A year ago, an EP from a previously-unknown to me duo named Time Brings Age caused a great deal of umming and ahhing here in Whisperin' & Hollerin' towers: on the one hand, the ambition of the release - the first in a number of instalments, apparently - was heartening, a perplexing combination of fantasy and discovery; but on the other, the EP remained stubbornly, even wilfully impenetrable, and the musical side was at times surprisingly anaemic. Further episodes promised illumination, but instead, Alex Ives, Time Brings Age's creative core, has headed off in an entirely new direction. Perhaps it should have been expected; after all, "The House of Rosentall" was nothing if not unpredictable. And so, one year later, Ives' new project, Specimens, has surfaced. Yet, despite being painted in a new sonic palette, in many ways "The State of Being Assembled" pursues a similar line of thinking.
Once again, the ideas of self and discovery play an integral role in Ives' music. In his previous (albeit unrelated) release, the Alice Through The Looking Glass-esque ambience asked the listener to join the protagonist in a search for... something. Identity was vague at best, objectives dreamlike and unreachable, and the hunt, for the moment, has been suspended. Even Ives' Twitter avatar is an exercise in faint forms and uncertainty. And In the case of "The State of Being Assembled", this state of flux remains. Assembly, the construction of the whole, lies unfinished, the gerund emphatic about the uncompleted nature of the final product.
Yet on the face of it, Ives' premise is simple: the creation of a perfect creature using body parts harvested from favourite animals. In practice, however, it feels like just about anything - and as a result, nothing - could serve as descriptive impetus for the release. Track names vary from clarity and precision ("Assemblage") to baffling ("Lift From Your Knees (Not Your Back)"). Certain themes can be clearly identified but the description is never going to be much use.
In the event, it's when Ives offers simplicity that his music is at its most rewarding. "Assemblage" hangs on the whirring beat of what can only be described as - yes - an assembly line: metronomic, insistent yet strangely relaxing, with a parallel, decidedly uncomplicated organ line to hold its hand. The following track, "Social Gatherings", shifts up a gear in intensity. Clipped beats parry and scuffle with deep slashes of layered static, whilst haunting, indecipherable vocals lie draped across the track. Little of the vocals' content is given away. Narrative exposition is clearly for other people and those likely to get any enjoyment out of this will be the ones content to lie back and go with the flow. In the end, flow - rhythmic and precise - is primarily what "The State of Being Assembled" has going for it. The troubling "Butterfly Stitches" echoes mournfully, like a synthesised whale in a whirring sea of cogs and turbines, whilst "Etiquette" retains the recurring piston-like structure and fuses it to twinkling keys, a glimmer of light that dazzles against the at times sombre, highly-regimented undercurrent of whirring. At times it feels more akin to mechanics than to composition, music through machinery, artistry through engineering.
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In many ways, Specimens repeats the same infuriating trick as "The House of Rosentall": too many questions, too few answers, and precious little for the listener to cling on to. Yet at the heart of this EP lies a rhythmic energy, uninterrupted, artificial, and curiously calming, that some will find to their taste.
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