The Troubled Times: Sunless (2026)

The Troubled Times‘ 5th Anniversary recording session, 2026 –

continuing the band’s tradition of getting together on the 1st Sunday of Aotearoa’s daylight saving.

The weather was so abysmal this time that the drummer didn’t want to bike over in the rain, and so it was just Dave and Antony for this one (though Dave did jump on the drums for the last track).

Noisy and psychedelic.

credits

released September 30, 2026

Antony Milton – sampling keyboard/synth, guitar

Dave Edwards – bass, effects, percussion

Recorded in Masterton NZ,
27th September 2026

Further listening: The Troubled Times

The Troubled Times: a blat around the block (2026)

“Weirdly perverse all-over-the-place free-form jam recorded at a practice for a gig. Pretty much zero editing so it is what it is (…). Veers between NZ garage squall and free jazz skronk with epic relentless drumming from Mr Heath. Copied onto disk as a quickie give away for the show.”
Antony Milton

credits

David Heath – drums
Dave Edwards – bass
Antony Milton – guitar

Recorded in Masterton, NZ
19 July 2026

released August 5, 2026

Masterton, New Zealand

Further listening: The Troubled Times

FFSE: 06-08-26

a new quartet lineup –
banging a drum,
the ensemble takes a broken-ribbed primitivist approach.

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(Yes we have alpacas in south Wairarapa; no, they are not native)

credits

released August 6, 2026

Guy Walker – turntable, loops

Dave Edwards – bass

Greg
& Jeffrey Fuckit – percussion, vocal

Recorded at the Bakehouse, Paetumokai / Featherston, NZ

06 August 2026

Featherston, New Zealand

Further listening:

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

w/ snakebeings: East to West (Live 2014)

The live debut of Dave Black & Snake Beings, at the Audio Foundation in Auckland, NZ in 2014; and an epic journey half-way around the world, across Eurasia.

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Two itinerant New Zealanders, playing a soundtrack to travel videos by each, collected over years spent living abroad.

The soundtrack infused noise and free improvisation with field recordings and world music elements.

(Track 4 first appeared on fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/ngumbang-2015;
we met up again a few years later in Fiji, and recorded fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/ruasagavulu-fiji-2020)

credits

released July 10, 2026

Dave Edwards – acoustic guitar, sanshin, clarinet, melodica, vocal, field recordings, video
www.fiffdimension.com/ethnomusicology

Emit Snake-Beings – percussion, electronics, duduk, zither, field recordings, video
snakebeings.co.nz

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FFSE: 02-07-26

Smalltown avant-garde –
DIY free improvisation and homemade electronica in south Wairarapa, Aotearoa / NZ.

This one’s a duo session in southern hemisphere winter – starts noisy, spaces out, goes techno near the end.

credits

released July 2, 2026

Guy Walker – tape loops, turntable

Dave Edwards – bass, guitar, electronics

Recorded at the Bakehouse Collective, Featherston NZ, 02-07-26

Further listening: Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

The Troubled Times: Twig Bed Balance (2026)

“A few months between drinks but The Troubled Times are back with perhaps their ‘dustiest’ session yet. The whole thing was recorded onto Dave Edwards‘ phone resulting in a slightly more lo-fi sound than usual. Murky drones, percussive clatter and spasms of edgy delay soaked bliss.
A mumbled song.” – Antony Milton

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Listen

credits

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Spastic Rhythms the 3rd (2026)

A followup to Spastic Rhythms ’22 (2022) and Spastic Rhythms vol1 (2021) – solo instrumentals with guitar loops and homemade percussion, and interspecies collaborations with Oscar the dog (a New Zealand huntaway).

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Featherston, NZ

Guitar tracks recorded late 2025; percussion tracks recorded early 2026.

Oscar celebrates his 13th birthday this month!

credits

released March 6, 2026

Dave Edwards – guitars, bass, percussion

Oscar – vocal (1,4,11), cannon bone (10)

Campbell Kneale – painting of Oscar

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Goblins (2024)

Electroacoustic, slow burn, deep in imaginary forest. Alludes to Shakespeare, Tolkien, Brothers Grimm.

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credits

released February 19, 2026

Dave Edwards – bass, glockenspiel (1,3,6), electric guitar (3,5,6), e-drum (2,4), pitch-shifted gong (3.6), clarinet (7)

Previously unreleased solo instrumental recordings from 2024;
expands on the possibilities of fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/jovial-blade-7-2024

————-
Recorded in Featherston, NZ, 2024. Editing finished off February 2026.

Photos taken in the ‘Goblin forest’ of Mt Taranaki, NZ (on a visit back to my hometown of New Plymouth)..

Tracklist

1.	Goblins 02:301.
2.	Trail of Breadcrumbs 03:12
3.	Oberon 07:49
4.	by Jupiter 04:42
5.	Hobgoblins 03:03
6.	Titania 11:28
7.	Extant Body & Weight Extended 10:58

Further listening: Jovial Blade 7″

FFSE: MiXtape X (2026)

Our first album release of 2026, by Featherston Free Sound Ensemble – courtesy of Antony Milton’s Troubled Times Tapes label. Available on cassette or download.

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“Every few weeks the peace of a small hall in the otherwise quiet tiny town of Featherston at the very bottom of the North Island of New Zealand/Aotearoa is disrupted by a gathering of eccentric misfits with a ragtag collection of noise making electronics. Old tape decks playing home made loops, dusty turntables spinning even dustier vinyl festooned with tags of sellotape, and glitchy cheap effects pedals disrupting the signal of an array of instruments that are being force-fed into weirdly small amplifiers.
“The recordings here in are from a variety of said get togethers and performances. Noise collage meets odd techno dub butted up against distorted rock. Tapiness wins.” – Antony Milton

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credits

released January 14, 2026

Guy Walker – turntable, cassette loops
Alex V – turntable, MIDI, sampler
Dave Edwards – bass, e-drum, clarinet, guitar
Recorded Oct-Nov 2025

Edited and mastered (somewhat) by A.M
Cover photos by Guy Walker

Featherston, New Zealand

Further listening: Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

Live 2025

A late EP coda to the year –

Tracks 1-4 recorded live at the Bakehouse, 29-11-25 – opening act for Featherston Free Sound Ensemble /

Tracks 5-6 recorded 08 February 2025 at the Carterton Club.

includes two pieces from Poems & Lyrics in the Scotch Dialect (1856)

and the first live performance of Assembling Disconsonant

Tracklist

1.	さくらさくら / Paetumokai (Pua pua i te Kōanga) 03:00
2.	I Met Four Chiels (by John Collie, 1856) 03:22
3.	Death (by John Collie, 1856) 04:24
4.	fiffdimension + Self Help Sound System – Assembling Disconsonant 03:19
5.	Inverno 02:32
6.	Chairs to Tie the Revolution Down 05:25