Dave Edwards live solo at Solway Showgrounds, Masterton NZ
24th June + 19th August 2023
at ‘The Next Big Thing Wairarapa‘

1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
Dave Edwards live solo at Solway Showgrounds, Masterton NZ
24th June + 19th August 2023
at ‘The Next Big Thing Wairarapa‘

Thank you everyone who came to The Troubled Times‘ live debut, in Featherston NZ
Antony Milton – guitar David Heath – drums Dave Edwards – bass
Mānawatia a Matariki!
Thanks also to Zac and Holly Winterwood,
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: live at Common Ground 15/07/23”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
New improvisational raw material post-composed & aleatory generative texts added, in a kiwi accent:
I did the bass improvisation first, then played along with it on guitar and banjo, then improvised vocals with nonsensical words (Paul McCartney conjuring ‘get back’ in the documentary), transcribed, rewrote into English words (if not grammar), and fed that into Google search and read out cutups (Burroughs) of the search results to supplement it… I’ve had hangups for years about writing, so was looking for ways to short circuit my conscious doubt.
the title ‘assembling disconsonant’ describes the method?
meaning is optional
chance methods are supplementary
but starting with the bass part ensures the whole thing is built on a (human) groove
& stylistically a middle aged update of (early 2000s) solo pieces like https://fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/track/in-a-who-gets-to-who-who-does-him :
Assembling disconsonant,
(fine do it all in half take);
hours of wisdom, years of folly.Far digressed – how far digressed at a woeful seed inconsolate engraver’s nest
How hard to be in vainHow many times of an awkward persuasion upon the twenty years and twenty more and hence the days of which were gone & now to rest.
A suitor sang he was inclined to raise the best achievements blessed & heard the worst & called a hearse & vain & vaguely followed favour on the rest declined.
Declined in favour on the rest to be the best & live in vain achiever’s nest with leave was blesst & obviating scrying
Meticulously dragged upon & a bird’s beak greed construed with macroeconomic trade sessions, subscriptions now open declined (the underappreciated Old Testament Galatians had suffered great reproach). Many afflictions & persecutions, theoretical thrifty gene.Nothing more than had to be at said, nothing more that had to be at days, tomb towards them in time, hand the rest in brave the test in mouth begotten porcupine time expands in furtive graze to grind.
The only hope for awkward days
In said to be at sun was said to set in severed set in needle’s rest in groove.Nonsensical of syllables attempting to reinstitute a thing for an institution only slightly half dizzy – he’d gotten off work at only 5:20…
released May 6, 2023
Dave Black – bass, classical guitar, banjo, vocal
Recorded in Featherston, New Zealand, May 2023
fiffdimension vol4, águas brilhantes: 2018-2022, sums up the last few years’ here:
2022‘s been a particularly productive year… there’s a (mostly) solo instrumental album (also ft Oscar the dog);
two albums by the Troubled Times – collaboration with Antony Milton now a trio with David Heath on drums;
recordings with my nephews Hans and Rhys Landon-Lane towards Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) – with words written by our ancestor;
and a multimedia spoken word + improvised music collaboration with the award-winning painter James Robinson;
“We go from bossa nova rhythms to folk to RIO to indie to, what is interesting listening if nothing else, a dog howling along to a banjo (Oscar’s Blues) […] and songs taken from Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856), where Dave paid tribute to his ancestor John Collie who wrote a book of poems more than 150 years ago.
“It is unusual to find someone playing so confidently in such diverse areas, and anyone into independent music will certainly find something on here to enjoy – Kev Rowland, muzic.nz
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.
This compilation includes pieces inspired by the region and my ancestors, and new and old collaborators – including a torch-passing to younger members of my family.
by Dave Edwards – guitars, bass, banjo, harmonica, vocal, lyrics
with
released December 22, 2022
Features previously unreleased recordings, and tracks from












Loosely a sequel to The Troubled Times’ debut, Return of the Sun (2021) –
These new recordings were made exactly one year later – again on the first day of daylight savings, Spring 2022 in the southern hemisphere – now joined by David Heath on drums.
The anniversary prompted the title – then possible alternative meanings of which (binary star systems, colonising other planets) led down a science fiction wormhole…
Recorded in Masterton, New Zealand, 25 September 2022
The album also features a key crossover track, with the Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) project:
This track links the various spoken word, electric improv, and folk strands of fiffdimension music. While the rest of Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) is acoustic based, in this case, the electric arrangement seemed to add a ‘kingly’ majesty, and pathos – as the monarch discovers the limits of his worldly power.
“The monarch ceased. The courtier train shook, muttered, gazed and shook again.
They saw life’s dying embers fade, they felt the sting of horror’s blade.
Before them lay a lifeless form, which once with life had passions warmed.
The hand was stiff which oft had reigned, the warhorse and the prisoner chained.
A lifeless lump of senseless clay, the stern despotic monarch lay.” – John Collie (1834-1893)
(track also appears on fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/poems-lyrics-in-the-english-dialect-1856 )
Multimedia spoken word and music collaboration between two unique NZ artists:
James Robinson is a mid career contemporary New Zealand mixed media artist, exhibiting widely since 1989 – www.jamesrobinson.nz
fiffdimension is music and multimedia by Dave Edwards (aka Dave Black) and collaborators, since 1998 – www.fiffdimension.com
We met in the early 2000s, and finally collaborated 20 years on. Negentropic Diatribes was recorded in Otago in 2022, as James used spoken word recordings to discuss his creative process and innermost thoughts.
The musical settings were created by Dave in Featherston – plus contributions from other collaborators.
with


James won 2007 paramount prize in the wallace award for
” Taniwaha dragon mother ( spirit bones)”
Continue reading “w/ James Robinson – Negentropic Diatribes (2022)”‘… a great big flatulent belch of fresh air amongst all the tight-sphinctered, deodorised boys and girls of the accepted national art world….. off-kilter and threatening but always sumptuously, gloriously beautiful.’
– Chris Knox.
Featherston, NZ – early 2022 – spontaneous compositions, two wet weekends in a row.
A sequel to Spastic Rhythms vol 1 (2021)
Dave Black – guitars, bass, banjo (2), clarinet (6), sanshin (10), loop pedal, e-drum
Oscar – vocal (3,9)
released February 13, 2022
| 1. | Drums on Waitangi Day 00:54 |
| 2. | Estado Novo 01:20 |
| 3. | Oscar – Oscar’s Blues 01:28 |
| 4. | fiffdimension / snakebeings – Arising (into Fragments) 03:51 |
| 5. | Black Mountain (Црна Гора) 00:59 |
| 6. | Shuffling the Tarot 03:39 |
| 7. | Classical rain bucket 01:41 |
| 8. | Rebooting 02:52 |
| 9. | Oscar – At home pants ft. cannon bone 02:12 |
| 10. | Removing a bandaid 00:51 |
| 11. | Shuri Jo (琉球諸島) 01:03 |
| 12. | Waiting for Dovi 05:24 |
A compilation of tracks from the Wairarapa in these years.
“It is unusual to find someone playing so confidently in such diverse areas, and anyone into independent music will certainly find something on here to enjoy – Kev Rowland, muzic.nz
New live album!
With New Zealand in lockdown this might be the next best thing to an actual gig..
Track 1 recorded live at the Fringe Bar, Wellington NZ, 27-02-18
Tracks 2-7 recorded live at Escape Velocity, Featherston NZ, 10-03-18
As part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival
The Digitator – midi, laptop, vocal
Dave Black – bass, electric guitar
A new multilayered Dave Black electric improv / xenochronous composition.
The track continues the evolution of my Wairarapa one man band 2020s ‘late style’, which began with Glimpses of Utopia (2020) and Spastic Rhythms (2021)
It was originally created for the Psi-solation+1 – 2021 compilation album curated by fellow Featherston resident Campbell Kneale. He’s known for his noise music, paintings of cats, and as proprietor of the Miracle Room.
Continue reading “Outono 21”