MP3 | Alexa Wilding — ‘Black Diamond Day’

Yet another artist to emerge from the current musical hotbed of Brooklyn, Alexa Wilding makes music of the sultry, slightly esoteric variety that’s hard to categorise. While some of her songs sound as though they could almost be offcuts from Kristin Hersh’s The Grotto, others are closer to the witchy folk-blues of Petra Jean Phillipson, though the press release for her self-titled EP positions her as a modern day equivalent of antecedents Sandy Denny and Laura Nyro. A graduate of the picturesque Bard College in upstate New York, Alexa developed her musical chops during “a sort of apprenticeship” playing keyboards and singing in International Shades alongside Sonic Youth’s Bob Bert plus members of Pussy Galore and Live Skull, and she’s put her indie-rock royalty connections to good use by getting Television’s Fred Smith to produce the EP and Two Dollar Guitar’s Tim Foljahn on backing. She’s also good friends with the girls from Au Revoir Simone, two of whom appear alongside her in filmmaker Ivana Helsinki’s art project ‘Dress-Go-Round’ [see below].

Almost a plea for seduction, ‘Black Diamond Day’ is full of sexual imagery as Alexa outlines exactly what she wants her lover to do – some subtle, some not so subtle, but always poetic rather than crass. A warm wash of keyboards simmers gently below the acoustic guitar-led melody, giving the song a nicely fuzzy feel, but it’s the multi-layered vocals and Alexa’s enticing phrasing that really make this a winner. Alexa’s already working on another EP, Ballet, which she describes as “music box” songs. The demos are already up on Myspace. For now though, enjoy ‘Black Diamond Day’.

Alexa Wilding EP
01 Saturn
02 Light
03 Black Diamond Day
04 The Sea
05 2 AM
06 City
07 Bridges
08 Bird

FREE MP3: Alexa Wilding, ‘Black Diamond Day’

visit Alexa on Myspace

‘Starrain’ [featuring 'The Sea']

‘Dress-Go-Round’ [featuring 'Black Diamond Day' and starring Alexa plus Heather and Erika of Au Revoir Simone]

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