If you know Dot Allison's past, you know her as for dance floor friendly tracks. Just a brief walk through her history, she headed up the band One Dove in the early nineties and became known for igniting the whole acid/pop/electro whatever scene. She went solo and pushed that sound through a few phases which leads us today when she dropped Room 7 1/2 on my lap. Dance beats turn into whispers of poetry and soft strums of a guitar. Sweaty ravers are just memories and old conversations. The record sounds like the weekend she stayed in, woke up early, wrote songs and didn't look back. I love artists who have eras in their body of work. Dot is definitely entering a new one with Room 7 1/2 and I'm totally digging it.

The album is up on itunes (both U.K. and U.S.) today and if you're in London head to Rough Trade Records on Brick Lane tonight for a little record release party. Things kick off about 7.

There are a few shower MP3 players out there, but they’re all so ugly. They look like the junk electronics that you’d find next to the nose hair clippers in the department store’s “Gifts for Him” section. TokyoFlash just released the Juke Tower Waterproof MP3 Player, and it would look at home in the trendiest shower. The player is about the same size of as a bottle of shampoo, so there shouldn’t be any trouble finding a place to put it. It has a port under the main body where you plug-in a USB flash drive filled with music, podcasts … whale calls. There’s also an LED clock on the body to help remind you of how late you are.

A while ago you saw the totally immersible SwiMP3 here, and as a still-avid swimmer, I’m always on the lookout for improved tools I can use while in the water to help my workout. uCan is a new waterproof MP3 product that has a smoother, more elegant profile than the SwiMP3. Instead of using bone-conducting technology to deliver tunes, these rely on traditional in-ear earphones and comfortably rests on the back of your neck. It also packs in 1 Gb of memory and floats, two big things the SwiMP3 needs to improve to compete in the underwater music market. uCan begins shipping in July from Europe.