1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
“Nutso falling over kind of wonkiness from mid-winter” = Antony Milton
The Troubled Times are:
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 “Featherston Free Sound Ensemble: First Experiments (2025)”A return to the duo lineup of our earliest recordings (Antony Milton and Dave Edwards).
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
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: Sparkle Tube (2025)”Songs of the seasons, the forest and the sea, home and exile, mortality and immortality:
an adaptation of the book, “Poems and Lyrics (in the English and Scotch dialects)“ by John Collie, of Boyndie (1834-1893), with music by his descendants in New Zealand, between 2020-2025
“Songs from the harp and lyre – a fantastic flow back from the ancient days” – Dr Emit Snake-Beings
The album includes collaborations with my nephew Hans Landon-Lane, plus guest appearances by Antony Milton and Dr Emit Snake-Beings.
“I have been lucky enough to hear some of Dave Edwards work on this at a couple of shows – very cool concept project and worth a listen” – James Trotman
My great-great-grandfather published his book in 1856, before emigrating to New Zealand for the rest of his life.
Discovering this family outsider art precedent in 2018 cast fiffdimension in a whole new light! It sparked a seven-year project to record musical arrangements of his poems for a new century’s audience.
“And with a trembling hand I launch my tiny vessel into the troubled ocean of literature , where many a noble craft has been shattered to pieces…”
Like his better-known countryman (and influence) Robert Burns, John Collie wrote in both English and Scots. The other half of the album is Poems & Lyrics in the Scotch Dialect
Continue reading “Poems & Lyrics (in the English dialect) (1856)”Songs of alcohol, death, the devil, rebellion, kinship, and love gone awry, from 19th century Scotland:
an adaptation of the book, “Poems and Lyrics (in the English and Scotch dialects)“ by John Collie, of Boyndie (1834-1893),
with music by his descendants, between 2018-2025 in New Zealand and France.
“Songs from the harp and lyre – a fantastic flow back from the ancient days” – Dr Emit Snake-Beings
“I have been lucky enough to hear some of Dave Edwards work on this at a couple of shows – very cool concept project and worth a listen” – James Trotman
Continue reading “Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856)”“And with a trembling hand I launch my tiny vessel into the troubled ocean of literature , where many a noble craft has been shattered to pieces…”
A suite of short acoustic instrumentals and Pacific islands tropical ambience – recorded in the Yasawa islands of Fiji.
Main tracks improvised outdoors on ukulele and lali (log drum), on Tavewa island, early April 2025. Acoustic bass and hand drum overdubbed after returning home.
| 1. | Arrival / Bula Maleya 01:12 |
| 2. | Lali kei Basa : iMatai ni Wase 01:58 |
| 3. | Tawakilai 02:45 |
| 4. | Ono walu: mataqali dua 03:07 |
| 5. | Lali kei Basa: iKarua ni Wase 01:04 |
| 6. | iMatai ni iVolatukutuku 03:39 |
| 7. | Idabedabe me vesu 02:15 |
| 8. | Na ikalawa ni yava 02:10 |
| 9. | Ono walu: mataqali rua 02:45 |
| 10. | Mai Ifrika 02:23 |
| 11. | Vakaciri ena buca 01:03 |
| 12. | Siga malumu 02:42 |
| 13. | Vakacava 01:02 |
| 14. | Koro ni uciwai 03:26 |
| 15. | Vakadidike 01:07 |
| 16. | Buli soro 01:15 |
| 17. | Lali kei Basa: vakalevu 01:13 |
| 18. | Qito ni bola 01:33 |
| 19. | Bokola ni manu 04:25 |
| 20. | Na vula 03:23 |
| 21. | Mali 01:23 |
| 22. | Na blue i Dua 02:28 |
| 23. | Konei mai 02:17 |
| 24. | Sau ni lesu 04:46 |
| 25. | Elario Irava – Isa Lei Lia 04:38 |
The title ‘Ruasagavulu ka lima‘ is the number 25 in Fijian;
this is a followup to the first Fijian album Ruasagavulu (2020), recorded in Suva w/ Emit Snake-Beings)
releases June 21, 2025
‘Tevita’ Edwards – ukulele, lali, djembe, acoustic bass, field recordings
——————-
Recorded on Tavewa island, Yasawas, Fiji, early April 2025
Bass & drum overdubs recorded in Featherston NZ, April/May 2025
Latest release from The Troubled Times… weirdly ‘relevant’ this year. And available on cassette.
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.
Trying to find purpose amongst all the doom scrolling.
2x new 7″ lathe cut singles:
“Some seriously scrambled dissonance. 80’s vocals hits 60’s electro/cut-up nonsense whilst smothering an ever mutating bassline […] the track contains more musical ideas in its 5 mins than some exhibit in some musical careers.” – Simon Baker, What Lies Beneath
(Dave solo – A-side is bass & electronics, B-side is clarinet & electronics)
and
Discs manufactured in NZ by Johnny Electric
Continue reading “7″ singles”This was 20 years ago today!
Ascension Band played at the Meatwaters Festival at Happy, in Wellington. We look so young… happy anniversary guys!
By auspicious coincidence, this morning (exactly 20 years on) I found an original DVD of the full performance (as well as discs of the 2005 gigs with the 18-piece imperial phase lineup).
Continue reading “Ascension Band: Live 2004”With all the subtlety of a peacock in a pigeon coop The Troubled Times return with a new album, dominated by the squeals of tortured amps and seriously tormented drums.
Boa features inadvertent post-rock gliding that crashes and bursts into jagged flames; some kind of illicit NZ spaghetti pizza western folds in on itself to become a fractalized polaroid of a dessicated lizard.
This tendency toward excess doesn’t preclude the odd lapse into a mumbled ad hoc song or 2 but the focus here seems to be on ‘loud’, ‘fucked’ and ‘intense’.
The poor bloody neighbours…
Tape version available at troubledtimestapes.bandcamp.com
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: Boa”
