“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
Category: The Troubled Times
Overgrowth (2003) ft The Troubled Times (2024)
A reading of one of my short stories from the early 2000s; a black comic piece, with music by The Troubled Times in the 2020s. Funny what you can find in the drawer years later…
Listen
lyrics
(& eventually resulting in monster on rampage through the kitchen)
Too many people forget what they find. He blemishes his self. He bends to suck food stain from his Hawaiian shirt; the dinner jacket coldly embraces him. The computer had a serious bug spasm […]
credits
Antony Milton – electric guitar
Dave Edwards – bass, vocal
David Heath – drums
Photo taken in the Marlborough Sounds, NZ, walking the Queen Charlotte track circa 2003.
Further listening:
The Troubled Times: Unsteady Ground
The instrumental used for ‘Overgrowth” appears as track 5, ‘titled ‘the Deeper Cut’
Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005
A compilation spanning the early years of fiffdimension; more chaotic wide ranging undiscovered brilliance, from the turn of the millennium…
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 “The Troubled Times: Smudge (2025)”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: Sparkle Tube (2025)”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 “The Troubled Times: Live at the Pyramid Club 28/09/24”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: Boa”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)
The Troubled Times: Son Sum Sun
For the third year in a row, we held a recording session on the first day of daylight savings – a short session of spaced out noisy psychedelic ‘rock jams’ this time.
A highlight this session was a bigger & louder bass amp!
Credits
Dave Edwards – Bass
David Heath – Drums
Antony Milton – Guitar
released October 13, 2023
Tracklist
| 1. | Ventures Sans Hairspray 12:54 |
| 2. | Calliper Waltz 02:34 |
| 3. | Ad For Rolling Down 07:48 |
The Troubled Times: Another (****ing) Sunday
The first physical CD by The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath),
Fizzy dreamy shambolic ramblings from the Wairarapa‘s dustiest garage.
Instant songs committed to disk for posterity.
‘Another Sunday’ CD series
This was the first chapter in Antony Milton’s acclaimed ‘Another Sunday‘ series of CDs:
anothersunday.bandcamp.com – different artists, each making an album with the same title.
Other discs in the series include Michael Morley, Greymouth, Seht, Teen Haters, Perpets, and Sunset Temples
video
credits
released August 1, 2023
David Heath- drums
Dave Edwards– bass
Antony Milton– guitar/vocals, video, CD producer
The Troubled Times: live at Common Ground 15/07/23
Thank you everyone who came to The Troubled Times‘ live debut, in Featherston NZ
Featherston NZ, 15/7/23
Antony Milton – guitar David Heath – drums Dave Edwards – bass
Mānawatia a Matariki!
Thanks also to Zac and Holly Winterwood,
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: live at Common Ground 15/07/23”
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