Cold Specks is the moniker of the young female Canadian singer Al Spx, despite having an incredibly unique and soulful voice that has been compared to Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpeshe she didn’t get the hype in Toronto that she’s now getting in the UK. It wasn’t until she moved to London about a year and a half ago to record her debut album I Predict A Graceful Expulsion that she became noticed in a much bigger way and landed an appearance on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ late last year(see below).
After hearing her sing it’s not that surprising that she credits the likes of Tom Waits and Bill Callahan for her ‘doom soul’ or early Alan Lomax recordings for her southern gospel influences.
Her moniker is inspired from a passage in Ulysses by James Joyce:
Born all in the dark wormy earth, cold specks of fire, evil lights shining in the darkness. Where fallen archangels flung the stars of their brows. Muddy swinesnouts, hands, root and root, gripe and wrest them.
Her debut album is released through Mute on 21st May and her single entitled ‘Blank Maps’ will precede the album on 14th May which you can listen to below:
Lay Me Down
Old Stepstone
Other Voices Session: Heavy Hands
Gigs
Following a recent sold out show at London’s Bush Hall, Cold Specks has announced two appearances at Hoxton Hall, London on Tuesday 19th & Wednesday 20th June.