1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
2012
part of
Other Islands: 2012-2018 – a compilation of recent highlights, recorded in New Zealand, Western Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and Okinawa
In 2012 I was home in New Zealand for a total of seven days, in July/August. Oherwise it was very much a year of two halves.
Nat da Hatt and I recorded a track for our duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song)
“The 20 song album covers traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Asian folk music, to free jazz, and free noise. It’s not for anyone with narrow preconceived ideas about what music is, but it is for everyone else.
“If you have an open inquiring mind and love hearing a variety of sound, this is excellent.” – Darryl Baser, muzic.net.nz
by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with
- and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
Featuring tracks from the albums
If you enjoy this, try the previous compilations
Here’s a new bonus track we’ve added to the album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song) from 沖縄 (Okinawa).
Dave Black – sanshin, harmonica, field recordings
Nat da Hatt – acoustic & electric guitars, electronics
Cylvi Manthyng – shakuhachi
As you can hear, the music of Okinawa is quite distinct from that of mainland Japan.
Back in April we performed Dave Black & Snake Beings: East to West at the Audio Foundation in Auckland. Here’s a first excerpt from the show, which took the audience all the way from NZ to Portugal. This chapter is set in mainland Japan, and takes in Kyoto, Mount Fuji, and 1990s Tokyo. The soundtrack was performed live.
We’ve recorded an album’s worth of material, which is now available: Ngumbang
www.fiffdimension.com www.snakebeings.co.nz
In the meantime for other original music inspired by Japan, and more Japanese mountaineering, see ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt.
As well as recording music together, we completed a six-day hiking mission across the northern alps in July 2012, from Kamikochi to Toyama.
The album closes with our rendition of a traditional Okinawa shima uta (island song). It’s a tribute to Japan’s southernmost island prefecture, where Dave lived in 2011/12. The ‘overdrive’ is a tribute to early Pink Floyd, reflecting the psychedelic update of the tune.
Nat da Hatt – electric & acoustic guitars, drum machine, synths, laptop, samples
Dave Black – bass, banjo, acoustic guitar (5), electric guitar (3), loop pedal, electronics, laptop, field recordings
| 1. | 東京から槍ヶ岳 Tokyo to Yarigatake 03:38 |
| 2. | 携帯電話 Keitai Denwa 05:43 |
| 3. | 幸せとは何？What actually is happiness? 04:17 |
| 4. | 剃毛電球ブルース Shaved Lightbulb Blues 04:18 |
| 5. | 福岡に到着 Arrival in Fukuoka 04:41 |
| 6. | 電機市 Denki Ken 03:58 |
| 7. | 平仮名 Hiragana 04:57 |
| 8. | 薬師岳から漓江まで Yakushidake to Li Jiang 05:07 |
| 9. | 安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa) 05:20 |
Nat da Hatt also contributes guest tracks to
and
“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox
“As Dave Edwards he has explored fuzzy punk, free-jazz, spoken word, alternative-folk and demented pop… as Dave Black, the palette is broadened” – Simon Sweetman
by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with
“Experimental and avant-garde…. There is a clear passion, and a commitment to pushing the boundaries… This will challenge your perceptions of what constitutes music and open the mind to new possibilities of sounds that surround us – muzic.net.nz“
This is an ethnomusicological album of pieces made from sound recordings, during visits to six different countries in Asia during 2007-2008, The sounds are edited into sonic short stories.
![First time around [South Korea]](https://fiffdimension.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/first-time-around-south-korea.jpg)
During, and immediately after, a year and a half living in
(teaching English for a living, and to fund further travels – see First Time Around: South Korea),
we travelled to:
8. 请介意你的脚步 (Please Mind Your Step) 01:33
2. Cylvi M – シルビエム在佛的脚在京都 (at Buddha’s Foot, Kyoto) 02:16
| 3. | ระดับที่สามพระอารามหลวง (3rd Grade Royal Temple) 04:04 |
| 4. | เชียงใหม่ร้านรัฐบาล (Chiang Mai government shop) 02:35 |
| 5. | หมู่บ้านกะเหรี่ยง (The Karen Village) 04:10 |
| 6. | Việt Nam chào buổi tối (Good Evening Vietnam) 02:25 |
| 7. | núi và rất cây (Mountain and Very Tree) 04:43 |
| 9. | Монголын хувьсгалт нам ((It’s a) Mongolian Revolutionary Party) 02:33 |
| 10. | ханаду ямаа (Goats in Xanadu) 03:32 |
ハイサイ! イチャリバ チョデ! よろしく おねがいします。 きょ-ねん 那覇市に すんでいました と にほんご ちょっと べんきょしました。
In 2011-2012 I lived in Naha (那覇市), the main city of Okinawa Prefecture (沖縄県) in Japan (日本).
Nat da Hatt and I recorded a track for our duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes there – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song)
The Ryukyu Islands are a whole other world from mainland Japan – there’s no Mt Fuji, samurai, sumo wrestling, geisha or shinkansen. They have a different culture, food, climate and music – more tropical and laidback, the Hawaii of northeast Asia, with jungle, sugar cane, beautiful sea and coral – umi to sango wa totemo kirei desu ne – and wonderful people and tragic history.
Continue reading “Okinawa, Japan 沖縄日本”Videos from a solo trip across Kyushu (in March 2012, on holiday from work in Okinawa). Accompanied by Japanese music such as koto, shakuhachi, yokagura and hip-hop, recorded live.
Four videos –
1) from sugi (Japanese cedar) forest with 3000-year-old trees on Yakushima Island,
2) heading north via Kumamoto and its castle, to
3) a yokagura dance performance reenacting the legend of how the sun goddess returned to the world in Takachiho,
4) to the city of Fukuoka (score by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt – free download)
fiffdimension 
