The main project for 2018 was Other Islands: 2012-2018;
The last five (of the 20) tracks were recorded in 2018 – each in a different genre:
Tag: 2018
The Blast of a Wintry Day (by John Collie, 1856)
A song written by my great-great-grandfather John Collie, in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1856.
It also appeared on
Other Islands: 2012-2018
Where it marked a return to my solo acoustic approach of early years.
lyrics
Continue reading “The Blast of a Wintry Day (by John Collie, 1856)”
Scratched Surface 20th anniversary
“Worth searching out coz this lo-fi singer/songwriter oddball has a unique take on the genre. He’s pissed off, a tad fucked up (as usual), but not full of lugubrious self-pity (as unusual) and is happy to get raucous & obnoxious in just the right kinda way.” – Chris Knox
In December 1998 I self-released my debut album . Scratched Surface was a teenage no-budget lo-fi postpunk pakeha singer-songwriter album from the Taranaki, Aotearoa underground, recorded on analogue reel-to-reel tape.
I burned it on CDR and sent out copies to anyone who would listen. It was the opening salvo in a recording career that’s gone on for over 20 years now, occasionally dismissed, largely ignored, gloriously unsuccessful. A career nonetheless; I’ve made an album most years since.
20 years on I’m still creating – here’s some of what I’ve done more recently:
Isa Lei, and the Yasawa islands, Fiji
This rearrangement of a traditional Fijian folk song was inspired by hearing the song sung there.
In May I visited the Yasawa Islands, to the northwest of Nadi and the main Fijian island Viti Levu.
Yasawa islands, Fiji
Yasawa islands, Fiji
Yasawa islands, Fiji
The boat ride took 3 hours, and enjoyably scenic. Each of the many small islands we passed was different in some way but all stunning
The marine life included
Part of Other Islands: 2012-2018
– recent highlights recorded in New Zealand, Western Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and Okinawa
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
fiffdimension vol3
(see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012)
brings us into the current decade – with further wide-ranging experimentation and exploration sonically, temporally and geographically, in New Zealand, Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
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,
a song by my great-great-grandfather John Collie (1856),
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.
And hear the previous compilations
fiffdimension 