“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: albums
Spastic Rhythms the 3rd (2026)
A followup to Spastic Rhythms ’22 (2022) and Spastic Rhythms vol1 (2021) – solo instrumentals with guitar loops and homemade percussion, and interspecies collaborations with Oscar the dog (a New Zealand huntaway).
Listen
Featherston, NZ
Guitar tracks recorded late 2025; percussion tracks recorded early 2026.
Oscar celebrates his 13th birthday this month!
credits
released March 6, 2026
Dave Edwards – guitars, bass, percussion
Oscar – vocal (1,4,11), cannon bone (10)
Campbell Kneale – painting of Oscar
(as well as a celebrated noise artist – see fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/a-ton-of-feathers-2018 and campbellkneale.bandcamp.com – Campbell’s also a pet portraitist)
Tracklist
| 1. | Oscar’s Reggae 01:00 | |||
| 2. | Chimichurri 07:58 | |||
| 3. | The Night Sky 04:44 | |||
| 4. | fiffdimension + Oscar – Xenochronous Dog 00:55 | |||
| 5. | Chopsocky 02:50 | |||
| 6. | Boxes in the Garage 02:20 | |||
| 7. | Swing Bridge 03:10 | |||
| 8. | 01-01-26 03:19 | |||
| 9. | Clouds Shifting 04:09 | |||
| 10. | fiffdimension + Oscar – Drum & Bone 00:50 | |||
| 11. | fiffdimension + Oscar – Oscar’s Jam Session 02:50 |
Further listening
Spastic Rhythms ’22 (2022)
Spastic Rhythms vol1 (2021)
Goblins (2024)
Electroacoustic, slow burn, deep in imaginary forest. Alludes to Shakespeare, Tolkien, Brothers Grimm.
Listen
credits
released February 19, 2026
Dave Edwards – bass, glockenspiel (1,3,6), electric guitar (3,5,6), e-drum (2,4), pitch-shifted gong (3.6), clarinet (7)
Previously unreleased solo instrumental recordings from 2024;
expands on the possibilities of fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/jovial-blade-7-2024
————-
Recorded in Featherston, NZ, 2024. Editing finished off February 2026.
Photos taken in the ‘Goblin forest’ of Mt Taranaki, NZ (on a visit back to my hometown of New Plymouth)..
Tracklist
| 1. | Goblins 02:301. |
| 2. | Trail of Breadcrumbs 03:12 |
| 3. | Oberon 07:49 |
| 4. | by Jupiter 04:42 |
| 5. | Hobgoblins 03:03 |
| 6. | Titania 11:28 |
| 7. | Extant Body & Weight Extended 10:58 |
Further listening: Jovial Blade 7″
FFSE: MiXtape X (2026)
Our first album release of 2026, by Featherston Free Sound Ensemble – courtesy of Antony Milton’s Troubled Times Tapes label. Available on cassette or download.
“Every few weeks the peace of a small hall in the otherwise quiet tiny town of Featherston at the very bottom of the North Island of New Zealand/Aotearoa is disrupted by a gathering of eccentric misfits with a ragtag collection of noise making electronics. Old tape decks playing home made loops, dusty turntables spinning even dustier vinyl festooned with tags of sellotape, and glitchy cheap effects pedals disrupting the signal of an array of instruments that are being force-fed into weirdly small amplifiers.
“The recordings here in are from a variety of said get togethers and performances. Noise collage meets odd techno dub butted up against distorted rock. Tapiness wins.” – Antony Milton
credits
released January 14, 2026
Guy Walker – turntable, cassette loops
Alex V – turntable, MIDI, sampler
Dave Edwards – bass, e-drum, clarinet, guitar
Recorded Oct-Nov 2025
Edited and mastered (somewhat) by A.M
Cover photos by Guy Walker
Further listening: Featherston Free Sound Ensemble
Live 2025
A late EP coda to the year –
Tracks 1-4 recorded live at the Bakehouse, 29-11-25 – opening act for Featherston Free Sound Ensemble /
Tracks 5-6 recorded 08 February 2025 at the Carterton Club.
includes two pieces from Poems & Lyrics in the Scotch Dialect (1856)
and the first live performance of Assembling Disconsonant
Tracklist
Further listening: live albums
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)”Featherston Free Sound Ensemble: First Experiments (2025)
Guy Walker – turntables, cassettes (right channel)
Dave Edwards – bass, guitar, e-drum (left channel)
Recorded at the Bakehouse, Featherston NZ, 18/09/25
Continue reading “Featherston Free Sound Ensemble: First Experiments (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)”Poems & Lyrics (in the English dialect) (1856)
Songs of the seasons, the forest and the sea, home and exile, mortality and immortality:
an adaptation of the book, “Poems and Lyrics (in the English and Scotch dialects)“ by John Collie, of Boyndie (1834-1893), with music by his descendants in New Zealand, between 2020-2025
Listen
“Songs from the harp and lyre – a fantastic flow back from the ancient days” – Dr Emit Snake-Beings
The album includes collaborations with my nephew Hans Landon-Lane, plus guest appearances by Antony Milton and Dr Emit Snake-Beings.
“I have been lucky enough to hear some of Dave Edwards work on this at a couple of shows – very cool concept project and worth a listen” – James Trotman
Background
My great-great-grandfather published his book in 1856, before emigrating to New Zealand for the rest of his life.
Discovering this family outsider art precedent in 2018 cast fiffdimension in a whole new light! It sparked a seven-year project to record musical arrangements of his poems for a new century’s audience.
“And with a trembling hand I launch my tiny vessel into the troubled ocean of literature , where many a noble craft has been shattered to pieces…”
Like his better-known countryman (and influence) Robert Burns, John Collie wrote in both English and Scots. The other half of the album is Poems & Lyrics in the Scotch Dialect
Continue reading “Poems & Lyrics (in the English dialect) (1856)”Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856)
Songs of alcohol, death, the devil, rebellion, kinship, and love gone awry, from 19th century Scotland:
an adaptation of the book, “Poems and Lyrics (in the English and Scotch dialects)“ by John Collie, of Boyndie (1834-1893),
with music by his descendants, between 2018-2025 in New Zealand and France.
Listen
“Songs from the harp and lyre – a fantastic flow back from the ancient days” – Dr Emit Snake-Beings
“I have been lucky enough to hear some of Dave Edwards work on this at a couple of shows – very cool concept project and worth a listen” – James Trotman
Background
Continue reading “Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856)”“And with a trembling hand I launch my tiny vessel into the troubled ocean of literature , where many a noble craft has been shattered to pieces…”
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