1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
Live solo electric tracks, 2022-2024
Recorded at:
Dave Edwards – electric guitar, loop pedal, harmonica (2,5), e-drum (7), banjo (8), vocal, lyrics
John Collie (1834-1893) – lyrics (5-6)
fiffdimension vol4, รกguas brilhantes: 2018โ-โ2022, sums up the last few years’ here:
2022‘s been a particularly productive year… there’s a (mostly) solo instrumental album (also ft Oscar the dog);
two albums by the Troubled Times – collaboration with Antony Milton now a trio with David Heath on drums;
recordings with my nephews Hans and Rhys Landon-Lane towards Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) – with words written by our ancestor;
and a multimedia spoken word + improvised music collaboration with the award-winning painter James Robinson;
“We go from bossa nova rhythms to folk to RIO to indie to, what is interesting listening if nothing else, a dog howling along to a banjo (Oscarโs Blues) […] and songs taken from Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856), where Dave paid tribute to his ancestor John Collie who wrote a book of poems more than 150 years ago.
“It is unusual to find someone playing so confidently in such diverse areas, and anyone into independent music will certainly find something on here to enjoy – Kev Rowland, muzic.nz
รกguas brilhantes (or ‘glistening waters’ in English) is the Portuguese translation of Wairarapa, the Mฤori name of the region where I’ve lived the last few years.
My ancestors arrived here in the 19th century – one was a Scottish poet, another a stowaway from the Azores islands.
This compilation includes pieces inspired by the region and my ancestors, and new and old collaborators – including a torch-passing to younger members of my family.
by Dave Edwards – guitars, bass, banjo, harmonica, vocal, lyrics
with
released December 22, 2022
Features previously unreleased recordings, and tracks from
Loosely a sequel to The Troubled Times’ debut, Return of the Sun (2021) –
These new recordings were made exactly one year later – again on the first day of daylight savings, Spring 2022 in the southern hemisphere – now joined by David Heath on drums.
The anniversary prompted the title – then possible alternative meanings of which (binary star systems, colonising other planets) led down a science fiction wormhole…
Recorded in Masterton, New Zealand, 25 September 2022
The album also features a key crossover track, with the Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) project:
This track links the various spoken word,ย electricย improv, and folk strands of fiffdimension music. While the rest of Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) is acoustic based, in this case, the electric arrangement seemed to add a โkinglyโ majesty, and pathos – as the monarch discovers the limits of his worldly power.
โThe monarch ceased. The courtier train shook, muttered, gazed and shook again.
They saw lifeโs dying embers fade, they felt the sting of horrorโs blade.
Before them lay a lifeless form, which once with life had passions warmed.
The hand was stiff which oft had reigned, the warhorse and the prisoner chained.
A lifeless lump of senseless clay, the stern despotic monarch lay.โ โ John Collie (1834-1893)
(track also appears onย fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/poems-lyrics-in-the-english-dialect-1856ย )
The first proper ‘band’ recording sessions by The Troubled Times, with the addition of David Heath on drums.
Improvised psychedelic rock – inspired by the Wairarapa rural landscapes, and the main road through them – with touches of country, Brazilian jazz, and electroacoustic experiments.
Antony Milton – electric guitar, banjo (6), drums & keyboard (7)
Dave Edwards – electric guitar (1,3,5), acoustic guitar (2,6,7), bass (4), aluminium ladder (7)
David Heath – drums
released August 13, 2022
——-
Masterton, New Zealand
Recorded in Antony’s garage,
17th July + 7th August 2022
Photo by Sara Rogers
| 1. | Whatever you like (north of Wellington) 06:31 |
| 2. | Wairarapa bossa nova 03:18 |
| 3. | Passing the Tararuas 03:26 |
| 4. | Waiohine river after rain 02:50 |
| 5. | Driving inland 07:16 |
| 6. | Sanson & Woodville (acoustic) 06:34 |
| 7. | Snakes & ladder 02:08 |
| 8. | Spring nor’wester 06:35 |
| 9. | Bossanova Wairarapa (mais tempo) |
Antony and Dave also collaborated on fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/return-of-the-sun-2021
and
layyourburdensdown.bandcamp.com/album/-
Multimedia spoken word and music collaboration between two unique NZ artists:
James Robinson is a mid career contemporary New Zealand mixed media artist, exhibiting widely since 1989 – www.jamesrobinson.nz
fiffdimension is music and multimedia by Dave Edwards (aka Dave Black) and collaborators, since 1998 – www.fiffdimension.com
We met in the early 2000s, and finally collaborated 20 years on. Negentropic Diatribes was recorded in Otago in 2022, as James used spoken word recordings to discuss his creative process and innermost thoughts.
The musical settings were created by Dave in Featherston – plus contributions from other collaborators.
with
James won 2007 paramount prize in the wallace award for
” Taniwaha dragon mother ( spirit bones)”
Continue reading “w/ James Robinson – Negentropic Diatribes (2022)”โ… a great big flatulent belch of fresh air amongst all the tight-sphinctered, deodorised boys and girls of the accepted national art world….. off-kilter and threatening but always sumptuously, gloriously beautiful.โ
– Chris Knox.
Featherston, NZ – early 2022 – spontaneous compositions, two wet weekends in a row.
A sequel to Spastic Rhythms vol 1 (2021)
Dave Black – guitars, bass, banjo (2), clarinet (6), sanshin (10), loop pedal, e-drum
Oscar – vocal (3,9)
released February 13, 2022
| 1. | Drums on Waitangi Day 00:54 |
| 2. | Estado Novo 01:20 |
| 3. | Oscar – Oscar’s Blues 01:28 |
| 4. | fiffdimension / snakebeings – Arising (into Fragments) 03:51 |
| 5. | Black Mountain (ะฆัะฝะฐ ะะพัะฐ) 00:59 |
| 6. | Shuffling the Tarot 03:39 |
| 7. | Classical rain bucket 01:41 |
| 8. | Rebooting 02:52 |
| 9. | Oscar – At home pants ft. cannon bone 02:12 |
| 10. | Removing a bandaid 00:51 |
| 11. | Shuri Jo (็็่ซธๅณถ) 01:03 |
| 12. | Waiting for Dovi 05:24 |
A compilation of tracks from the Wairarapa in these years.
โIt is unusual to find someone playing so confidently in such diverse areas, and anyone into independent music will certainly find something on here to enjoy โ Kev Rowland, muzic.nz
Hans Landon-Lane plays accordion, ukulele and vocal on
“The sweet breath of summer blows fresh o’er each plain
The woods have resumed their lost grandeur again
The grove with the notes of the blackbirds are singing
By fountain and stream the wild flowers are springing […]”
“I sing of the land where in youth I have rambled
I sing of her heroes who long long are gone
And I sing of her steep crags where oft I have scrambled
When dull pining cares to me were unknown […]”
Continue reading “Hans Landon-Lane”Here’s a health to my cronies where e’er they reside,
whether this side or that o’ yon big rowing tide
I care na what country or kingdom they claim, be they English or Irish to me it’s the same
Gif their hearts to a glass o’ gude whisky incline, I instantly class them as cronies o’ mine […]”
fiffdimension 