Electronic beatsmith Lomond Campbell, however, has seen the potential to make this album “deeper, darker and dancier”, departing from the pastoral outdoors to take the music underground to a club. The pair were introduced by Hannah Peel, after which Campbell remixed Ghost Orchid, from her previous album Heart-Shaped Scars. So impressed was Allison that she asked him to remix the whole of Consciousology.
What’s the music like?
Campbell is notable for his consistently inventive approach to beat making and colour shading, and that is certainly the case here.
He has a refreshing originality that complements Allison’s thoughts and lyrics, too. Double Rainbow shifts restlessly, with added colour from arpeggiated synths. Allison’s haunting voice suits Campbell’s inventive beatmaking on Bleached By The Sun, which harks memories of Kavinsky’s Night Call – in a good way. Meanwhile Mother Tree breaks out into a psychedelic, dubby groove Andrew Weatherall would be proud of.
Weeping Roses is the real eyeopener, as it unexpectedly opens up into a big room floor filler, with what Allison notes is the “light and dark clash of worlds and sounds that Lomond has created from the roots and stems of the original.”
Comparisons are inevitably drawn with Allison’s work as part of One Dove, and in a good way – for electronic music feels not only like Dot Allison’s home turf, but an essential part of her musical make-up that drives a great deal of creativity.
Does it all work?
Yes – and it there is something refreshingly rugged about the end result, putting Dot Allison’s voice through a very different emotional wringer.
Is it recommended?
It is – but should be heard right next to the original, to appreciate Lomond Campbell’s creativity and Dot Allison’s emotional connections. Both forces are extremely well matched here.
Listen / Buy
Published post no.2,639 – Wednesday 26 August 2025
Dot Allison releases a new album, Subconsciousology, via Sonic Cathedral on 25 July. It’s a full reworking of 2023’s Consciousology, by electronic producer and machine-maker Lomond Campbell, who, as the title suggests, has made it deeper, darker and dancier.
The first single,Weeping Roses, has been twisted from its original incarnation as a Tim Hardin-style folk lament into the most unlikely acid house banger.
“It began on a guitar with the two verse chords and grew from there,” says Dot of the song’s germination. “I wanted it to have a deep heartbreak and rawness, and now I love the surreal and beautiful, light and dark clash of worlds and sounds that Lomond has created from the roots and stems of the original.”
“It was the last one I remixed, possibly because it was the only track I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with,” explains Lomond. “At the risk of sounding obvious, I decided the best thing was to work on it somewhat subconsciously. I like that some of the bonny twists and turns of the original song haven’t been entirely corroded away by acid.”
Watch the stunning visualiser by Studio Sparks – using the artwork of Maria Mochnacz and Marc Jones – below:
While the original Consciousology was all ornate avant-garde folk and psychedelic explorations, this new take is as hard-hitting as it is heavenly, as beat-driven as it is beautiful.
Crucially, it finds Dot re-embracing the electronic music with which she first made her name in One Dove.
“I think electronic music will always be a key part of my music-making DNA,” she explains. “I see all instruments as possibilities with which to voice ideas, so I’d never want to cloister myself in a genre or feel I couldn’t return to any genre. Whether the sound source is from vibrations or a voltage, I don’t really see any limitations or rules.”
It was this open-minded approach that led to Dot and Lomond working together in the first place. After being introduced to his music by Hannah Peel, Dot asked him to remix Ghost Orchid, a track from her previous album, Heart-Shaped Scars. In the meantime, he’d already been listening to the album and had noticed the similarities between it and some of his own music.
There was an element of synchronicity, which extended to them both having mutual friends where they hang out in the Highlands and islands in the west of Scotland. The remix was also so good that it inspired Dot to ask Lomond to rework a whole album.
“I knew Dot would be encouraging of experimentation as I strayed pretty far off the mark with the remix of Ghost Orchid and she loved it, so I felt I could be playful,” explains Lomond. “However, I’ve never remixed an entire album before and was keen to make it work as a standalone piece with a vibe of its own. Dot’s vocals are so impressive that I felt anything could work around them, even atomising the recordings into abstract micro samples. It also amazes me how much grime, distortion and dense sound you can throw at Dot’s voice, yet it remains so bright and salient. I loved all of Hannah Peel’s string arrangements, too, so I made heavy use of them.”
“I love that he has brought a rich musicality and has created wild universes around the elements he has chosen to retain in the various songs,” adds Dot. “It reminds me of working with Andrew Weatherall in a way, where the mixes were bold and reinventive departures.
“I wanted an album through the looking glass, in a way. In my mind, it was going to be a mirror version of Consciousology. The whole concept of the original record is about interconnectivity and the electromagnetic aspects to consciousness, so the remixed version should be like a diffracted version of the original, like a rainbow diffracted from a beam of light!”
The end result is the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow – everything sounds and feels at once familiar but different – from the chugging electro of Unchanged and Bleached By The Sun, to the almost absurd, Aphex Twin-like shock of 220Hz.
“It’s landed exactly where I hoped it would,” says Lomond. “I like that each track has its own identity yet there’s a clear thread running through it all. Dot has a real knack for creating striking melodies that hit quickly and stay with you. I tried to build different chord structures around these vocal lines, re-harmonising to take it to darker places.”
The good news is that they are planning on working together again in the future, and have already collaborated on Lomond’s new album.
“I think it would be remiss of us not to build on everything that we’ve done so far,” concludes Lomond. “Stay tuned!”
Lomond Campbell continues to write thoughtful, affecting music – certainly if his new EP Interference Patterns is anything to go by. It is a collection of alternative tracks and remixes taken from his 2022 album Under This Hunger Moon We Fell, and will be released on 28 July through One Little Independent Records.
The first track, Draw Breath, is now available with a video of natural beauty. “It was written and recorded around October or November, just before the north of Scotland plunges into deep, winter darkness”, says Campbell. “The drone footage used in the video was shot in an area called Strongchreggan Glen, where I often take portable equipment to write music”.
You can enjoy Campbell’s deeply meditative music and visuals here:
The third instalment of Lomond Campbell’s experiments with music based on tape loops is a primal affair. While he was nearing completion of the album there was a dramatic Supermoon phenomenon known as a Hunger Moon, which occurs at the end of winter when predators are at their most desperate.
For his source material Campbell took 140 tape loops, stacked up on top of each other, and gradually whittled them down until, as the press release says, ‘the bare bones of something musical started to show itself’ on each track. The three-part project of music based on tape loops has its origins in a request from King Creosote, who was looking for a custom tape looping machine. Campbell obliged – but in the process created a musical instrument he wanted to get to know.
What’s the music like?
Moody and rather magnificent.
The title and recording process explain the album’s extremes of emotions, from intense and sudden soul searching to unexpected tenderness – but make no mistake, this is not a record that drifts complacently through the middle.
There is often an exploratory feel to this music, from the way a lone synthesizer line winds its way up through the misty textures of Bastard Wing, and the way the violin dominates Phonon For No One, with a busy drum track rather like the steady thrum of horses’ hooves underneath. Yet there is stillness too, best heard through the tolling piano that begins Leave Only Love Behind, an atmospheric tale.
We hear Lomond Campbell the vocalist for the first time, on For The Uncarved – a striking set of timbres providing the backing for his heavily manipulated but distinctive voice, which is eventually swamped by a rush of white noise.
Often the elements are close at hand, such as on the wide open and windswept track The Mountain And The Pendulum, a panorama with vivid outlines and a sweeping backdrop. It is another demonstration of how good Campbell is at setting the scene and allowing the climate to take over.
Does it all work?
Yes. Though often darkly tinged, this is a compelling piece of work – and compressed, too, the seven tracks weighing in at little more than .dfgd
Is it recommended?
Very much so. It will have you – as it did me – working back through Lomond Campbell’s impressive discography to check if there is anything that hasn’t been missed. Highly recommended, both as a trilogy and as this single, searching element.
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