Tim Jonze 

Cold Specks: Neuroplasticity review – a forward-thinking yet nightmarish noise

Cold Specks's Al Spx could do with finding some melodies as memorable as the music that's behind them, writes Tim Jonze
  
  

Cold Specks Al Spx
Foreboding … Al Spx of Cold Specks. Photograph: Steve Gullick Photograph: Steve Gullick/PR

The problem with having a voice redolent of past greats – as Cold Specks' Al Spx undoubtedly does – is that your music can struggle to escape the retro tag. This was an issue facing Spx's stripped-back debut I Predict a Graceful Expulsion – a gospel-influenced folk album – but it's one she seems set on rectifying with Neuroplasticity. Musically, much here is astounding: shrieks of trumpet and malevolent drum crashes conspire to make a forward-thinking yet nightmarish noise. When you think things can't get any more unsettling, Swans' Michael Gira arrives on Exit Plan and Season of Doubt to add foreboding vocals dredged from the very bottom of the octaves. Spx clearly isn't setting out to score chart hits here, but her key influences – PJ Harvey being perhaps the best example – were adept at finding twisted hooks in even their darkest compositions. Spx could do with some melodies as memorable as the music-making behind them.

 

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