2025 roundup

Another productive year here! We released:

Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji)

An acoustic solo album, made in the Yasawa islands, Fiji. Ukulele and field recordings, with acoustic bass and percussion.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

A musical adaptation of my ancestor’s book, finally ‘close enough’ to finished after seven years… or 169, depending how you count it.

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

A new collaboration with turntablists Guy Walker and Alex V – free improv electronica for the regions.

Experiments Under the Hills

October-November, with Guy Walker and Alex V

The Troubled Times

with Antony Milton and David Heath in Masterton NZ.

Unsteady Ground

As close as we’ve come to a ‘political’ album

dDA

We swapped instruments and almost formed a new band.

Homo Homini Lupus

We appeared on this ‘various artists’ compilation from Louisville, Kentucky

Smudge

Winter was too cold for the garage, so we played ‘lounge music’

Thanks for listening! See you in 2026...

The Troubled Times: Smudge (2025)

“Nutso falling over kind of wonkiness from mid-winter” = Antony Milton

Listen

credits

The Troubled Times are:

Antony Milton – guitar, synths
Dave Edwards – guitar
David Heath – drums & percussion

Tracks 1-9 recorded July 2025; tracks 10-12 recorded August 2022
in Masterton, Aotearoa/NZ

about

Continue reading →

Experiments Under the Hills (2025)

Smalltown NZ free improv by Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

Paetumokai / Featherston,
Aotearoa / New Zealand,

credits

Guy Walker – turntable, cassette loops
Alex V – turntable, MIDI, sampler
Dave Edwards – bass, guitar, e-drum, harmonica

Recorded at the Bakehouse, October-November 2025

tracklist

1.	19-11-25 #1 orchestral overture 08:53
2.	27-11-25 #3 casino 03:39
3.	12-11-25 #4a static electricity 02:34
4.	12-11-25 #5c tremelo 03:48
5.	30-10-25 #2 Bulgarian 11:27
6.	27-11-25 #2 banjo 04:55
7.	12-11-25 #3b ukulele 03:27
8.	12-11-25 #5a EDM 03:51
9.	30-10-25 #3 guitar 04:27
10.	19-11-25 #4 towards the exit 03:25
11.	12-11-25 #3a orchestral reprise 04:53

Further listening:

“I was wide awake at 2.30am so listened to us on headphones in the dark in bed. I’m probably biased, but I think we sound bloody awesome” – Guy Walker

Continue reading →

Live at the Bakehouse 29/11/25

Smalltown free improv – live at @bakehousecollectivenz

“I was wide awake at 2.30am so listened to us on headphones in the dark in bed. I’m probably biased, but I think we sound bloody awesome” – Guy Walker

Paetumokai / Featherston,
Aotearoa / New Zealand,

29 November 2025

credits

Guy Walker – turntable, cassette loops

Alex V – turntable, MIDI, sampler

Dave Edwards – bass, guitar, e-drum, harmonica

Continue reading →

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble: First Experiments (2025)

Guy Walker – turntables, cassettes (right channel)
Dave Edwards – bass, guitar, e-drum (left channel)

Recorded at the Bakehouse, Featherston NZ, 18/09/25

Continue reading →

The Troubled Times: Sparkle Tube (2025)

A return to the duo lineup of our earliest recordings (Antony Milton and Dave Edwards).

Listen

CD-R edition

Limited edition physical copies of Sparkle Tube are available from Antony’s Grey Cyphers CDR label, along with other NZ artists including Rain Sleepers, Agentsss, L$D Fundraiser, CJA, Tower of Heaven, and more.

Old school cdr label out of back blocks New Zealand/Aotearoa releasing music by Agentsss and other lo-fi mystic wannabes
Antony Milton

About

Duo outing for The Troubled Times on this disk, ostensibly this is material Dave and Antony recorded while waiting for drummer David to show up for practice. He never showed up…
More of a weird improv noise album this one- except for the ‘musical’ bits..
Kind of dreamy.

(But you know what dreams are like, cruising one minute- terror the next.)

Continue reading →

The Troubled Times: Unsteady Ground (2025)

Latest release from The Troubled Times… weirdly ‘relevant’ this year. And available on cassette.

Listen

A new collection of songs for the Times.
Starting off with a weirdly upbeat track recorded pre- US election the tone drifts somewhat astray as the collection proceeds.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Antony Milton (@antony.milton.792)

Trying to find purpose amongst all the doom scrolling.

credits

Continue reading →

Homo Homini Lupus compilation (2025)

The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath) feature on this new compilation by Kentucky-based label Humanhood Recordings.

Listen

Available on limited edition double cassette.

No Maxim But Now

Other artists include KNURL, EMIL BEAULIEAU, COCK ESP, Aaron Rosenblum, Thaniel Ion Lee, Mike Shiflet, Joe Tunis and more…

Tracklist

1.	Straight Panic – Ethik 06:02
2.	See Through Buildings – In This Defeat 07:00
3.	KNURL – The Resulting Deprivation 10:02
4.	EMIL BEAULIEAU – Live At Six Mohonk, Part Two 07:46
5.	COCK ESP – Miami Advice Remix 01:18
6.	Takeshita – For All His Boys Locked In a Fucking Cell 10:00
7.	LACKTHROW – Saturday 225 pm jan 25 2025 09:56
8.	Rudolf Eb.er – Red wine on sweaty women’s soles (Rotwein auf verschwitzten Frauensohlen) 10:00
9.	156 – Sleeping With A Clear Conscience 05:59
10.	Aaron Rosenblum – Mother Day 03:02
11.	ILLUSION OF SAFETY – Fahrenheit 451 06:01
12.	Nicholas Maloney – Cast/Current 07:05
13.	Thaniel Ion Lee – Trapazoid 03:04
14.	Mike Shiflet – White Grass 05:34
15.	Walter Campbell – Xenophobe 04:18
16.	Nathaniel Hendrickson and Douglas Lucas – Blue Stream 01:10
17.	Joe+N – Study #1 01:53
18.	{AN} Eel – Plodding Subtextual 05:58
19.	The Troubled Times – No Maxim But Now 09:53
20.	Sycamore Willow – Spider In The Basement 04:57
21.	Limestone Ziggurat – Black Atlas 09:45

Live 2022-24

Live solo electric tracks, 2022-2024

Recorded at:

the Miracle Room, Featherston NZ – 10 June 2022
Solway Showgrounds, Masterton NZ – 19 August 2023
2MBS Fine Music, Sydney, Australia – 20 October 2024

Dave Edwards – electric guitar, loop pedal, harmonica (2,5), e-drum (7), banjo (8), vocal, lyrics

John Collie (1834-1893) – lyrics (5-6)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dave Edwards (@fiffdimension)

Continue reading →

January 2025

Happy new year! So far, in the early weeks of 2025, I‘ve:

Played a live solo acoustic set, at the Wairarapa Songwriters’ Group night at Carterton Club on 11 January.

The Troubled Times

held our first two first recording sessions for the year:
- on 20th of January, an instrument-swapped session with Dave on guitar and Antony on bass this time:

and on 26 January – music video by Antony Milton below, for a forthcoming album:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Antony Milton (@antony.milton.792)

Adieu to Tweedside.

Recorded a new version for Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856). It includes acoustic bass and classical guitar. It’s set to the traditional Scottish tune ‘Skye Boat Song’, and starts with almost a doo-wop feel – before taking a darker turn, as the theme of bereavement is revealed: