4th May 2019 at Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon
Solo guitar version of a tune by the Electricka Zoo, from our 2017 debut album:
It’s based on the hijaz scale and a 7/8 rhythm.
Category: video
Summer Skin
Live 4th May 2019, at Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon, in Masterton NZ.
Solo guitar & harmonica version of track http://www.fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/track/summer-skin
Originally recorded in Wellington NZ, September 2003, for the album ‘Loose Autumn Moans‘, with a mini string section of Mike Kingston on cello and Sam Prebble (RIP) on violin. It also appears on the Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation.
Seafriends
4th May 2019 live solo version at the Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon.
This song was originally recorded in June 2001, at Thistle Hall, Wellington. It was the opening track of the album The Marion Flow.
The Marion Flow, March 2019
Since last year I’ve been getting back into playing solo acoustic. Here’s a 6 March 2019 version of ‘the Marion Flow‘:
It appears on the Live 2019 album:
Originally recorded in New Plymouth in 1999, it became the title track of my second album:
The Marion Flow (Taranaki, 1999)
The 1999 recording had quite a different vibe – spoken word delivery, electric guitars panned left & right, and Paul Winstanley playing a cymbal through a pitch shifter, turning it into a deep sea gong sound.
The Marion Flow (Wellington, 2001)
On other occasions it became a rock riff, based around just an E note and its octave.
I was surrounded by wider & weirder music too. I moved to Wellington and found a kiwi avant-garde scene with free jazz, noise, and theatre gallore. We eventually finished The Marion Flow album in 2001, after recording sessions at Thistle Hall.
Both the live electric and acoustic versions appear on the
Acoustic (yin) / Electric (yang) 2CD compilation
Two sides of a coin!
Lyrics
The lyrics are some of my favourite. They were scribbled in a notebook sometime in the late 90s. I was digesting the influence of literary modernism (eg lines like ‘yea take in that wake’ a shout out to James Joyce, using nouns as verbs and vice versa, and other general flouting of grammatical rules).
Taranaki and its coastlines inspired much of the atmosphere.
Continue reading “The Marion Flow, March 2019”Here’s a Health to my Cronies (by John Collie, 1856)
19th century Scottish drinking song, by John Collie (1834-1893), from his book ‘Poems and Lyrics‘
Played by his great-great-grandson Dave Edwards – first public performance of this piece, at Dragon Inn, Featherston, NZ, 6 Feb 2019 .
A couple of months later I played it at Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon on 4th of May 2019
which features on the Live 2019 album.
HERE’S A HEALTH TO MY CRONIES.
HERE’S a health to my cronies where’er they reside, Whether this side or that o’ yon big rowin’ 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.”
Awa wi’ yon nabob purse-proud o’ his gear, Neither he nor his wealth hae charms for us here; Awa wi’ yon fop wi’ his clear headed cane, A bit trip through the warld, it’s use may explain; But welcome my cronies wherever ye be, To join in this gude reekin’ bumper wi’ me.
A fig for the wealth that this warld can gie, We naething brought here, sae we’ve naething to lea; The farmer wi’ ousen an’ acres galore, Has his crosses just now, an’ may sune count on more; Then come here, my cronies, let’s kick awa care, As lang’s we’ve a groat or a shilling to spare.
The Land of My Youth (by John Collie, 1856), January 2019 demo
January 2019, looking for a new sound and a new project – after completing Other Islands: 2012-2018.
It’s a poem by John Collie (1834-1893), my great-great-grandfather
from his book Poems and Lyrics in the English and Scotch Dialects, published in Scotland in 1856
John Collie emigrated to New Zealand in 1858. This poem seems to anticipate his leaving Scotland forever, to start a new life in a new country on the opposite side of the world.
In May I performed it live on Wairarapa TV.
Lyrics
Continue reading “The Land of My Youth (by John Collie, 1856), January 2019 demo”
Campbell Kneale & Dave Black
A Ton of Feathers is the first collaboration
by Campbell Kneale (guitar, analogue synthesiser)
& Dave Black (bass, electric toothbrush, video).
Made in Featherston, Wairarapa NZ in 2018.
New Zealand folk music, in the tradition of Birchville Cat Motel, the Dead C, and Len Lye.
This excerpt appears on the compilation Other Islands: 2012-2018, and is part of a longer piece, due for release in 2020.
Other Islands: 2012-2018
“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
- fiffdimension compilation vol3 – (see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005, Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012, and águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022)
- Made in New Zealand, Okinawa (Japan), Western Australia, Indonesia, and Fiji.
- Includes tracks by The Winter, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt, Confluence Quintet, Gamelan Sekar Puri, Gamelan Padhang Moncar, Gamelan Taniwha Jaya, The Electricka Zoo, Dave Black & Snake Beings, Dave Black & Campbell Kneale.
by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with
- Mike Kingston (charango, acoustic guitar),
- Simon Sweetman (percussion),
- Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards, banjo),
- Emit Snake-Beings (banjo, vocal, percussion, flute, electronics),
- the Digitator (electric drums, keyboards & loops),
- Campbell Kneale (electric guitar, analogue synthesiser),
- Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),
- Blair Latham (bass clarinet),
- Simon O’Rorke (keyboards),
- Chris Prosser (violin),
- Julie Bevan (acoustic guitar),
- plus Indonesian gamelan ensembles led by Sofari Hidayat, Budi Putra, and Gareth Farr,
- and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
Featuring tracks from the albums
- The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)
- in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)
- ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-15)
- Ngumbang (2014-15)
- The Winter: Exit Points (2015)
- The Electricka Zoo (2017)
- and previously unheard tracks.
If you enjoy this, try the previous compilations
Show Me Your House Moves
Our version of a catchy groove, the first track off the Electricka Zoo album… we’re working on a music video and maybe a 7″ remix, but in the meantime…
the Electricka Zoo, early 2017
Next appearing at Fringe Bar in Wellington, Tuesday 28th March 2017, 8:45pm. Free entry.
The Electricka Zoo are one of Wellington’s most intriguing new live bands, a bass/guitar and live electronica duo of Dave Black and the Digitator. They combine influences from EDM, punk rock, jazz, reggae, Balkan and Portuguese music into their own homegrown NZ sound.
Keep an eye and two ears out for their first album, coming soon.
In the meantime a vinyl-only 7″ single and collection of early (2015-2016) demos on Soundcloud are available.
