A purgative surrender to nature’s whim driven by a clattering machine drumbeat and rolled in a puddle of filthy dirty fuzz, ‘Natural Successor’ is the riotous new single from isle of Eigg based Scottish psychedelic electronic-pop ogre Johnny Lynch AKA Pictish Trail. Set for release on limited-edition 12” vinyl and digital platforms by Fire Records, with support from Johnny’s own label Lost Map Records, it’s the first taste of a set of brand-new Pictish recordings produced by long-term collaborater Rob Jones (The Voluntary Butler Scheme, The Gene Dudley Group). The 12” single is released on 22nd October 2021, and features exclusive remixes by Django Django and Makeness. It is available to pre-order online from Lost Map, and Fire Records, before being made available in select independent record shops.

Pictish Trail’s previous album Thumb World (8/10 – Uncut, ★★★★ – MOJO) came out in February 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was about to take hold. A year of touring in support of the record was subsequently cancelled; Johnny was locked down on Eigg (population approx. 100) and thrown into a spell of writer’s block and creative lethargy. “When everything stopped,” he says, “so too did my capacity to think clearly.” Shaken awake by the bells of 2021, Johnny booked some studio time and, to prepare, locked himself away for a week in St Franny’s Bothan, a small cabin on Eigg, with only a bass guitar, fuzz pedals, a drum machine and a sampler for company (and some tea). 

“Going into the bothy, the intention had been to write about connecting with my surroundings, feeling ‘at one’ with the island,” says Johnny. “With ‘Natural Successor’, I quickly discovered it was more about the desire to surrender to nature’s whim. Letting nature take charge. I was imagining all the different natural disasters joining forces, and wreaking havoc on mankind.

“I’d been reading about earthquakes caused by fracking, man’s responsibility for global warming, oil fires, etc. All these Manufactured Disasters. Then, throughout the pandemic, seeing all the horrible stuff that we do to one another, the fault lines we’ve created in society that separate us. Whether it’s a pandemic, or the destructive effects of climate change, there are definitely some days where I think we deserve the revenge the planet is taking upon us.

“Not quite sure that ‘Natural Successor’ eloquently captures all this, mind you... but it was a cathartic experience playing a big dumb riff over and over again. Would recommend.”