Cold Specks - Winter Solstice

Soulful singer Cold Specks releases her debut album I Predict A Graceful Expulsion on May 21st with a new single Blank Maps to precede it on May 14th. However before that comes this brand new taster entitled Winter Solstice. A piano chimes, heavy drums thump, then horns and a male choir bring the whole thing to a near crescendo, but the earthy restraint in the vocals mean that the song never fully explodes, adding to its majestic Deep South weightiness. Al Specks, the singer of whom Cold Specks revolves round has named Sister Rosetta Tharpe as an influence and that becomes very clear as she sings this song.

If like Breaking More Waves you are based in the UK Cold Specks has confirmed two dates in London on June 19th and 20th at Hoxton Hall and slots at No Direction Home, Latitude and End Of The Road festivals so far. 

Cold Specks - Winter Solstice

Cold Specks - Holland (Video)

Cold Specks lit up many new music blogs last year with a masterly song called Holland, her rich weightily restrained soulful vocal providing one of those stop you in your tracks moments. We featured the track on Breaking More Waves although probably didn’t do Cold Specks the justice she deserved, lumping the stream of the song into one of our Saturday Surf features rather than give it its own post.

So now is time to make amends as the song surfaces again with a new video; and what a video. It takes a simple idea (aren’t they so often the best ones ?) of a split screen showing a series of complimentary but sometimes conflicting images that match the songs mood perfectly. There seem to be some underlying themes of destruction, beauty, nature, life, death and power running through it.

Cold Specks has recently announced that she has signed a record deal with Mute records and an album entitled I Predict A Graceful Explosion will be due near the end of May. A number of UK shows follow in the next few days (check her website on the link above for info)

Cold Specks - Holland (Video)

The Saturday Surf #14

With everyone seemingly off on holiday (or vacation if you live in the US) and at summer music festivals, August is the calm before the storm of new releases that occur between September and November preceding the moment when everyone starts writing their albums / tracks of the year recommendations and ones to watch lists for next year. We’ve already started compiling artists and albums that are heavyweight contenders for featuring on our end of year round ups and without giving anything much away we reckon there’s a number of Ones To Watch for 2012 that we’ve already featured on the blog – possibly even in one of these weekly round-ups that we call the Saturday Surf – sweeping up tracks that didn’t quite get a full blog post.

Because of this calm month this week’s surf is another short one. Just three spicy tracks to content your ears.

Cold Specks – Holland

If you read more than just this blog the chances are you’ll have already come across Cold Specks. She’s previously gone under the names Basket of Figs and the Hotel Ghost, but it’s her new emotive blend of folk and soul that has made a lot of people sit up and pay attention. If you’re a fan of Laura Marling, PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi and other similar female vocalists that bring a smoky heaviness to their songs then Cold Specks will sit very nicely in your collection. Holland is her first piece of harnessed weighty gospel from the dark.

Holland by Cold Specks

Alex Winston – Velvet Elvis

Before posting this track we checked back to see what we’ve said about Alex Winston in the past so that we didn’t repeat ourselves. Somehow, miraculously we’ve never posted about her. In fact there are a number of artists (tUnE-yArDS being a great example) that we adore but they somehow have never made it onto the pages of Breaking More Waves. We guarantee that by the end of this year we’ll have rectified that error though. For those who haven’t heard of Alex Winston yet, she’s a deliciously quirky singer that sounds like a cross between a cutesy bubble-gum Regine Chassagne from Arcade Fire, Kate Bush and a pop-version of Joanna Newsom. Velvet Elvis is her new single and this November she’ll be out supporting The Naked & Famous on their UK tour - we'll see you at the front for that.

Alex Winston - Velvet Elvis

Bear’s Den – Fickle Love (Demo)

Remember Cherbourg? We wrote about them a couple of times back in 2009. Now click play below and you’ll hear the distinctive voice of Andrew Davie, the bands lead singer intoning “I don’t feel a thing for you anymore.” Bear’s Den is his new project out of the Communion stable and if this demo is anything to go by it’s a name to look out for. Fickle Love is an epic windswept alt.folk song full of earthy power – the kind of thing that Snow Patrol may have done if they’d chosen a folk route rather than heading towards mainstream blandness. There’s very little internet presence for the band yet but we understand that the group are supporting The Maccabees in a low key festival warm up show in Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth at the Wedgewood Rooms on the August 8.

Bear's Den - Fickle Love (demo)