With a similar spirit and sentiment to Alan Lomax’s field-recordings, and love for the sounds of the Deep South, Al Spx or rather, Cold Specks, the former Etobicoke, Ont. native who now calls London, England home, digs deep into the heart of blues and gospel traditions on her debut, which was recently shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Heavy-hearted and gloomy, her dirge-like hymnals illuminate that ‘doom soul’ label that Spx likes to draw upon. Standouts include the atmospheric Hector and God-ridden Holland and Blank Maps. Raw instrumentation serves as the backdrop to Spx’s searing, whiskey-treated vocals, but somehow those striped-down measures seem unmatched to the power of Spx’s gut-wrenching emotion.