One Dove - Moon Angel (1994)

One Dove were a Scottish electronic music group active in the early 1990s, consisting of Dot Allison, Ian Carmichael and Jim McKinven, and were originally called Dove, releasing their debut single 'Fallen' on the Glasgow-based label Soma in October 1991. It was a significant club hit and brought them a deal with the Junior Boy's Own label, where they changed their name to avoid confusion with a similarly named group, and in 1992 JBO issued a new recording of 'Fallen', produced by Andrew Weatherall, which brought the group to greater attention from the British music press. The single was withdrawn one week after release however, due to an unlicensed sampling of a harmonica from a Supertramp song, but undeterred they released a second single 'Transient Truth', which garnered further critical acclaim from the press. At this stage One Dove were still primarily a club-oriented group, but for the single 'White Love', an attempt was made to make their music more radio-friendly by including a commercial remix by Stephen Hague. With this increasingly commercial sound, the band became a favourite with publications such as Select and Q, and were often favourably compared with Saint Etienne, another female-fronted group who were having success with pop-dance crossover recordings. In 1993 the band released their only album, 'Morning Dove White', which included the Weatherall version of 'Fallen' (minus the Supertramp sample) together with 12" mixes of 'Transient Truth' and 'White Love'. The album was originally set for release in 1992, but was delayed for a full year through disputes between the band and their new record company London Records, who had taken over the Boy's Own label, as the band were unhappy about the commercialisation of their sound. The disputes were eventually resolved when the band agreed to release singles mixed by Stephen Hague, as long as they could work with him in the studio during the remix sessions. The album was preceded by the single 'Breakdown', with remixes by Stephen Hague, William Orbit and Secret Knowledge, while one more track from the album, 'Why Don't You Take Me', was subsequently released as a single for the Christmas market. For the b-sides of the 'Why Don't You Take Me' single the group expanded to a five-piece with the addition of Ed Higgins on percussion and Colin McIlroy on guitar, and showcased a more heavily dub-influenced sound. This line-up later went into the studio to begin work on a second album, but frustrated by record industry politics they split up midway through the sessions, leaving the album unreleased. Dot Allison went on to release a series of acclaimed solo albums including 'Afterglow' and 'We Are Science', as well as working with Death In Vegas and Massive Attack. The band must have been very busy in the studio before their break-up, as two versions of the unreleased second album have surfaced over the years, both with completely different track listings, and while the 14 track version is now impossible to find, I've managed to locate the 10 track one (nine of which are used here, as there were two similar versions of 'Untouched', whereas the two takes of 'Stay' are very different), which was titled 'Moon Angel'. I've added new artwork, and so here's some more music from this very under-rated band, who could have been as big as Portishead if they'd just been given a chance.  

Track listing

01 Bubble Funk
02 Untouched 
03 Stay 
04 Perfect World
05 Fight Or Flight
06 What Can You Do To Me Now?

07 Stay (Acoustic)
08 I Hate The Sun
09 Sister