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.

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

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2CD compilation 1998-2023

Celebrating 25 years of fiffdimension!

Electric (yang) / Acoustic (yin)

“Double disc collection of more than two decades’ worth of live and studio-recorded tunes by Dave Edwards, who you may have heard recently as part of The Troubled Times with Antony Milton. It’s quite a diverse listen!

“You get some concise and catchy pop songs, some full-on rockers, banjo excursions, improv freak-out, poetry, acoustic blues, folk songs, scrambled noise… there’s something here for everybody. A good intro to Dave’s dauntingly deep discography.”
– Howard Stelzer, Noisy Bandcamp.

A collection of short tracks by Dave Edwards and collaborators.

Produced by Antony Milton; and features Paul Winstanley, Chris O’Connor, Simon O’Rorke,Chris Palmer, Sam Prebble, Mike Kingston, Francesca Mountfort, Damian Stewart, Emit Snake-Beings, Nat da Hatt, Steve Duffels, and Oscar (the dog).

2CD double album. 35 tracks spanning 25 years. Comes in gatefold card case with full colour photography by Jechtography and James Gilberd. Includes download of the digital album.

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The Troubled Times: Elevate

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

A contrasting companion piece to the forthcoming ‘Another Sunday‘ CD (all but the last track recorded during the same session), ‘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….)

credits

releases July 15, 2023

Tracks 1-4 recorded 28 May 2023
‘Festive Spirit’ recorded 18 December 2022

in Antony’s garage, Masterton, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Photo by Dave, at the Remutaka ranges

in a wildflower state (Western Australia, 2013)

In late 2012, after leaving Japan, I moved to Australia for the second time – this time to Western Australia for a couple of years…

in a wildflower state is a lost album – recorded in Perth WA, 2012-2014 – unreleased at the time.

The music here is rustic, reflecting the vast ancient arid landscape, overlaid with touches of Nyoongar and bogan sounds. It also includes appearances by Nat da Hatt, Cylvi M, and Renato Salvador.

Known as the Wildflower State, Western Australia covers an enormous area – the size of India, but with a population of under three million. Metaphorically, to be a ‘wildflower’ can also mean a wandering spirit or traveller (such as a kiwi expat on an OE).

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águas brilhantes: 2018-2022

fiffdimension vol 4

made in Featherston, Masterton, and Suva – ft Antony Milton, James Robinson, Dr Emit Snake-Beings, Campbell Kneale, and lyrics by John Collie (1834-1893) – the title is ‘Wairarapa’ in Portuguese.

Collaborations with my ancestors and younger relatives, friends in Fiji, a painter in Otago, the curator of PseudoArcana, and the family dog.

águas brilhantes (or ‘glistening waters’ in English) is the Portuguese translation of Wairarapa, the Māori name of the region where I’ve lived the last few years.

My ancestors arrived here in the 19th century – one was a Scottish poet, another a stowaway from the Azores islands.

a followup to
fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/gleefully-unknown-1997-2005
fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/fame-oblivion-2005-2012
fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/other-islands-2012-2018

with videos at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtbrBpNjlOHOhGouOChNl3jVUif1AZIl6 )

águas brilhantes (or ‘glistening waters’ in English) is the Portuguese translation of Wairarapa, the Māori name of the region where I live. Several of my pākeha ancestors arrived here in the 19th century.

Much of the music is inspired by two of my great-great-grandfathers – John Collie (1834-1893), a Scottish poet, who helped build the Remutaka incline railway; and Manuel Bernard (1847-1928), who left the Azores islands, as a teenaged stowaway on a whaling ship and ended up in Masterton. It’s also a torch-passing to the next generation – recorded with nephews Hans and Rhys, and niece Celeste.

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The Winter: 2003-2015

Simon Sweetman – drums, percussion

Mike Kingston – guitars, cello (2-5), clarinet (7,11,14), charango (7,10)

Dave Edwards – guitars, vocal (3), harmonica (4,7,9), banjo (7), ukulele (7,9,11), saxophone (10,14), piano (10), bass (12,13), electronics (6,8,13)

Wellington, New Zealand,
free improv music trio, formed on winter solstice day June 2003.

An archive compilation,

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Spastic Rhythms ’22

Featherston, NZ – early 2022 – spontaneous compositions, two wet weekends in a row.

A sequel to Spastic Rhythms vol 1 (2021)

– a series of ‘quickfire’ DIY solo albums created in a couple of days each.

This one features interspecies guest collaboration with Oscar the huntaway.

credits

released February 13, 2022

Dave Black – guitars, bass, banjo (2), clarinet (6), sanshin (10), loop pedal, e-drum

Oscar – vocal

w/ Antony Milton: Return of the Sun

Electric guitar improv duo – in collaboration with antonymilton.bandcamp.com

Recorded in Masterton, New Zealand, 26-09-21

Antony Milton is a sound artist based in Masterton, New Zealand.

He has been active in the underground and experimental music scenes since the early 1990s.

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Antony Milton is a sound artist based in Masterton, New Zealand.

He has been active in the underground and experimental music scenes since the early 1990s.

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Glimpses of Utopia

Palette cleansing electric solo improv.

Recorded in Featherston, New Zealand, 2019-20.

I’m not a trained jazz musician, but nor do I fit neatly into the ‘NZ noise‘ genre.

Further listening

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Articulation Incommunicate (2004)

Previously unreleased!

Dictaphone cassette recordings, Wellington NZ, 2004

Spoken word and improvised guitar; a journey down the road not taken for New Zealand music.

Dave Edwards – acoustic guitar, harmonica, dictaphone, electronics, electric guitar (11), violin (12), vocal

w/
Youjae Lee – bass (12)
Simon O’Rorke – percussion (12)
Simon Sweetman – ukulele, toys, percussion (15)

The tracks were primitively recorded, based on words scribbled in notebooks, unheard by anyone else (until 2020), and seemed like unfinished demos at the time; but in hindsight represent the culmination of my early period (a lo-fi postpunk fusion of songs, spoken word and free improv – www.fiffdimension.com/1997-2005).

By 2004 my style was wordy; the influences here were literary modernists as much as music – eg Burroughs, Joyce, Beckett, Pynchon, Dylan (Thomas), and NZ poets James K Baxter, Alan Brunton and Hone Tuwhare. My guitar heroes included free improviser Derek Bailey, my Mississippi bluesman namesake David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards, and the kiwi musicians found in my bandcamp collection – www.bandcamp.com/fiffdime

‘Articulation Incommunicate’ includes an abrasive electric guitar, dictaphone and electric razor performance at the Bomb the Space Festival (youtu.be/8UFpX7catqw – one of my very few music videos to have over a thousand views… go figure…