{"title":"Specimens","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"power-pain-privilege","title":"Power Pain Privilege","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePower, Pain, Privilege\u003c\/i\u003e is Specimens fourth album \u0026amp; most personal work to date, it follows up on his collaboration album ‘Intersections’ with Peter Broderick, Benoît Pioulard, Midori Hirano \u0026amp; Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePower, Pain, Privilege\u003c\/i\u003e is a commissioned piece by London’s Southbank Centre and is an abstract sonic exploration of biracial identity, in its historicity as well as through the lens of Ives’ own personal experience of being British-Jamaican. The album is a departure from his largely ambient work and explores haunted and twisted dancehall rhythms, industrial drones, and spoken word pieces that track a course through painful incidents of imposter syndrome, shame, privilege \u0026amp; racism. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album opens with a computerised robotic voice reading excerpts of the 1930s Fletcher Report: “an Investigation into the Colour Problem in Liverpool and other ports” a report which heavily stigmatises children and mixed heritage families of African and European origin. It could be deemed the official outset in defining Liverpool's ‘half castes’ as a problem and blight to the “British way of life”. Ives’ states “this track sets the tone to the album, the cold analytical and dehumanising approach to reports like this, whilst over 80 years old set the standard for viewing biracial families and to have used a Human voice to recite these pieces of text would have been to give it too much life”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album is accompanied by a film directed by the photographer \u0026amp; director Lucie Rox which was live scored at The Southbank Centre in London and in Paris at 3537. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Terrace Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50505851109707,"sku":"2015068","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/fe6b3b1a-854c-fa4f-f5dd-d61a39dcc884_3b92fff3_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727817275"},{"product_id":"intersections","title":"Intersections","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpecimens (aka Alex Ives) returns with \u003ci\u003eIntersections\u003c\/i\u003e, a collaborative new album out on First Terrace Records. It follows up on his 2018 album \u003ci\u003eIn The Dust Of Idols\u003c\/i\u003e - which was selected as one of FACT magazines ‘Ambient Albums of the Year’ - and recent feature on the Ninja Tune imprint Ahead of Our Time alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto, Julianna Barwick, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Skee mask, Suzanne Ciani, Helena Hauff and more for the ambient compilation ‘@0’.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIves’s new album \u003ci\u003eIntersections\u003c\/i\u003e is a record deliberately exploring the beauty in artistic collaboration, something Ives holds dear to his heart “I wanted to write an album as a kind of ode to all the wonderful little exchanges we have through our life with other humans \u0026amp; specifically for me through music, in touring, playing shows and even as simple as connections made online I have had the privilege to make so many friends and cross paths with some wonderful artists. I wanted to do a record inspired by this”. The title ‘Intersections’ alludes to the idea of a giant network of roads, flight lanes, venues, hostels \u0026amp; inboxes that we are all constantly travelling on, and along these pathways we intersect with others, each on our own individual journeys, and the tracks on this album are expressions of those interactions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album features Peter Broderick (Erased Tapes), Midori Hirano (Sonic Pieces), Benoit Pioulard (Kranky) and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (130701) who have contributed in their own unique ways to weave their sonic fingerprints into the fabric of Specimens ambient canvases. The track ‘The Illusion of Eternal Bliss’ is a very poignant example of capturing an exchange between two people, with Alex \u0026amp; Emilie re-visiting the South London church in which they first met for a show to record a piece on the organ, of this experience Alex says “it was one of the most fun experiences I have had recording with a friend, Emilie is such a talented person and our approaches are fairly different but I think we came together really well on this track and had a lot of fun in the process, which is really what it's all about, capturing these little moments like sonic photographs”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Terrace Records","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50909286695243,"sku":"1159831","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/cb47e939-68de-4fbf-8a0c-293affeda5c5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732909760"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/specimens.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}