Cold Specks: “Elephant Head”
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When singer and songwriter Al Spx was trying to think of a name for her new musical project, she remembered a line from James Joyce’s Ulysses from her English studies at the University of Toronto. “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,” reads the line. She named her project Cold Specks.
Spx first entered into the public’s musical consciousness not in her native Canada, but in Britain. One of her demos found its way across the Atlantic to producer and record engineer Jim Anderson who persuaded her to come over. A dynamite performance on BBC2′s “Later…With Jools Holland” brought Spx to the attention of the masses in the UK.
Late last month, Spx released her debut full-length I Predict A Graceful Expulsion. The music on Expulsion is suffused with sadness and honesty. Her lyrics touch on themes of death, love and loss of faith. But like the specks of fire shining in the darkness, her soaring voice adds just that crumb of hope that everything will work out in the end. Spx showcased her talent live in KUT’s Studio 1A recently. She performed three songs off of Expulsion, including today’s song of the day “Elephant Head.”
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