all but the last trackย were recorded during the same session, on 28/05/23)
Elevate‘ is a thoroughly kinetic affair bursting with energy and ecstatic passion.
Avant jazz meets squealing rambunctious noise. A frenetic blast down to the end of the driveway and back. The set finishes with a tribute to Albert Ayler.
The first physical format release from Masterton trio The Troubled Times is 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.
Whilst earlier digital releases have veered from arty drone pieces to synth pop and heavy space rock the music on ‘Hill Road In Winter’ is more like a psychedelic pub jam band gone BRILLIANTLY ‘wrong’. Woozy blues paeans slip sideways into feedback freakouts and heavy Hawkwind-like stomps attempt to transition into songs by The Fall. All recorded ‘New Zealand style’ in my garage.
If we weren’t such raving greenies here at Small Town Electron we’d put this tape forward as the PERFECT album for a lengthy nocturnal drive. – Antony Milton
These new recordings were made exactly one year later – again on the first day of daylight savings, Spring 2022 in the southern hemisphere – now joined by David Heath on drums.
The anniversary prompted the title – then possible alternative meanings of which (binary star systems, colonising other planets) led down a science fiction wormhole…
This track links the various spoken word,ย electricย improv, and folk strands of fiffdimension music. While the rest of Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) is acoustic based, in this case, the electric arrangement seemed to add a โkinglyโ majesty, and pathos – as the monarch discovers the limits of his worldly power.
โThe monarch ceased. The courtier train shook, muttered, gazed and shook again.
They saw lifeโs dying embers fade, they felt the sting of horrorโs blade.
Before them lay a lifeless form, which once with life had passions warmed.
The hand was stiff which oft had reigned, the warhorse and the prisoner chained.
A lifeless lump of senseless clay, the stern despotic monarch lay.โ โ John Collie (1834-1893)
The first proper ‘band’ recording sessions by The Troubled Times, with the addition of David Heath on drums.
Improvised psychedelic rock – inspired by the Wairarapa rural landscapes, and the main road through them – with touches of country, Brazilian jazz, and electroacoustic experiments.
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fiffdimension 