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

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

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 or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, 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 ...

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 Alex Ives & Joseph Summers. First Terrace release music covering ambient, electronica, experimental, drone, jazz, modern composition & sound art. First Terrace have relea ...

which has gone on to release artists such as

Peter Broderick Peter Broderick (born January 20, 1987) is an American musician and composer from Carlton, Oregon. He has released solo material under his own name, been a member of Efterklang, and played with several ensembles as a session musician. Biography B ...

(Beacon Sound Choir),

Chihei Hatakeyama is an electronic music artist from Tokyo, Japan. He grew up in the suburbs of Fujisawa. He released his first full-length album, ''Minima Moralia'' on Kranky in 2006. He is the owner of the record label White Paddy Mountain which he launched ...

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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,

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, Ty Segall, 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/video s ...

, 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 musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...

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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)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1989 births Living people English electronic musicians Ambient composers Ambient musicians English experimental musicians Experimental composers Articles with MusicBrainz artist links