7″ singles

2x new 7″ lathe cut singles:

Jovial Blade / Extant Body & Weight

“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

The Troubled Times: Cellophane

Discs manufactured in NZ by Johnny Electric

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The Troubled Times: Live at the Pyramid Club 28/09/24

Thank you SkirtedRecords for the video snippets, and Pyramid Club for hosting, Termite Lounge and Christian Wolves (Campbell Kneale and Sarah Bingle) for playing, Thomas Lambert for running the show, and everyone who came to the gig on Saturday! We had a blast… hopefully it won’t be another six years til the next time in Wellington!

The full video of all three bands is available to stream (free) at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2262357709

The gig also marked the release of The Troubled Times’ new limited edition 7″ single Cellophane – only a couple of physical copies left so get in quick, or download from Bandcamp:

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The Troubled Times: Boa

With all the subtlety of a peacock in a pigeon coop The Troubled Times return with a new album, dominated by the squeals of tortured amps and seriously tormented drums.

The Troubled Times also play live this month – in Wellington, at the Pyramid Club on 28 September!

Boa features inadvertent post-rock gliding that crashes and bursts into jagged flames; some kind of illicit NZ spaghetti pizza western folds in on itself to become a fractalized polaroid of a dessicated lizard.

This tendency toward excess doesn’t preclude the odd lapse into a mumbled ad hoc song or 2 but the focus here seems to be on ‘loud’, ‘fucked’ and ‘intense’.
The poor bloody neighbours…

Tape version available at troubledtimestapes.bandcamp.com

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The Margins: 21/04/24

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

Recent (2024) recordings from a new combination of old collaborators – Antony Milton and Dave Edwards (The Troubled Times) with Wellington free-improv legend Simon O’Rorke.

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

Credits

Simon O’Rorke– falcon software synth
Dave Edwards– guitar, bass, electro-drums, harmonica
Antony Milton– guitar, drums, microphonic feedback

Recorded at Fleet Street, Masterton, NZ/Aotearoa on 21 April 2024
Cover art by Antony Milton

Tracklist

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Quietism (2024)

Early 2024 – the first new recordings made since the 25-year-spanning 2CD compilation; the start of the fiffdimension 2nd quarter-century.

Listen

Video

About

By Dave Edwards– early 2024, summertime in NZ –

Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electric drums – one single take of each, using overdubs to create a virtual trio.

Tracks 1-3 and 12 recorded early January 2024 – the rest recorded 6th February 2024, in Featherston, Aotearoa / New Zealand

The title ‘Quietism‘ refers not so much to the sound, but to the absence of vocals – or any reference to current news or politics. Part of the fiffdimension aesthetic is a certain wilful irrelevance, and ignoring of trends.

The last track ‘Hypnopompia‘ (waking up) experiments with a possible new ambient style.

The cover art is an abstract scribble drawing – attempting to bypass conscious self-doubt and create ‘something… anything’. A theme also explored in works such as Assembling Disconsonant (2023).

Featherston, New Zealand

Tracklist

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The Troubled Times: Another (****ing) Sunday

The first physical CD by The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath),

Fizzy dreamy shambolic ramblings from the Wairarapa‘s dustiest garage.
Instant songs committed to disk for posterity.

‘Another Sunday’ CD series

This was the first chapter in Antony Milton’s acclaimed ‘Another Sunday‘ series of CDs:
anothersunday.bandcamp.com – different artists, each making an album with the same title.

Other discs in the series include Michael Morley, Greymouth, Seht, Teen Haters, Perpets, and Sunset Temples

video

credits

released August 1, 2023

David Heath- drums
Dave Edwards– bass
Antony Milton– guitar/vocals, video, CD producer

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The Troubled Times: Elevate

A contrasting companion piece to the ‘Another Sunday‘ CD –

all but the last track were recorded during the same session, on 28/05/23)
Elevate‘ is a thoroughly kinetic affair bursting with energy and ecstatic passion.

Avant jazz meets squealing rambunctious noise. A frenetic blast down to the end of the driveway and back. The set finishes with a tribute to Albert Ayler.

What more could you want? (well there’s The Troubled Times’ live debut coming up on 15 July….)

Videos

credits

Antony Milton – electric guitar Dave Edwards – bass David Heath – drums

releases July 15, 2023

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The Wind Always Gets Through

Music video by The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath)

from the CD ‘Another Sunday’

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Assembling disconsonant

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

Live versions

w/ Guy Walker (turntable):

Solo, just the words:

Method

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The Troubled Times: Hill Road in Winter

The first physical format release from Masterton trio The Troubled Times is a loud and noisy nocturnal romp – through the hills and onto the gravel back roads of one of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s least visited regions.

Whilst earlier digital releases have veered from arty drone pieces to synth pop and heavy space rock the music on ‘Hill Road In Winter’ is more like a psychedelic pub jam band gone BRILLIANTLY ‘wrong’. Woozy blues paeans slip sideways into feedback freakouts and heavy Hawkwind-like stomps attempt to transition into songs by The Fall.
All recorded ‘New Zealand style’ in my garage.

If we weren’t such raving greenies here at Small Town Electron we’d put this tape forward as the PERFECT album for a lengthy nocturnal drive. – Antony Milton