For Dot Allison, making her new album felt like coming home. Three years after the strung-out beauty of 1999's 'Afterglow' was lost in a sea of best-forgotten record company politics, she's returned with a new label (Mantra) and a new album dominated by the music that was always her first love.

"I think with 'Afterglow'," she explains, "what I wanted to do was make a pop record in the classic sense, and I got that out of my system, but I've also always listened to electronic music. I mean, I actually got into making music through a love of going to Black Market in 1988 - an early house club in Glasgow.

"I just remember being addicted to that music. I was a student at the time and I'd be going out four nights a week to hear all these records because I couldn't afford to buy them, so it's natural for me to make that kind of music. I think this new album is just a return to where my roots are and to where my heart is..."

Not that Allison has ever really turned her back on electronic music. It's been part of her life from the moment she released her first single (the brilliant 'Fallen') with the pioneering acid house group One Dove back in 1991 right through to the present day - recent collaborations have seen her working with Death In Vegas, legendary Scottish dance collective Slam and, late last year, Massive Attack. Setting up her own studio in East London (which she did in the wake of 'Afterglow') has just refocused her interest in it.

"Having my own studio's made a massive difference," she admits. "I always had a sampler and a mixing desk, but they used to be in my bedroom in my flat. The whole dynamic of my writing has changed since I started coming to the studio everyday. I've had a lot more time to experiment and that's been really important. And because I've ended up producing myself, I've made a record I'm a lot happier with."

The album entitled 'We Are Science’ is certainly a wonderful achievement. Dark, heavy and utterly contemporary, it's informed as much by the music currently emanating from the Detroit Ersatz Audio label (particularly artists like Drexciya and Adult) as it is by the more classic '80s "Factory sound" of Joy Division and New Order (check out Felix Da Housecat's mix of the album's first single 'Substance' for proof of that).

Allison also says she's been listening to things as diverse as Bela Bartok, The Fall and Psychic TV, which certainly explains the album's eclecticism. It jacknifes from the pulsing electro of 'I Think I Love You' or 'Make It Happen' through to the string-laden atmospherics of 'Performance'. There are also a couple of songs ('Strung Out' and the album closer 'Lover') recorded two years ago with producer Dave Fridmann and guitarist Grasshopper and drummer Jeff Ament from Mercury Rev.

"I went up to the Catskills for that," she recalls. "It was quite Blair Witch actually. Dave's studio is just this chalet in the middle of a forest, but it was great to work with him."

The final (and arguably most important) contribution to the album comes from Two Lone Swordsmen's Keith Tenniswood. He contributed his programming skills and is credited with a couple of co-productions.

"Keith's brilliant at mixing," enthuses Allison. "He makes everything really chunky and scary, he never plays any safe cards and that's what I wanted. He brings out the darkness and I've always liked records that are disconcerting."

That darkness is only too apparent from the moment you put the CD in the player. There's a real edge to this record. It might only be Allison's third in just over a decade, but it's worth the wait. By returning to her roots, she's succeeded in making a record totally of the moment. A record that feels like home.

written February 2002