4 May 2019 – Wairarapa TV Music Marathon

Saturday 4 May 2019

May Music Marathon

fiffdimension (acoustic set) from 4:47:00, interview from 5:23:30

Radio House 5 Church Street, Masterton, Wellington Region

12:00pm – 12:00am

The Property Law Service May Music Marathon is a collaboration between Wairarapa TV, Property Law Service and 12 Wairarapa performing artists to bring 12 straight hours of live Music to Television screens during NZ Music Month on May the 4th.

The Property Law Service May Music Marathon will be simulcast on Wairarapa TV (Freeview CH41), ArrowFM 89.7FM and YouTube.

It is as mad as it is ambitious which is exactly what makes it so exciting.

12pm Meiniak
1pm Courtney Naera
2pm NZUMEUS
3pm The Adventures of Mikejoffa
4pm The Holy Loner
5pm Fiffdimension
6pm Mike Rigg
7pm Spank
8pm Grafia
9pm Coral Griffis
11pm Aroha Jacx

Continue reading “4 May 2019 – Wairarapa TV Music Marathon” →

Other Islands: 2012-2018

fiffdimension vol3

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.

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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.

安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa), 2015

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)

And hear the previous compilations

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

The Electricka Zoo

http://www.fiffdimension.com/the-electricka-zoo

https://soundcloud.com/fiffdimension/sets/the-electrickazoo

This duo from Taranaki formed in late 2015 following an extended 15 year incubatory period. Roots in rock and electronica, The Electricka Zoo will leave you wondering if you should dance along, close your eyes, or just scratch your head in wonder how two people can produce such a wall of sound.

Our first release is available now on vinyl!

the Ballad of William Knife

Music video from the album ‘South Island Sessions‘, set in 19th century New Zealand with an ecological theme. ‘The Ballad of William Knife’ was the name of the show we took to the Dunedin Fringe Festival in 2006.

1861 revisited – Continue reading “the Ballad of William Knife” →

Scratched Surface

“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

The debut album from fiffdimension – a genuine 1990s teenage no-budget lo-fi post-punk singer-songwriter artifact from the Taranaki, New Zealand underground, recorded on analogue reel-to-reel tape.

Online reissue includes download-only bonus tracks and previously unreleased material.

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From these folk/punk beginnings my style evolved into the more complex/impressionistic/visionary approach of The Marion Flow, Mantis Shaped and Worrying, and Loose Autumn Moans. These combined songwriting with an interest in free jazz and poetic modernism that sunk my commercial chances. I stopped writing words entirely with The Winter and Ascension Band, and eventually lived abroad in Australia and Asia and reinvented myself again as Dave Black.

As of 2015 I’m back in NZ where my latest project is Ngumbang, which comes full circle – weaving together these various strands, in collaboration with Emit Snake-Beings who was one of my early influences!

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (part 1, 1999)

A few years ago I wrote a chapter of Jazz Aotearoa, a book about New Zealand jazz music history, discussing the free improvisation and avant-garde jazz scene in Wellington at the turn of the millennium.

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway is a collection of improvised instrumental music with some of the musicians in that scene, from the point of view of my own attempts as an untrained outsider to fit in with these advanced jazz players – including Jeff Henderson, Blair Latham , Paul Winstanley, Dan Beban, Julie Bevan and more.

It was recorded in Wellington in two halves, in 1999

Simon O’Rorke – percussion

Paul Winstanley – synth bass
Blair Latham – alto sax
Jeff Henderson – clarinet
Bridget Kelly – tenor sax
Dan Beban – electric guitar
Dave Edwards – electric and acoustic guitars

and 2014, to show an evolution.

Simon O’Rorke – synthesisers

Blair Latham – bass clarinet
Julie Bevan – acoustic guitar
Michael Hall – alto sax
Chris Prosser – violin
Dave Edwards – bass, electronics, tenor sax

Free improvisation is a genre of music with a self-explanatory name. Nothing is planned in advance, and the performers create the music on the spot by responding to what the others are doing in that moment. Continue reading “in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (part 1, 1999)” →

Dave Black & Snake Beings: East to West

East to West brings together for the first time two of New Zealand’s more unusual artist/musician/filmmaker/ethnomusicologists, taking the audience on an epic journey from one side of the Eurasian continent to another in the space of an hour. Continue reading “Dave Black & Snake Beings: East to West” →

Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012

“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox

Now available on Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, Deezer etc

fiffdimension vol2, a sequel to Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005, sees increasingly wide-ranging experimentation and exploration both sonically and geographically, from New Zealand and beyond to Australia and East Asia, and a reinvention as Dave Black.

Whereas Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 showed a youthful kiwi fusion of songs with avant-garde spoken word and instrumental pieces, Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012 documents me in my late 20s and early 30s moving beyond these parameters.

My approach became less introspective and more journalistic – thanks to new influences from years spent living abroad in Australia, South Korea and Japan. New elements include the banjo, electronica, field recordings, multimedia performances, and touches of traditional Asian music. I also adopted the moniker Dave Black, to differentiate from my earlier works.

The third part of the trilogy, Other Islands: 2012-2018, documents my return to NZ via other Asia Pacific countries, and more recent works.

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Featuring tracks from the albums

Ascension Band: Evolution (2005)

After Maths & Sciences (2005-2006)

South Island Sessions (2006)

First Time Around: East Asia (2008)

The Winter: 2011 (2011)

The Winter: Exit Points (2010/2015)

ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-2015)

and previously unheard tracks

First Time Around: East Asia (2007-2008)

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (acoustic guitar),

Simon Sweetman (percussion),

Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards),

Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),

Hayden Gifkins (electric guitar),

Nigel Patterson (hammond organ),

Ryan Prebble (tone generator),

Matthew Thornicroft (electric guitar),

Jeff Henderson (drums),

Noel Meek (vocal),

Clever Hansel (ukulele)

and field recordings from Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.

If you enjoy this, try the first volume Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and the third, Other Islands: 2012-2018

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

“Whilst shopping from fiffdimension make sure to get hold of ‘Gleefully Unknown’, a best-of compilation of Dave Edwards’ music from 1997 to 2005. Rough outsider folk-blues mysteries, dissonant rock textures, electric and acoustic improvisations…

“Edwards strikes me as one of the most overlooked musicians from the fertile lands of New Zealand and if you need a fresh start this might very well be the place.” – Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face

Now available from Spotify, Bandcamp etc

A compilation of songs, spoken word and instrumentals from the first half of my gloriously unsuccessful career to date: