1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
“Weirdly perverse all-over-the-place free-form jam recorded at a practice for a gig. Pretty much zero editing so it is what it is (…). Veers between NZ garage squall and free jazz skronk with epic relentless drumming from Mr Heath. Copied onto disk as a quickie give away for the show.”
Antony Milton
David Heath – drums
Dave Edwards – bass
Antony Milton – guitar
Recorded in Masterton, NZ
19 July 2026
released August 5, 2026
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…
(& 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 […]
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.
The instrumental used for ‘Overgrowth” appears as track 5, ‘titled ‘the Deeper Cut’
A compilation spanning the early years of fiffdimension; more chaotic wide ranging undiscovered brilliance, from the turn of the millennium…
The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath) feature on this new compilation by Kentucky-based label Humanhood Recordings.
Available on limited edition double cassette.
Other artists include KNURL, EMIL BEAULIEAU, COCK ESP, Aaron Rosenblum, Thaniel Ion Lee, Mike Shiflet, Joe Tunis and more…
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”A track from the Loose Autumn Moans album – originally recorded in 2003, and recently played live for the first time in 20 years!
A ‘darker’ piece from Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)
An electric arrangement also appears on Live 2022-24
AULD Satan , when ye first gae through Your regions dark and awful , A sma ‘ bit favour I would crave , Gif ye but think it lawful .
Gie my respects to Souter Will , The first time ye forgather ; And tell him that I’m wae to think Him lost for a ’ thegither .
For ministers and others say He straught to you was taken ; ‘ Cause he the creed o ‘ Scotland’s kirk Had mony a day forsaken .
Gif that be true , as it may be , Though faith I’m misbelieving , You ne’er met wi ‘ a slier coof , Since ye took to deceiving.
But use him well , and gif ye can , Oh gie ‘ im a bit promotion ; O ‘ a ‘ your buts and a ‘ your bens He ‘ shortly hae a notion .
But keep him aye beneath your thumb , And work him smooth and sweetly ; Or o’er your head he’ll tak your trade , And dam your luck completely .
from Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856), releases August 10, 2023
This was chronologically the last piece recorded on the Acoustic yin / Electric yang 2CD, released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of fiffdimension in 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
w/ Guy Walker (turntable):
Solo, just the words:
It’s the first day of autumn (2023) here in the southern hemisphere (good riddance to Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused devastation in other parts of the North Island), so here’s a track from Poems & Lyrics (in the English Dialect) (1856):
Continue reading “Autumn (by John Collie, 1856)”AGAIN old Autumn murmurs from the hill , His annual toils already are begun ; His angry blast howls down the fertile vale , Gust after gust with melancholy moan .
Hans Landon-Lane plays accordion, ukulele and vocals on Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) — a long-running fiffdimension project, adapting the 19th century Scottish poetry of John Middleton Collie (1834–1893), into contemporary music.
Hans is Collie’s great-great-great-grandson, and a nephew of Dave Edwards. The project has involved several of Collie’s descendants in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Hans Landon-Lane plays accordion, ukulele and vocal on
“The sweet breath of summer blows fresh o’er each plain
The woods have resumed their lost grandeur again
The grove with the notes of the blackbirds are singing
By fountain and stream the wild flowers are springing […]”
“I sing of the land where in youth I have rambled
I sing of her heroes who long long are gone
And I sing of her steep crags where oft I have scrambled
When dull pining cares to me were unknown […]”
Continue reading “Hans Landon-Lane”Here’s a health to my cronies where e’er they reside,
whether this side or that o’ yon big rowing tide
I care na what country or kingdom they claim, be they English or Irish to me it’s the same
Gif their hearts to a glass o’ gude whisky incline, I instantly class them as cronies o’ mine […]”
