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From fronting the post-club band One Dove and numerous collaborative projects to her name, including two Massive Attack world tours and Pete Doherty's 'Bilo Albion' tour, as well as lending her voice to Death In Vegas's immortal 'Dirge', Dot's third solo album 'Exaltation Of Larks' sidesteps the trip-electronic-pop and clubby background and pitches itself as a 'pre-psychedelic' album lounging in 'Pet Sounds' and 'Dusty In Memphis' influences, scoring opiated acoustic songs that bring to mind Mazzy Star and The Cowboy Junkies, with Dot's breathy vocals reminding of fellow Scot Liz Fraser.
'We Are Science' had Dot explore vocal sonics by using her voice purely as an instrument devoid of traditional song-structure, 'Exhalation Of Larks', however, returns to the singer-songwriter expressions with tender soul-infused songs of love and longing burnished with a non-interventional production by Kramer. Ambiance is set on the bitter-sweet opener 'Allelujah' with an acoustic strum and Dot singing "...I haven't got the time to waste on you...", with the glittering shoals in the sea of 'Thief Of Me' and 'In Deep Water' taking in a Celtic maritime-drenched swirl of fiddle and violin set to a Siren's voice with Liz Fraser-style etheric nuance.
The romantic and dreamy 'Sunset' is coupled with 'You Dropped Your Soul' finding the meadowlark voice turn a song of someone who's lost their soul, "...and the saddest thing of all this/ you don't know that it's gone...". Nocturnal spookiness is evoked on 'Tall Flowers' with its' echoes, and lightness found with the chorus "...the petals lost up in the clouds...", and 'Quicksand' has a traditional folk delivery singing "...you are what you love/ not what love's you..." to organ shadings, and Dot delivers a cautionary message on the beatific 'Shivering' - "...you built a gilded cage/ but you lost all your wealth/ when you made a weapon of success...". Pet Sounds meets The Kinks by way of Panda Bear on the surprise candy-coloured pop closer 'The Latitude And Longitude Of Mystery' releasing from the opiated dream-feel that has come before.
Like some rare mountain breeze, 'Exaltation Of Larks' wafts and waves in its lightness of touch, with Dot's voice full of ethereal wonder and sonics full of mystery and suspense. The magic here lies in the husky-hued voice that captures the gossamer-webbed melodies, breathing wide-open spaces of vivid watercolours with a richness and romanticism not seen since The Cocteau Twins.
