Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Doved
One Dove's debut (and only) album, the majestic Morning Dove White, was delayed in being released for a year due to wranglings between the band (who favoured Andrew Weatherall's dubby, post-Screamadelica mixes of their songs) and the record label London Records (who wanted Stephen Hague's poppier mixes that might get played on daytime radio). A compromise of sorts was eventually reached. But at least Morning Dove White came out and is still adored by most of those people that heard it back then. Their second album never made it. The band's Soundcloud page has some songs that were earmarked for it. This one, Kill Time, has all the familiar elements- Dot's breathy vocals and that dubby, delay drenched space.
There are a few others on the Soundcloud page- their trippy cover of Simon Dupree's Kites, Waltzbaby, the spectral and sparse Sister and this beautiful underwatery song called Drowning.
These songs are how they were when the band split, not necessarily final versions. Listening to them, it's difficult to see why they were rejected by London Records other than MDW hadn't sold and they thought this was more of the same. There are other bits and pieces floating around the internet- it's probably too much to expect someone to put everything together in one place and release it properly but we can hope. Stranger, less obvious things have been released. Fansite onedove.net has a few mp3s of tracks recorded for radio shows. It hasn't been updated since 2012 but all bar one of the mp3s are still working.
This appeared on Youtube earlier this year with a user made Blue Velvet video. What Can You Do To Me Now sounds more trip hop, a little indebted to Massive Attack, but fairly sumptuous all the same. However band member Ian Carmichael has said this one was not intended for the second album but was written after that and presented to the record company just before Dot left the band. It was, he says, the last song they all worked on together although he doesn't recognise the mix posted.
I'm glad they went for a compromise on MWD as I love the combo of trippy and the pop, I think it let the album stand out from a lot of artist's albums at that time. Pop is not a four letter word!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine it any other way all these years later.
ReplyDeleteThey were surprisingly good live I thought.
ReplyDeleteDrew
Never saw them live.
ReplyDelete