brain-taxing questions.

There’s also an exclusive first play of a new track from Sulka, whose new album Take Care is out later this month.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Clémentine March - Clips of Songs Of Resilience, + ‘Into The Distance’

2. Alabaster dePlume - ’Song of the Foundling (live, 2012)’

3. Ed Dowie - ‘Under The Waves'

4. Sulka - 'You & I'

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 02: December 2020 - PostMap Podcast, Xmas Spesh

December 1, 2020 Pictish Trail

Let’s face it, it's pretty much Xmas already, so for the next 60 minutes just surrender yourself to a good stuffing of audio enjoyment, in a suitably festive episode of the Lost Map Podcast - featuring tracks from our Xmas Card compilation, and a lot of tenuous Yuletide features.

Ho ho ho, Pictish Trail’s stuck up the chimney, his sack literally bulging with postcards. In this month’s episode of the Lost Map Podcast, we unveil a very special Xmas Card containing a compilation of NINE (count ‘em!) tracks from various acts on the Lost Map roster. In order to validate their Xmas credentials, we’ve asked a few band members to list their Top Five Best Things That Are Christmassy, covering the key topics of Food, Songs, Films and Boozes.

In addition to all this merriment, we roast some proverbial chestnuts with Matt Gibb - aka bedroom glitch-pop producer, Kinbote - in a chat about his involvement with the ReAnalogue collective and the making of his debut album, Shifting Distance (out December 4th).

In First Gig / Worst Gig, we invite Jenny Moore (of Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business fame) to usher the ghost of Xmas Past, recalling her first gig experience as a punter, and her worst gig experience as a performer.

And in this month’s edition of THIS OR THAT we subject our robot cowboy, A.R. Pinewood, to a gruelling assault of binary snowballs. Oooft.

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Happy Clarinetty - ’I Remember Christmas’

2. Kinbote - ‘Hiemalis’

3. Kinbote - ‘(On A String)’

4. Friends Of The Guinness - ’Ciara’

5. Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business - ‘I Am Afraid’

6. Fell - ‘Fear Of Christmas’

7. A.R. Pinewood - ’Tis The Season’

8. Friends Of The Guinness - ’Town For Tomorrow'

To support Lost Map, and to listen to all the music featured in the programme in full, you should join our PostMap Club. A monthly membership starts at just £3, and you'll receive printed postcards delivered to your door every month, containing downloads of new music from the label. You also receive a membership badge, newsletter and discount codes for other stuff from our webshop. Visit lostmap.com/club for details on how to join.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S3 01: November 2020 - PostMap Podcast, w/ Martha Ffion + more

November 1, 2020 Pictish Trail

Lost Map Podcast gets a reboot! Join your host Pictish Trail for the first episode of a new series, centred around PostMap Club - our monthly membership programme, where we send you postcards containing downloads for new music from the label.

Hello, Pictish Trail, here! Welcome to Series 3 of the Lost Map Podcast - we’ve given it a bit of a reboot. We’re going to try and release a brand new episode of the pod on the first day of each month, centred around new music that we have released through our PostMap Club. Wish us luck.

PostMap Club is our membership programme, where - from just £3 - you can receive printed postcards delivered to your door every month, containing downloads for new music from the label. You also receive a membership badge, monthly newsletter and discount codes for other stuff from the label. Visit lostmap.com/club for details on how to join.

In this episode of the podcast, you’ll hear some scintillating chat with Claire McKay, aka Martha Ffion. She tells us about the making of her new album - Nights To Forget - and reveals all the details of an exclusive live session she’s recorded, entitled Captured On Cassette. The full session was filmed, and will premiere live on Wednesday 25th November - PostMap Club members will get free access, and tickets will also be available to purchase separately from lostmap.com.

We’ve also got a face-to-face interview between Laura and Mike from the band Firestations - they give us the scoop on a new series of EPs they’re releasing with us over the coming months. The first EP, Automatic Tendencies is out on November 6th, and features the single ’Small Island’ and a “sunken version” of ‘Greenmount’, clips of which you can hear in this episode.

In First Gig / Worst Gig, we ask artists to tell us about the first gig they ever attended as a punter, and the worst gig they’ve ever played as a performer. Our first contestant for this feature is Callum Easter, whose debut album - Here Or Nowhere - recently won the public vote for Scottish Album of the Year. Both his first gig and his worst gig choices are absolutely harrowing.

Another new regular feature is called THIS OR THAT, in which we ask a series of quick-fire questions on the hottest of all hot topics. The first person to take the challenge is a brand new signing to the label, SULKA. But will he choose this, or that?!!? His new single ‘Fear It’ is out now, and the postcard comes with an exclusive acoustic version.

We’ve got clips of music from all the above, and there’s also a brand new track (in full!) from Clémentine March. A packed show!

EPISODE TRACKLISTING:

1. Martha Ffion - ’Nights To Forget’ (Captured On Cassette live session)

2. Martha Ffion - ‘Going Out In Style’ (Captured On Cassette live session)

3. Callum Easter - ‘Make A Move’

4. Firestations - ’Small Island’

5. Firestations - ‘Greenmount’ (Sunken Version)

6. Sulka - ‘Fear It’

7. Clémentine March - ‘Elixir’ (Single Version)

To support Lost Map, join our PostMap Club! Go to lostmap.com/club for more details.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack. This episode is made possible with support from Creative Scotland.

S2 07: VISITATIONS - Rozi Plain Pt.2 + series round-up

October 11, 2020 Pictish Trail

In January 2020, Rozi Plain travelled over to the Isle of Eigg to work with two of her closest companions; GERARD BLACK, a Glasgow-based musician and songwriter, frontman with electronic synth upstarts Babe, and frequent performer with Charlotte Gainsbourg and François & The Atlas Mountains; and JAMIE WHITBY-COLES, a fellow acolyte of the Bristol scene, who plays alongside Rozi with This Is The Kit, and creates his own music under the moniker B-Fax.

Whilst on the island, this ebullient trio recorded a collection of woozy, groovy instrumentals and songs; dreamy guitars, soft analogue synths, floaty drums and percussion collide, each pal taking a turn on lead vocals.

Part two of our two-part interview, was recorded in September 2020. Rozi, Gerard and Jamie were in Winchester, sat in Rozi’s parent’s garden - taking a break from recording some new demos. They discuss how they met one another, their trip to Eigg, and their writing/recording process during their stay on the island. Throughout this episode you’ll hear clips of some of the tracks they created for the project.

To listen to the music they created in full, and to support this podcast, please subscribe to VISITATIONS. You’ll receive 3 x 12” vinyl releases (with CD and download copies included) from the three acts in the current series - Arthur King, Rachel Aggs, and Rozi Plain. Go to lostmap.com/visitations for more info.

You can find Rozi over on roziplain.co.uk, and on all the regular social media places with the handle @roziplain. Gerard Black is @akuriousoranj on Twitter, and @babeband on Instagram. Jamie Whitby-Coles is an online enigma, but you can purchase his debut solo album, under the name B-Fax, available only from indie-shops across the UK.

At the end of the episode, Pictish Trail presents an overview of the two series of VISITATIONS thus far, reflects on their common themes, and reveals what lies in store for the podcast…

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 06: VISITATIONS - Rozi Plain Pt.1

October 1, 2020 Pictish Trail

ROZI PLAIN's gently hypnotic, slightly askew songs have steadily made their way from her home-town of Winchester, reverberated through the bustling Bristol DIY scene, and currently emanate from London’s creative epicentre. One of Lost Map’s most successful alumni, now signed to Memphis Industries, Rozi’s music has acquired a worldliness that’s reflected in her international touring schedule; each of her albums broach new sonic territory, but retain a sense of intimacy and a reassuring warmth of spirit.

In part one of our two-part interview, Rozi chats to us from her folks place in Winchester, discussing her life in music, and the people she’s worked with over the years. Throughout this episode you’ll hear clips of music she’s released across her career, including some of the tracks she recorded on Eigg with her collaborators Gerard Black and Jamie Whitby-Coles. We’ll hear more from those guys in part two.

To listen to the music they created in full, and to support this podcast, please subscribe to VISITATIONS. You’ll received 3 x 12” vinyl releases (with CD and download copies included) from the three acts in the current series - Arthur King, Rachel Aggs, and Rozi Plain. Go to lostmap.com/visitations for more info.

You can find Rozi over on roziplain.co.uk, and on all the regular social media places with the handle @roziplain.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 05: PostMap Podcast - Club Biscuit Taster

September 1, 2020 Pictish Trail

Lost Map loves sending out postcards. The label’s very first release was a printed postcard containing a download code for a compilation of tracks from across the roster, launched at Green Man Festival in Wales in 2013. Since then, there’s been almost 100 different postcard releases - featuring a plethora of exclusive tracks, b-sides, remixes, live sessions and audio experiments from the Lost Map collective. In 2019, the label launched PostMap Club, a monthly subscription service where fans receive a package of new postcards every month, along with a newsletter and membership badge.

In this episode of the Lost Map Podcast, label boss Pictish Trail reveals seven of his favourite tracks, tucked away on postcards over the years … and reveals plans for upcoming developments to PostMap Club. There’s also a special message from each of the artists featured in this episode.

Bart from eagleowl dishes up a steaming hot buffet of facts; Martha Ffion recounts a chilling counterfeit transaction at a dodgy flea-market; Manuela takes us on a ride of her family boat; Good Dog reveals her lock-down survival techniques; Craig from Savage Mansion tells us his worst nightmare; and Rozi Plain takes us back to windy Wales, with an audio-postcard of her recent family holiday.

Here’s the track-listing:

1. eagelowl - 'eagleowl vs. woodpigeon' (I’m quiet when you’re not Tommy Perman remix)

2. Martha Ffion - ’No Applause’

3. Manuela - Cracks In The Concrete (Nadia Ksaiba 7inch Dance Dance Dance edit)

4. Good Dog - ‘Floating’ (live @ home)

5. Savage Mansion - 'Third Lanark’

6. Rozi Plain - ‘Friend City’ (Seamus Fogarty remix)

7. Pictish Trail - ’No Flags’ (Savage Mansion cover, Morning Breakfast version)

If you’d like to support this podcast, sign up to Lost Map’s PostMap Club. Membership starts from just £3 per month. Go to www.lostmap.com/club for details.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 04: VISITATIONS - Rachel Aggs Pt.2

July 26, 2020 Pictish Trail

Now that you’ve met Rachel Aggs, the supremely talented singer and guitarist with Trash Kit, Shopping and Sacred Paws, let’s see how she got on, with her trip to the Isle of Eigg for our VISITATIONS project.

Arriving on the island during the final week of August 2019, armed with her guitar, violin, laptop and a drum machine, she set about creating a diary of songs and instrumental pieces. These intimate solo recordings showcase her distinctive guitar and vocal style, mixed a with lo-fi pop sensibility, capturing a snapshot of isolation inside and outside of the bothy; where field recordings of the sea crashing wildly against the rocks meet the sound of a kettle whistling.

If you’d like to support this podcast, and listen to the music that has been created by Rachel, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Go to www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.

This series of VISITATIONS was conducted in St Franny’s Bothan. If you’d like to check out the space, and maybe book a trip to the island yourself, check out www.stfrannys.com.

You can find Rachel Aggs on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aggsrachel

Lost Map Podcast is written, produced and presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 03: VISITATIONS - Rachel Aggs Pt.1

July 12, 2020 Pictish Trail

RACHEL AGGS is an exceptionally prolific virtuoso of euphoric post-punk queercore music, achieving international acclaim with her collaborative projects Trash Kit, Shopping and Sacred Paws; galvanising the DIY scene in London, and her current home of Glasgow in the process. No mean feat!

We’ve been fans of Rachel’s music for years, and were thrilled when she said she was up for taking part in our VISITATIONS residency series. She’s been over to Eigg a bunch of times before, performing at our Howlin’ Fling! Festival with Trash Kit and Sacred Paws, but this was her first solo trip - and, indeed, the VISITATIONS record she has made is her first solo album.

In this episode of the podcast, we sent Rachel a list of questions, and she recorded answers from her home studio, in June 2020. She talks about her first forays into music, her influences, the birth of her three main collaborative projects, her move from London to Glasgow, and reflects upon the importance of visibility in the DIY/indie scene. It’s a great interview - if you’re new to Rachel's music, this podcast is a good introduction!

This series of VISITATIONS was conducted in St Franny’s Bothan. If you’d like to check out the space, and maybe book a trip to the island yourself, check out www.stfrannys.com.

You can find Rachel Aggs on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aggsrachel

Lost Map Podcast is written, produced and presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 02: VISITATIONS - Jason Lytle and Arthur King Pt.2

April 5, 2020 Pictish Trail

In our previous episode, we met Grandaddy front-man Jason Lytle, and were introduced to the world of ARTHUR KING - a collective of musicians and film-makers associated with the Dangerbird Records label, in Los Angeles. The ferry from Mallaig had just arrived on the Isle of Eigg, and the ARTHUR KING gang were about to disembark, and begin their week long stay as part of our VISITATIONS artist residency project.

Donning all-white laboratory overalls and red-beanie hats, the team immediately set about extracting samples of their surroundings with recording devices, creating an hypnotic collage of wildlife, nature, weather and local gossip. This provided the sonic landscape, over which the members improvised - culminating in a performance in the living room of one of the island’s residents, and a trippy late-night slot at the Ceilidh Hall as part of our Howlin’ Fling! festival.

In this second episode of the podcast, we chat to Jason Lytle, Aaron Espinoza and Peter Walker about life on Eigg, their recording process and the creation of the music for the project, as well as the experience of performing at Howlin’ Fling!. It also features an exclusive recording of Jason performing a classic Grandaddy song on piano, live at the festival.

If you’d like to support this podcast, and listen to the music that has been created by ARTHUR KING, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Go to www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.

This series of VISITATIONS was conducted in St Franny’s Bothan. If you’d like to check out the space, and maybe book a trip to the island yourself, check out www.stfrannys.com.

To check out the other projects of ARTHUR KING, go to www.whoisarthurking.com. You can see what Jason Lytle is up to, over at http://jasonlytle.com/.

Lost Map Podcast is written, produced and presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 01: VISITATIONS - Jason Lytle and Arthur King Pt.1

March 29, 2020 Pictish Trail

Our second series of Lost Map’s artist residency project, VISITATIONS, gets underway with a release from ARTHUR KING - a collective of musicians and artists associated with the Dangerbird Records label, in Los Angeles.

Their journey was sparked by an online conversation between Jason Lytle (front-man with alt-rock pioneers, Grandaddy) and Pictish Trail, in early-2019; having seen photos of our first series of VISITATIONS, Jason was keen to embrace the opportunity to explore the Isle of Eigg, and collaborate with his musical cohorts, Aaron Espinoza and Peter Walker of Dangerbird. All of this was to be captured on camera, manipulated, and projected back onto the island itself by fellow Arthur King companions, John Schlue and Aaron Farley.

In this first episode of the podcast, we chat to Jason about his life in music, and his journey to Eigg … and we hear from Aaron Espinoza and Peter Walker about the Arthur King project itself.

If you’d like to support this podcast, and listen to the music that has been created for this project, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Go to www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.

Lost Map Podcast is written, produced and presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S2 Teaser: Introduction to VISITATIONS Series 2

March 22, 2020 Pictish Trail

Daft-pop impresario Pictish Trail (aka Johnny Lynch) runs Lost Map Records from the remote Scottish isle of Eigg. In 2018, he conducted an artist residency programme on the island, inviting three different music acts over to write and record new material during the course of a week’s stay. The music they made was pressed on to vinyl, and available as part of a subscription set from the Lost Map website. The project was called VISITATIONS, and it returns in 2020 for a second season.

There are three new acts taking part this year - the otherworldly L.A. collective ARTHUR KING (featuring alt-rock hero, Jason Lytle, of Grandaddy), the ecstatic post-punk of Glasgow’s RACHEL AGGS (of Sacred Paws, Shopping and Trash Kit), and the hypnotic sway of Winchester’s finest ROZI PLAIN. For this second podcast series, Pictish Trail will be interviewing the various musicians involved, asking them about their lives in music, and their experience on the island.

Lost Map Podcast is written, produced and presented by Pictish Trail. Additional production and editing by Joe Cormack.

S1 07: XMAS SPESH - Malcolm Middleton

December 25, 2018 Pictish Trail

Pictish Trail has some daft chat with his ol’ pal and tour buddy, MALCOLM MIDDLETON - a conversation recorded in front of a live audience at Summerhall in Edinburgh, on Saturday 15th December 2018, as part of Lost Map’s annual festive all-dayer, Kid Canaveral’s Xmas Baubles.

Originally hailing from Falkirk, Malcolm Middleton has created an immense back-catalogue of sonic introspection and lyrical self-deprecation since the mid-90’s. With 7 albums under his own name, a few other albums and EPs under the moniker Human Don’t Be Angry, as well as 6 studio albums and various compilations as one half of Arab Strap, not to mention a collaborative album with David Shrigley, MM is one of Scotland’s most prolific and inventive singer-songwriters. His latest album, Bananas, was released recently to much acclaim, and finds Malky wallowing in suitably reliable form. He performs the song ‘Man Up Man Down’ from that album, at the end of our chat, as well as one of his up-beat Xmas numbers. Check him out, over here: malcolmmiddleton.com

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack. Additional production support from Richie Morgan.

S1 06: VISITATIONS - Slow Tree

November 18, 2018 Pictish Trail

This conversation was recorded on Thursday November 1st, 2018, via Skype - with Abi & Neil chatting from their home on the Isle of Skye, and Pictish Trail on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland.

Abi & Neil had visited Eigg the previous year, in November of 2017, spending a week recording in Sweeney’s Bothy. The resulting songs capture the drawing light and darkened heavens of the late autumn mists under which they were recorded. Across four tracks of cinematic dream-folk, Slow Tree manipulate the natural reverb of the island’s caves, allowing hushed vocals, ethereal piano and sweeping viola to glide alongside the strains of swirling birds in song.

If you’d like to hear the music Slow Tree created in full, or simply support our podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.

Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack.