Alex Ives (born 7 July 1989), known by his stage name Specimens, is an electronic, experimental, ambient & drone musician of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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n descent based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

UK.

Solo work as Specimens

Starting out as a bedroom project in 2012, Ives officially released his first solo work under the name Specimens in 2015 with a

Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...

release on Shimmering Moods Records. He subsequently went on to release a number of cassettes on labels such as A Giant Fern & Tenderly Surrender ahead of his debut album 'Sculptures' in 2016. Also in 2016 Ives launched his own label

First Terrace Records First Terrace Records is an independent record label founded in 2016 by Specimens (musician), Alex Ives & Joseph Summers. First Terrace release music covering Ambient music, ambient, Electronic music, electronica, experimental music, experimental ...

which has gone on to release artists such as

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(Beacon Sound Choir),

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Early music career

Ives started out as a guitarist and drummer in garage rock and punk bands, most notably as a former member of Thee MVPs. In this band he toured extensively around Europe and America supporting artists such as

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes is an English punk rock band formed in 2015 by frontman Frank Carter (musician), Frank Carter with guitarist Dean Richardson. Famed for their raucous live shows, the band released their debut album ''Blossom (F ...

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, Night Beats &

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. During this period he had releases on labels such as

Burger Records Burger Records was an American independent record label and record store in Fullerton, California, United States. The label was founded in 2007 by Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard, members of the power pop band Thee Makeout Party. The record/vide ...

, Greenway Records,

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, Easy Action, Batchelor Records & more. He is also a founding member & drummer in the band Ice Baths which released their debut album in 2018 on the London-based label Blank Editions (

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

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, Housewives).

Selected solo discography

* 2015 – II (Shimmering Moods Records) (Cassette) * 2015 – Water & Concrete (Tenderly Surrender) (Cassette) * 2016 – J C / Specimens (A Giant Fern) (Cassette) * 2017 – Sculptures (

) (LP) * 2018 – In The Dust of Idols (SVS Records) (LP) * 2019 – Specimens / Inchindown (Display) (Cassette) * 2019 – MIND-DRONE Vol. 7 (Drone Records) (LP Compilation) * 2020 – Café Songs (

) (Cassette) * 2020 – @0 (Ahead Of Our Time) (CD Compilation) * 2022 – Intersections (

) (LP) * 2023 - Power Pain Privilege (

) (LP) * 2023 - To Light a Candle is to Cast a Shadow (Cluster Node) (Cassette Compilation)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Specimens 1989 births Living people English electronic musicians Ambient composers Ambient musicians English experimental musicians Experimental composers Articles with MusicBrainz artist links