Dot Allison Taps The Anchoress for Remix of Never-Before-Heard Song 'Murder By Heartbreak'

After the haunting folk stylings of her critically acclaimed 2021 album Heart-Shaped Scars, it seemed the perfect time for Scottish artist Dot Allison to revisit nearly three decades of making a diverse array of music - kicking off with the release of the late Lee "Scratch" Perry's remix of "Love Died in Our Arms" in February. The first single from her upcoming Entangled Remix EP, It was Perry's last work and recalled the dub/reggae inclinations of Dot's first band One Dove.

Today she continues to premiere singles from the EP, with the never-before-heard "Murder By Heartbreak", remixed by The Anchoress. The musical persona of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Catherine Anne Davies, she brings a vast array of musical experience to her reimagining of the song, having collaborated in the past with such renowned artists such as Simple Minds and Manic Street Preachers.

Why this track will blow your mind:

"It was a thrill to have been invited by Dot to remix 'Murder By Heartbreak' for her EP." Says Davies, "I've been a long time admirer of her work and jumped at the opportunity to transport her stunning song into the wonky world of The Anchoress, bathing the track in my collection of vintage synthesizers. My approach to the remix was very much focused around foregrounding Dot's beautiful glacial vocal and her experimental use of the voice as instrument. Her use of breath and foreboding backing vocals to create suspense and tension in the track made it a joy to sculpt a sonic journey for the listener as the sinister narrative unravels."

"Murder By Heartbreak," with its lush atmosphere and abundance of steadily-building synths around ethereal vocals, is a testament to the greatest strengths of both Dot and Catherine. The Anchoress has been hailed for her singular, multi-instrumentalist ability to create a sound that is at one moment thrilling and the next moment somber and poignant, and rarely has it sounded so strikingly matched as it does Dot Allison's hauntingly beautiful singing and songwriting.

On getting the opportunity to work with The Anchoress, Dot says, "I think Catherine, 'The Anchoress' is absolutely brilliant, I love her music which to me, has a beautiful sonic deep elegance and I also feel a kinship with the women, who as singer-songwriter-programmer-producers, have had to navigate a historically male-dominated industry."

Notably, the Entangled Remix EP features collaborations that thread through Dot's long and rich musical history. To wit, Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe, who collaborated with her in the past for the soundtrack to the TV series "Annika'' here reimagines Dot's song "Cue The Tears"; Saint Etienne, who remix the track "One Love," have an affinity with her that goes back to their mutual ties to Heavenly and legendary producer Andrew Weatherall during the early '90s heyday of the UK indie dance scene; and Scottish songsmith Lomond Campbell - a BAFTA-winning songwriter and shortlister for the Scottish Album of the Year Award - is also signed to Heavenly, and here weds his ambitious creative spirit with Dot's poignant lyricism on his remix of "Ghost Orchid."

The full combination of sounds that makes up the Entangled Remix EP is a true love letter to fans of Dot Allison, harkening back to the danceable electronica sound of her days in One Dove and breathing newfound energy into some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking songwriting of her career from Heart-Shaped Scars. In fact, that's exactly what helped inspire Dot in choosing the name. "I titled this 'Entangled Remix EP' to tie with "Heart-Shaped Scars" but also in a way the slightly disparate influences on the EP spanning decades from when I was first influenced by dub music & did a remix for St. Etienne to Anton in Berlin & the Anchoress now."

Listen to the new remix here:

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