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Cold Specks signs to Mute
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 16 February 2012
Canadian singer-songwriter Cold Specks, real name Al Spx, has signed to Mute. The company will release her debut album ‘I Predict A Graceful Expulsion’ on 21 May, preceded by single ‘Blank Maps’ a week earlier. The album deal follows Spx’s move to London to work with producer and now manager Jim Anderson.
Says Anderson of discovering Spx: “My little brother, who was spending his summers with our mother in Toronto, had always told me of this girl he was friends with that had this amazing voice. As a producer I’d heard that so often that I didn’t take too much notice. Then I came in one night to find him and a few friends drinking in the flat and playing a CD of her demos. I was completely transfixed and just kept pressing repeat. I knew I had to work with her. I eventually persuaded her to come over. At that point she had never played with another musician and was completely self-taught with her own unique tuning and timings, which we had to decipher”.
Spx herself adds: “Jim convinced me to fly out and work on the record for a few months. That was a year and a half ago. I guess I’m permanently based here now. I didn’t know anyone when I moved here. We needed musicians and Jim knew a bunch. Rob Ellis [PJ Harvey’s regular collaborator] has been helping out with some arrangements and percussion, and Jim’s old friends Pete Roberts [guitar], Thomas Greene [piano] and Tom Havelock [cello] also play on the record”.
If you’re curious and can’t wait until May, Cold Specks will undertake a UK tour later this month, dates as follows, and for the very impatient, a video of previous single release ‘Holland’ is below.
23 Feb: King Tut’s, Glasgow
24 Feb: Leaf, Liverpool
25 Feb: Deaf Institute, Manchester
27 Feb: Jericho Tavern, Oxford
28 Feb: Bush Hall, London
29 Feb: Louisiana, Bristol
