Wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

This incredible record was released 30 years ago, on the 13th September 1993… 

I have no idea if the members of One Dove were fans of Arthur Russell, but I’m sure they would have felt some affinity with much of his work, particularly his experiments with dub and echo. I’m pretty sure Andrew Weatherall must have too. This LP is a complete bloody masterpiece from start to finish. Weatherall was rightly lauded for his work producing Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, but for me this knocks spots off that album. As a complete producer’s vision for a band and an album this is pretty flawless.

Originally called Dove, Dot Allison, Ian Carmichael, and Jim McKinven (formerly of Altered Images and Berlin Blondes), released their debut record, Fallen, as a limited white label on Glasgow’s Soma in 1991. This was the summer when the UK`s Balearic network, rather than repeating the fun, japes and hijinks of the now legendary Ibiza 90 event – forever immortalised in the wonderful documentary film ‘A Short Film About Chilling’ – decided to instead take their holidays in Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. It was here, on a now almost as legendary Flying Records boat party that Dot met Andrew Weatherall – apparently singing in his ear! Andrew was enamoured by the vast, dub infused sound of Fallen, and a plan was hatched to work together.

The first part of the project required Weatherall to remix Fallen for release on the label he`d co-founded, Boys Own Productions. The results were nothing short of magical, with the already wonderful song transported to new heights by Andrew’s input, cementing its place as an instant anthem on the Balearic scene, and guaranteeing the song`s now classic status. 

There were just a couple of small snags though. The band had been forced into a name change, as the group formerly known as Thrashing Doves were now going by the name Doves, so the Scottish trio became One Dove. Then there was the small matter of the harmonica riff in Fallen. Unfortunately, this had been sampled from a Supertramp song, called School, and no one had thought to clear it. This resulted in the single being withdrawn after only a week of sales.

Unperturbed by their rotten run of luck, they pushed forward with recording an album. In an arrangement which foretold the future of recording music, the trio wrote and recorded in Glasgow, and then sent their stuff to Andrew in London. This is common working practice for musicians and producers today, but in 1991/92 was pretty revelatory. In the capital, Weatherall would develop the songs, often calling upon the assistance of other musicians, such as Jah Wobble and Primal Scream‘s Andrew Innes, to add extra instrumentation, atmosphere, and expand on his ideas. The album came together almost effortlessly, with every song the band sent down being tweaked, twisted, sprinkled with magic fairy dust, and included on the final LP, Morning Dove White. 

The finished results were miraculous. The album sounds like Cocteau Twins, accompanied by The Compass Point Allstars, then given the dub remix treatment by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. It has a glorious, huge, cavernous sound, propelled along by fat, rubbery bass-lines and throbbing beats, while over the top flow Dot Allison’s beautiful, breathy, ethereal vocals, carried on beautiful piano and synth melodies. Beautiful, strange pop music.

The band`s five singles are all included, kicking off with Fallen, and closing with the incredible sequence of Transient Truth, Why Don’t You Take Me and White Love (Piano Reprise), but this is much more than a collection of singles. It really flows beautifully as an album and listening to it now, I can’t understand why this isn’t held in greater esteem, and why it wasn’t a huge hit.

Weatherall said, “It’s easy to blame the record label, so let’s do just that.” Boys Own were now owned by London Records, and rather than release this incredible album, they sat on it for over a year. Disheartened by the lack of success of the second single Transient Truth, despite huge critical acclaim and healthy club support, London began interfering with the band’s releases. They insisted on having some ‘more commercial’ sounding remixes done, and brought in Stephen Hague in the hope of securing chart placings. At One Dove’s request, they also brought in William Orbit. Both turned in some beautiful mixes, with Orbit’s reflecting the sound that he was perfecting on his own Water From A Vine Leaf and Strange Cargo III, but One Dove still barely troubled the top 40. Subsequently, sadly, the band’s next album was never released. Working without Andrew Weatherall, and with the continued pressure from London Records, the project was shelved, never seeing the light of day. The band split in 1996.

Morning Dove White is in desperate need of a deluxe reissue, pulling together all the incredible remixes and B-sides, and making it available to a new generation of music lovers, who might just appreciate such a soothing, healing record in these troubling times.

*Thanks to Jo Muggs excellent piece on this album, written for Mojo Magazine, for the Andrew Weatherall quote, and great background information.

According to legend there were promo cassette copies of Weatherall’s original mixes of Morning Dove White circulated to the press – Kris Needs raved about it in Black Echoes, and perhaps Jack Baron in the NME (my memory fails me). Despite constant calls from my fellow obsessives in the Flightpath Estate Facebook group, one has yet to turn up. Can anyone help? Do any of these tapes still exist? – Rob

For more from Balearic Mike you can find him on both Facebook and Instagram – @balearicmike. 

Mike has a Mixcloud page packed with magnificent, magical, music, and you can catch him live on 1BTN, from 12 noon until 2 (UK time) every 1st and 3rd Friday.

You can also check out the super silk screen prints of “Balearic Wife” over at @jo_lambert_print