2024 roundup

Following the 25th anniversary of fiffdimension in 2023, it was in some ways tempting to leave it there, and retire…

… but I soon found myself creating new music in 2024:

Quietism

January: Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electronic percussion.

The Margins

April: New combination of old free improv collaborators Simon O’Rorke and Antony Milton.

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

The Troubled Times: The Latest Poll / Boa

June-August: A pair of new albums from The Troubled Times (trio with Antony Milton and David Heath):

The Latest Poll marked a departure into semiacoustic freak folk; whereas Boa leaned more towards noisy electric rock.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

June-July: Recorded a couple more of my ancestor’s poems for this epic acoustic/folk work-in-progress (& hoping to finish it off this summer when my nephews visit):

The Troubled Times: Pyramid Club – live 28/09/24

September: A long-overdue return (after six years!) to live performance in Wellington, and The Troubled Times‘ first appearance there at the Pyramid Club.

Dolby FM interview

October: A career-spanning longform interview, telling my life story and the background influences behind the music.

Live in Sydney 20/10/24

October: An international performance across the ditch :

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dave Edwards (@fiffdimension)

The Sydney performance can now be heard on the Live 2022-24 album:

Jovial Blade 7″

November: A new solo 7″ on vinyl (first one since 2016):

“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 musical careers.” – Simon Baker, What Lies Beneath

A Second Sun t-shirt

December: A thoughtful birthday present (thanks Talei!): a t-shirt featuring the cover art from The Troubled Times’ A Second Sun album.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dave Edwards (@fiffdimension)

I also enjoyed a visit to my hometown of New Plymouth (& hope to play a gig there next time!)

More to come in 2025!

Radio Dolby 89.6FM interview

A big thank you to Radio Dolby 89.6FM for this podcast interview – hopefully an interesting audio documentary, and a chance to put the music (and stories behind it) over the years into context… here’s my life story so far, or at least a lot of the music parts!

Continue reading →

7″ singles

2x new 7″ lathe cut singles:

Jovial Blade / Extant Body & Weight

“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

The Troubled Times: Cellophane

Discs manufactured in NZ by Johnny Electric

Continue reading →

The Troubled Times: Live at the Pyramid Club 28/09/24

Thank you SkirtedRecords for the video snippets, and Pyramid Club for hosting, Termite Lounge and Christian Wolves (Campbell Kneale and Sarah Bingle) for playing, Thomas Lambert for running the show, and everyone who came to the gig on Saturday! We had a blast… hopefully it won’t be another six years til the next time in Wellington!

The full video of all three bands is available to stream (free) at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2262357709

The gig also marked the release of The Troubled Times’ new limited edition 7″ single Cellophane – only a couple of physical copies left so get in quick, or download from Bandcamp:

Continue reading →

Ascension Band: Live 2004

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 →

The Troubled Times: Boa

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.

The Troubled Times also play live this month – in Wellington, at the Pyramid Club on 28 September!

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: The Latest Poll

Available on cassette or download –

The Latest Poll is the debut release for the new Troubled Times Tapes imprint, which will be releasing music by, and associated with, The Troubled Times.

A rare session out of Antony Milton‘s garage and into his lounge due to the frigid winter conditions. Also a departure from our usual psychedelic garage rock sound – we left our regular instruments behind and played mainly what was at hand, resulting in completely different sonic textures:

Antony Milton played casio keyboard, banjo and contact mic’d nylon-string guitar through his home stereo,
Dave Edwards played steel-string acoustic guitar, banjo and clarinet through his effect rig into a tiny busking amp, and
David Heath played Dave’s cheap toy electronic drum kit.

The result is a freakish free-folk psychedelic synth pop shambles that also somehow creates a comfy abode, a shelter from the stormy stormy night.

credits

released June 13, 2024

Continue reading →

The Margins: 21/04/24

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

Recent (2024) recordings from a new combination of old collaborators – Antony Milton and Dave Edwards (The Troubled Times) with Wellington free-improv legend Simon O’Rorke.

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

Credits

Simon O’Rorke– falcon software synth
Dave Edwards– guitar, bass, electro-drums, harmonica
Antony Milton– guitar, drums, microphonic feedback

Recorded at Fleet Street, Masterton, NZ/Aotearoa on 21 April 2024
Cover art by Antony Milton

Tracklist

Continue reading →

Quietism (2024)

Early 2024 – the first new recordings made since the 25-year-spanning 2CD compilation; the start of the fiffdimension 2nd quarter-century.

Listen

Video

About

By Dave Edwards– early 2024, summertime in NZ –

Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electric drums – one single take of each, using overdubs to create a virtual trio.

Tracks 1-3 and 12 recorded early January 2024 – the rest recorded 6th February 2024, in Featherston, Aotearoa / New Zealand

The title ‘Quietism‘ refers not so much to the sound, but to the absence of vocals – or any reference to current news or politics. Part of the fiffdimension aesthetic is a certain wilful irrelevance, and ignoring of trends.

The last track ‘Hypnopompia‘ (waking up) experiments with a possible new ambient style.

The cover art is an abstract scribble drawing – attempting to bypass conscious self-doubt and create ‘something… anything’. A theme also explored in works such as Assembling Disconsonant (2023).

Featherston, New Zealand

Tracklist

Continue reading →

2023 roundup

December 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of fiffdimension!

– we celebrated with the double CD compilation:

Electric (yang) / Acoustic (yin)

– 2CD compilation 1998-2023

“Double disc collection of more than two decades’ worth of live and studio-recorded tunes by Dave Edwards, who you may have heard recently as part of The Troubled Times with Antony Milton. It’s quite a diverse listen!

You get some concise and catchy pop songs, some full-on rockers, banjo excursions, improv freak-out, poetry, acoustic blues, folk songs, scrambled noise… there’s something here for everybody. A good intro to Dave’s dauntingly deep discography.”
– Howard Stelzer, Noisy Bandcamp.

A collection of short tracks by Dave Edwards and collaborators.

Celebrating 25 years of fiffdimension!

2CD double album. 35 tracks spanning 25 years. Comes in gatefold card case with full colour photography by Jechtography and James Gilberd. Includes download of the digital album.

Produced by Antony Milton; and features Paul Winstanley, Chris O’Connor, Simon O’Rorke, Chris Palmer, Sam Prebble, Mike Kingston, Francesca Mountfort, Damian Stewart, Emit Snake-Beings, Nat da Hatt, Steve Duffels, and Oscar (the dog). The 2CD compilation focuses on Dave Edwards’ guitar and banjo compositions in New Zealand and Australia, their acoustic/electric duality, and boils down a quarter-century of restless creativity to two concise discs.

Live 2022-24

2023 was also notable for the return of live music to the Wairarapa.

https://fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/live-2022-24

Dave also collaborated with

The Troubled Times

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

Another (ing) Sunday	Elevate
Limited Edition classy glassy mastered CD Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album Only 100 copies of this. Pro manufactured glass mastered CD packaged in 4 panel card wallet.	A contrasting companion piece, with all but the last track recorded the same day; a thoroughly kinetic affair bursting with energy and ecstatic passion.
Live in Featherston	Son Sun Sum
Our debut live gig, at Common Ground gallery in Featherston	For the third year in a row, we recorded on the first day of daylight savings – this time with a bigger bass amp.

& in January they released on cassette or download :

Hill Road in Winter

“a loud and noisy nocturnal romp through the hills and onto the gravel back roads of one of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s least visited regions. All recorded ‘New Zealand style’ in [my] garage.”
Antony Milton

Assembling disconsonant

(Dave Edwards solo acoustic guitar, banjo, spoken word, May 2023)

“I liked the lyrics… the the way meaning gets assembled through shattered snap shots of a picture we may never see”
Dr Emit Snake-Beings

& a work in progress (more to come in 2024):

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

An adaptation of the book, by 19th century Scottish poet John Collie (of Boyndie) – recorded by his descendants in New Zealand: Dave Edwards, nephews Hans and Rhys Landon-Lane, and guest appearances by The Troubled Times and Dr Emit Snake-Beings.

“T’were a noble sight to see the mighty men of old, who bled that their countries might be free from the tyrants’ fatal hold – yet I’d deem it a nobler sight by far to behold the sons of the harp & lyre!

“[…] If aught can claim a spirit’s admiration, Sure it must be this beautiful creation“
John Collie (1834-1893)