Top 10 albums*

by Dave Edwards (aka Dave Black) and collaborators,

(*as picked by casual streaming listeners, based on % of tracks played in full minus % of tracks skipped… not necessarily the ones I would have picked – there’s little or no correlation between the “important” works and the parts other people like!).

#1 After the Filmshoot (2002)

Dave Edwards solo postpunk spoken word free improv guitar spasms (2002)

[send us your review]

#2 Other Islands: 2012-2018

Gamelan Taniwha Jaya at Te Papa, Wellington, 2016

Compilation made in New Zealand, Okinawa, Western Australia, Indonesia and Fiji,,

by Dave Black with The Winter, The Electricka Zoo, Dr Emit Snake-Beings, Nat da Hatt, Campbell Kneale, Gamelan Sekar Puri, Gamelan Padhang Moncar, and Gamelan Taniwha Jaya

“The 20 song album covers traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Asia–Pacific folk music, free jazz, and free noise…. If you have an open inquiring mind and love hearing a variety of sound, this is excellent. – Darryl Baser, muzic.net.nz“

# 3 After Maths & Sciences (2005/06)

An Australian novel for the ear – a double album recorded in Melbourne, Victoria,

and Sydney and Gosford New South Wales,

by Dave Black with Cylvi M, Mike Kingston and Francesca Mountfort (2005-2006)

“Dave Black’s debut release (and a re-birth, if you like, for David Edwards) is as much a post-modern piece of Performance Journalism as it is a static batch of “songs” or tracks, After Maths & Sciences is a pleasing challenge of an album. It lives up to the cliché of presenting something new with each listen,”– Simon Sweetman

#4 Live 1999

Solo postpunk live at the old Bar Bodega, Wellington NZ, opening for Chris Knox

“If only I could play guitar like that… bastard” – Chris Knox

# 5 Glimpses of Utopia (2020)

Palette-cleansing Dave Black solo electric guitar improv.

[send us your review]

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Spotify playlist – fiffdimension & friends

Here’s my first Spotify playlist… a mix of my own tracks and by other artists who I’ve had the privilege to meet and be inspired by, in several cases played gigs alongside and/or collaborated with.

Thank you all for the journey! And some great music here.

Continue reading “Spotify playlist – fiffdimension & friends” →

Other Islands: 2012-2018

fiffdimension vol3

brings us into the current decade – with further wide-ranging experimentation and exploration sonically, temporally and geographically, in New Zealand, Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (charango, acoustic guitar),

Simon Sweetman (percussion),

Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards, banjo),

Emit Snake-Beings (banjo, vocal, percussion, flute, electronics),

the Digitator (electric drums, keyboards & loops),

Campbell Kneale (electric guitar, analogue synthesiser),

Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),

Blair Latham (bass clarinet),

Simon O’Rorke (keyboards),

Chris Prosser (violin),

Julie Bevan (acoustic guitar),

plus Indonesian gamelan ensembles led by Sofari Hidayat, Budi Putra, and Gareth Farr,

a song by my great-great-grandfather John Collie (1856),

and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.

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Featuring tracks from the albums

The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)

ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-15)

Ngumbang (2014-15)

The Winter: Exit Points (2015)

The Electricka Zoo (2017)

and previously unheard tracks.

安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa), 2015

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)

And hear the previous compilations

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012

“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox

Now available on Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, Deezer etc

fiffdimension vol2, a sequel to Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005, sees increasingly wide-ranging experimentation and exploration both sonically and geographically, from New Zealand and beyond to Australia and East Asia, and a reinvention as Dave Black.

Whereas Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 showed a youthful kiwi fusion of songs with avant-garde spoken word and instrumental pieces, Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012 documents me in my late 20s and early 30s moving beyond these parameters.

My approach became less introspective and more journalistic – thanks to new influences from years spent living abroad in Australia, South Korea and Japan. New elements include the banjo, electronica, field recordings, multimedia performances, and touches of traditional Asian music. I also adopted the moniker Dave Black, to differentiate from my earlier works.

The third part of the trilogy, Other Islands: 2012-2018, documents my return to NZ via other Asia Pacific countries, and more recent works.

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Featuring tracks from the albums

Ascension Band: Evolution (2005)

After Maths & Sciences (2005-2006)

South Island Sessions (2006)

First Time Around: East Asia (2008)

The Winter: 2011 (2011)

The Winter: Exit Points (2010/2015)

ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-2015)

and previously unheard tracks

First Time Around: East Asia (2007-2008)

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (acoustic guitar),

Simon Sweetman (percussion),

Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards),

Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),

Hayden Gifkins (electric guitar),

Nigel Patterson (hammond organ),

Ryan Prebble (tone generator),

Matthew Thornicroft (electric guitar),

Jeff Henderson (drums),

Noel Meek (vocal),

Clever Hansel (ukulele)

and field recordings from Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.

If you enjoy this, try the first volume Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and the third, Other Islands: 2012-2018

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

“Whilst shopping from fiffdimension make sure to get hold of ‘Gleefully Unknown’, a best-of compilation of Dave Edwards’ music from 1997 to 2005. Rough outsider folk-blues mysteries, dissonant rock textures, electric and acoustic improvisations…

“Edwards strikes me as one of the most overlooked musicians from the fertile lands of New Zealand and if you need a fresh start this might very well be the place.” – Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face

Now available from Spotify, Bandcamp etc

A compilation of songs, spoken word and instrumentals from the first half of my gloriously unsuccessful career to date: