Description

Bold, weird, wild, wired, sonically luxurious yet never losing touch with its DIY-'til-I-die roots, Thumb World is a voyage to the outer rings of Pictish Trail's mind at its darkest, funniest and most inventive - a plugged-in, fuzzed-out, fucked-up contemplation on, as he puts it, 'life repeating and gradually degrading, the inevitable cyclical nature of things, and the sense of their ultimately being no escape'.

Expect alien abductions, thumping beats, Trump-haired pigs, paternal panic, astronaut sex, bad acid trips, worse hangovers, lashings of distortion and a lot of anthropomorphic thumbs. 'Our opposable thumbs are the things that separate us from most other animals on Earth,' Pictish explains, of the fat digit symbolism, 'they are also the things that we use to swipe on screens, to separate ourselves from our normal lives, but which in turn trap us within an artificial reality.'

Produced and mixed by Rob Jones, featuring string arrangements from Kim Moore and drumming from Alex Thomas (Squarepusher, Anna Calvi, Air), Thumb World is Pictish Trail's most collaborative album to date.

An audio-visual dialogue with Swatpaz, AKA Scottish artist Davey Ferguson - the man behind the Turbo Fantasy series and an entire episode of cult TV phenomenon Adventure Time - furnished Johnny with not just a graphic aesthetic for the album, but even helped him to shape the sound of the finished record. 'I sent Davey a work-inprogress mix of the album,' Johnny says, 'he came back with sketches in which he had reimagined Thumb World as an 80's arcade game. Some of the songs are centred around specific visual images, inspired by Davey's sketches.'

Due for release on Fire Records on 21 February 2020, four years in the making, Thumb World is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Scottish Album of the Year Award public vote winner Future Echoes.

'Mysterious, cinematic, pop melancholia' - the Guardian

Description

Located on Oldham Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Gullivers is an iconic, lively and bustling bar with a long history dating all the way back to 1865.
Gullivers has had many different guises over the years. It was originally a Wilson’s house called The Albert Hotel, then The Grenadier before J.W. Lees brewery bought the pub in the 1970s. They renamed it Gullivers and it has existed in its current form to this day.
But there’s much more to Gullivers than just the busy bar; it also houses two distinct yet complementary live music and performance spaces; the upstairs Ballroom – a 100 capacity gig venue with a raised stage and the downstairs Lounge – an intimate, 40 capacity space ideal for acoustic or low-key performances.
As well as working with established and longstanding promoters from Manchester and beyond, Gullivers prides itself on being a welcoming, supportive space and a creative hub for the city’s grassroots artistic communities; with many now successful bands, artists, performers and promoters cutting their teeth within its walls.
This rare combination of space, location and ethos allows Gullivers to boast a busy calendar of live music, spoken word, comedy, theatre, film screenings, exhibitions and much more on almost every night of the week.

109 Oldham Street,

Manchester,

Greater Manchester,

England,

M4 1LW.

0161 839 4064