The second album from Boston band Specimen 37 is a concept that “chronicles seven days in the life of the nameless ‘specimen’, one man locked in an existential struggle to find meaning in everyday mundane acts. Sitting in traffic. Eating. Dating. Working. The specimen is antagonized by the world’s myopic preoccupation with fame, religious conformity, war and material wealth. The specimen’s debilitating fear is that he’ll never find meaning in a world that seems to turn on an axis of meaninglessness, and in this chapter of the specimen’s life, it’s never clear whether or not he finds hope.” As it started with layered keyboards and some weird sounds and clips I was starting to wonder what on earth I was listening to. It wasn't Tangerine Dream or Pink Floyd, but there are definite similarities.
But as the album progressed (good use of words here), I realised that this was an extremely complex world where rock and weird synths could sit happily side by side. This is prog music, but not the common or garden type and is all the better for it. Finally it came to me who this band reminded me of, the mighty Poisoned Electrick Head who took their love of all things unusual and blended it with space rock to create something new, and although Specimen 37 are in many ways very different they are also similar in others.
The more I played this the more I liked it. The more I liked it the more I became convinced that Empathy, Gee-Roj, Mojonine, Ponder, Sketch Element and their guests have created a mighty album that should appreciate to fans of good music, whatever the genre.
