- Label: 'Abandoned Love Records'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: '2nd October 2026'
Our Rating:
Edinburgh-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Sophie Dodds used to be the charismatic front-woman of the outrageously underrated baroque pop band Storm the Palace.
Sadly, this project is no more but, by way of compensation, we can look forward to the burgeoning solo career of this self-proclaimed ”pop noir priestess” whose debut single is released under the stage name of Von Dodds.
Drummer Gordon Webster, who she has known since high school, is the only other musician featured on the track. Another old friend, Stephen Watkins is the producer.
In much the same way that the demos and Peel sessions of PJ Harvey show an artist thriving at her rawest and most visceral, Sophie seizes necessity as the mother of invention. The stripped back sound and unfussy arrangements play to her strengths.
The title is an invented word and a play on the term ‘Trypophobia’ which denotes a fear of small holes. The song muses on the impossibility of ever knowing how many holes there are in the universe to illustrate the redundancy of seeking to enumerate something innately immeasurable. Perfection is not a countable noun just as thoughts or heartbeats are not meant to be numerically quantified.
Dodds explains the reasoning :“I’ve decided that Trypophilacs are people who love to poke holes and find the flaw in everything..
The stylish video by Borders-based film artist Kris Boyle sets the tune to striking abstract imagery to emphasise that ambiguity and mystery are other essential ingredients of the song.
Sophie sees the tune “as the culmination of 20 years of writing and playing music” but the word ‘culmination’ implies a conclusion of something whereas this fine single surely marks an exciting new beginning. Call me a ‘trypophilac’ if you like, but I am counting the days to the next chapter!
