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LP
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SVS 015LP
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Specimens' In The Dust Of Idols is an album exploring mortality, existentialism and the dread one can feel in the face of an apparently meaningless world. The journey one embarks on when trying to create meaning where there is perhaps none. These initial senses of dread can be brought about by the insignificance one feels in the face of greatness, where others have seemingly found meaning and purpose in the face of your own wavering path. Whilst these moments in time may hold no specific meaning, despite their impressive nature, one can be driven into senseless awe. In The Dust Of Idols ties in this sense of wonderment coupled with the overarching dread of contemplating one's own existence, to quote Ruth Tallman, "The search for answers in an answerless world". "I wanted to create something dense and heavy. When you listen through, it makes you feel like it has the weight of time stitched into it," explains Alex Ives, the man behind Specimens. As well as expanding the range of instrumentation used on In The Dust Of Idols,his second album, Ives also enlisted the talents of cellist Charlote de Burgh-Holder and experimentalist Joe Summers on the tracks "The Unread Library" and "Twisted Necks" which adds to the dynamic depth and range on this record. It's not all dark, though; moments of optimism and cracks of light pepper the record giving enough hope to the listener to pursue questioning the unanswerable. Accompanying the release of the record is a short film set to music from the album, produced and shot by photographer and director Lucie Rox. The film is a visual expression and representation of identity and the many ways this is challenged, perceived and adopted. Whilst taking forward the concepts explored throughout the album, the film looks to reduce the great vastness of confusion and self-doubt put forward on the record and focusing instead on a more intimate and personal perspective laid bare and shared by both Rox and Specimens, with a heavy focus on race and heritage. Both Specimens and Rox are mixed -- Caribbean and British/African and French respectively; the objective of the film is to show one of the many angles where an individual's search for meaning and identity can be expressed. Artwork from Australian painter Kieran Ingram and mastered by Lawrence English. Edition of 300 on white/blue splatter vinyl.
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