Everywhere Yet Nowhere

Why has it taken me so long to post a Dot Allison selection? This one's been drifting around my consciousness for over a year, since Dot's spectacular return with Heart-Shaped Scars, her first album in nearly a decade.

I've been a huge fan of all things Dot since she emerged with One Dove in the early 1990s and I've followed her solo career over seven albums and numerous collaborations with the likes of Slam, Death In Vegas, Scott Walker and Sunn O))).

 

2022 saw the release of The Entangled Remix EP, featuring reworks of five songs by Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Lomond Campbell, Anton Newcombe, Saint Etienne and The Anchoress aka Catherine Anne Davies. Both the EP and Heart-Shaped Scars are available on digital and physical formats from Bandcamp and you really need both in your life.

Joy of joy, Dot posted this week that she's midway through her new album, mixing starts this month with a planned release in 2023. Too much to hope that Dot will go out on tour as well? Fingers crossed.

As I'd planned to post this selection on a Sunday, it's a slightly more relaxed affair, heavier on the acoustics than the electronics, although the BPMs do occasionally ramp up. It's a mix of solo and collaborations, spanning an unreleased, unfinished song, Untouched, from One Dove's planned second album in 1994 through to a song she co-wrote with Mark Peters, released as a single in July this year. The full length version of

Switch On The Sky appears with another Dot Allison co-write on Mark's album Red Sunset Dreams, out last month and also highly recommended.

There are a couple of cover versions of Scott Walker and Neil Young (I wanted to included another, of Daniel Johnston, but ran out of space) and a couple of duets with Pete Doherty and Paul Weller.

The selection closes with a version of Message Personnel, from Dot's debut solo album, here remixed by those lovely Arab Strap boys, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton.

 

All in, just over an hour of beautiful music to make you fall in love with Dot Allison all over again.

1) Lullaby: Christian Henson ft. Dot Allison (2009)

2) Did I Imagine You? (Album Version): Dot Allison (1999)

3) Montague Terrace (In Blue) (Cover of Scott Walker): Dot Allison (2009)

4) Ghost Orchid (Album Version): Dot Allison (2021)

5) Sell Me Back My Soul (Album Version): King Of Woolworths ft. Dot Allison (2003)

6) Allelujah (Album Version By Dot Allison & Kramer): Dot Allison (2007)

7) You Give Me Everything: Dot Allison ft. Tony Scott (2012)

8) Untouched (Dot Of The Jungle Version): One Dove (1994)

9) Sheepskin Tearaway (Album Version): Peter Doherty ft. Dot Allison (2009)

10) Wishing Stone (Album Version By Dot Allison & Keith Tenniswood): Dot Allison (2002)

11) Love's Got Me Crazy: Dot Allison ft. Paul Weller (2009)

12) One Love (Saint Etienne Remix): Dot Allison (2022)

13) Switch On The Sky (Edit): Mark Peters ft. Dot Allison (2022)

14) I Believe In You (Cover of Neil Young): Dot Allison (2003)

15) Message Personnel (Arab Strap Remix Long Version): Dot Allison (1999)

 

1994: Moon Angel (unreleased): 8

1999: Afterglow: 2

1999: Colour Me EP: 15

2002: We Are Science: 10 

2003: Acoustic: 14

2003: L'Illustration Musicale: 5 

2007: Exaltation Of Larks: 6

2009: Grace/Wastelands: 9

2009: Room 7½: 3, 11

2009: Triangle OST: 1 

2012: Pioneers 01: 7

2021: Heart-Shaped Scars: 4

2022: The Entangled Remix EP: 12

2022: Switch On The Sky EP: 13

Everywhere Yet Nowhere (1:01:26) (Box) (Mega)