1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
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.
See also the videos for ‘Bandit Joe on a Scraded Gat’ and ‘BFD’
1861 revisited – Continue reading “the Ballad of William Knife”
Here’s a new bonus track we’ve added to the album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song) from 沖縄 (Okinawa).
Dave Black – sanshin, harmonica, field recordings
Nat da Hatt – acoustic & electric guitars, electronics
Cylvi Manthyng – shakuhachi
As you can hear, the music of Okinawa is quite distinct from that of mainland Japan.
Today is the last day of winter in the southern hemisphere – so to celebrate, here’s the fifth album from The Winter – a New Zealand free improvisation trio of Mike Kingston, Simon Sweetman and Dave Edwards… with a sound that swerves from acoustic folk/blues with hints of Asian, Celtic, and Balkan influences, to electroacoustic soundscapes, abstract dissonance, and pots & pans percussion.
Mike Kingston: guitar, bass, clarinet, electronics
Dave Edwards: guitar, bass, banjo, harmonica, ukulele, sanshin, electronics
Simon Sweetman: drums and percussion, electronics
“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
Scratched Surface is a genuine 1990s teenage no-budget lo-fi post-punk singer-songwriter artifact from the Taranaki, New Zealand underground. It includes both electric and acoustic tracks1.
The title alludes to its status as a first effort from fiffdimension2, with much more to come (‘scratching the surface’). It also suggests scratches on a disc, reflecting the lo-fi production values and a slightly ‘damaged’ pre-millennial teenager outlook.
I didn’t come from a conventional musical background. Instead of learning to play cover songs first, I skipped straight to writing my own3. The musicianship is rudimentary, and the lyrics are full of youthful angst – but also self-aware humour and ironic detachment.
“One day I’m gonna be a star, but I can’t be bothered to practice my guitar.
I’m not gonna sing you a cover song, ’cause I’d only make it sound all wrong.
I got the ‘can’t play for shit and my voice is shot to hell’ blues”
The album also includes early forays into free improvisation, in tracks like King Street Boogie and Eat the Noise.
It was recorded on analogue reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, and self-released on CD-R. The online reissue includes download-only bonus tracks and previously unreleased material.
Recorded in New Plymouth, NZ, 1997-1998
Special thanks to Alastair Edwards, Keith Finnerty, Karl Taylor, Brian Wafer
The first collaboration with even more legendary & underground NZ artist Snake Beings.
Ngumbang is the first collaborative album by two of New Zealand’s more unusual artist/musician/filmmaker/ethnomusicologists.
Performed on guitars, bass, banjo, percussion, saxophones, clarinets, harmonicas, synthesisers, Okinawan sanshin, ukulele, violin, loop pedal, piano, drums and spoken word.
The title ‘Ngumbang’ is an Indonesian word that refers to the slight difference in tuning between a pair of gamelan instruments, which gives gamelan music its shimmering quality.
The album name reflects a shared interest in ethnomusicology and experimentation, and the almost-but-not-quite-equivalent approaches of these two artists.
The album was recorded in and near Auckland, New Zealand in 2014–2015 and includes live performances at Vitamin S and the Audio Foundation.
who over several decades has travelled intensively in Spain, Holland, the Middle East, Mexico, America and Japan, is a New Zealand / British experimental filmmaker and musician who has produced over 40 independently released film soundtrack CDs and made a number of short experimental and narrative films in Spain, U.K. and New Zealand. www.snakebeings.co.nz
originally from Taranaki and active since the late 90s on the NZ underground music scene, began by fusing acoustic songs, noisy postpunk, spoken word and avant-garde improvisation – and has diversified further from there. Notable performances include the award-winning 14-piece Ascension Band, appearing as an international artist at the Liquid Architecture Festival in Brisbane, Australia, and teaching a thousand Okinawan school students to perform a haka. www.fiffdimension.com
| 1. | Huia Vortex (feat. Nat da Hatt) 03:56 |
| 2. | The Feathered Serpent Sings Again 05:13 |
| 3. | Illbelly Gritts 03:57 |
| 4. | Watching a Painting Melt 01:47 |
| 5. | さくら さくら (Japanese folk song) – live at the Audio Foundation 04:52 |
| 6. | Pig in the Bamboo 01:47 |
| 7. | Live at Vitamin S (#1.5) 04:37 |
| 8. | Pick up the Pieces (after the gig) 04:48 |
| 9. | Pick up the Pieces (after the jam session) 04:45 |
| 10. | Ornery Return Cravings 02:40 |
| 11. | kuningan dan perunggu (Indonesian brass and bronze) 02:50 |
| 12. | So Long Notes 06:01 |
“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox
“As Dave Edwards he has explored fuzzy punk, free-jazz, spoken word, alternative-folk and demented pop… as Dave Black, the palette is broadened” – Simon Sweetman
by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with
“Experimental and avant-garde…. There is a clear passion, and a commitment to pushing the boundaries… This will challenge your perceptions of what constitutes music and open the mind to new possibilities of sounds that surround us – muzic.net.nz“
A compilation of songs, spoken word and instrumentals from the early phase of my gloriously unsuccessful career:
“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
by Dave Edwards (acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, bass, banjo, vocal), with
Featuring tracks from the albums
… if you enjoy this, try the sequels Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012 and Other Islands: 2012-2018
Recorded in Nelson, NZ, 2006.
1861 revisited – my pākeha (European) ancestors, John ‘Totara Jack’ and Mary Edwards, arrived in the South Island of New Zealand on board the Olympus and settled in Nelson1.
John ‘Totara Jack’ Edwards
When I lived nearby a century and a half later,
The early settler stories marked the start of an interest in genealogy, and prompted the music video for The Ballad of William Knife3 (loosely based on ‘Totara Jack’).
In contrast to the ‘traditional’ South Island NZ ‘Flying Nun‘ or The Dead C inspired sounds, South Island Sessions blended acoustic instruments with field recordings and electronic glitches. I played acoustic guitar, banjo and saxophone, and delegated the electric guitar role to two local players. We named this new genre “Steampunk Folktronica“4.
Recorded in Nelson NZ, 2006
The debut album by The Winter: instrumental improvisations from Wellington, New Zealand, 2003. The band emerged fully formed on winter solstice day in June.
Builds from acoustic intimacy around the winter fireplace to the electric blizzard climax of ‘Parataxes 9‘.
“Derek Bailey on acid!” – Anthony Donaldson, Primitive Art Group
Photos by James Gilberd, from The Winter’s first gig at Photospace Gallery, Wellington NZ, August 2003.
Mike Kingston – cello, electronic composition (1,4,7), electric guitar (2), acoustic guitar and slide whistle (8)
Dave Edwards – acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica
Simon Sweetman – drums and percussion
“The Winter are a Wellington based improvising trio, and Parataxes is their 1st release. It documents both acoustic and electric live sets that drift from eastern sounding cello led pieces to fairly extreme feed-backy noise. A key member of the group is Wellington’s master of pseudo-autistic intensity, Dave Edwards, whose guitar and harmonica work definitely moves the whole into a fairly edgy sphere. Over such a duration this can make pretty harrowing listening, but sometimes such immersions are worth it.” – Antony Milton, Pseudoarcana
“A strange sonic brew that includes dissonant rock textures, rough outsider folk-blues mysteries, electric and acoustic improvisations and a considerable part of tasty feedback. Imagine equal parts Derek Bailey, New Zealand’s Pumice and classic ’60s blues/folk and you’re in the right ballpark.” – The Broken Face
“I can be pretty naive sometimes, and I often forget that it actually
gets cold in New Zealand. For many of us Americans, we think of New
Zealand as being somewhat tropical. It’s an island after all, and we
are brought up believing that islands are exotic places that exist in
the middle of the warm oceans. This is obviously a mistake. Although I
still forget that the seasons are opposite in the Southern hemisphere,
the existence of dreary weather in New Zealand is cemented in my mind.
A great deal of experimental music from New Zealand has a distinctly
desolate, overcast feeling to it.“Appropriately named, The Winter hail from Wellington, New Zealand.
Most of you probably associate Wellington with the brilliant Pseudo
Arcana label, and keeping that sound in mind, The Winter offer up over
an hour of freeform aural explorations. These loose improvisations
range from processed field recordings to gritty blues dirges to
no-wave skronk. This trio consists of Simon Sweetman on drums and
percussion, San Shimla on cello, and Dave Edwards, whose great solo
albums have been circulating for years, on guitar and harmonica. All
three artists have a firm grasp of their respective instruments and
employ their talents well throughout “Parataxes.”“One thing I enjoy most about this record is Edward’s playing. On the
second track, the highlight is when he gets into a real groove with
his guitar and harmonica. The two complement each other perfectly, and
it has this 1960s folk feel to it that somehow doesn’t seem out of
place. As Sweetman joins in using various metallic percussive
instruments, the two start playing off each other. Their interaction
is impressive, and adds a vague sense of structure to this otherwise
scattered piece. I love when long improv sessions flow like a wave. At
times, they’re completely disjointed, but during rare moments
everything seems to come together. These last few minutes of the
second piece on “Parataxes” is one of those. It’s excellent.“Most of “Parataxes” is similar to the second track. Throughout long,
meandering jams, the trio searches through musty fog, searching out
common ground. As if in queue, they find each other, transfixed in the
middle somewhere. During the times when it all comes together, this is
as choice as any freeform improvisations I’ve heard in months.
However, these tracks wouldn’t this good if it weren’t for the journey
toward a collective state of mind. It might be all about the end
result, but the means of getting there is just as important…. The
Winter leave their mark. They soundtrack the devolution of autumn into
the coldest, cruelest of months. Using sparse sounds and sometimes
harsh instrumentation, “Parataxes” is all about finding the moment and
maintaining it for as long as possible. Recommended.”– Brad E. Rose, Foxy Digitalis
Excerpts from the album appear on the band’s Shortest Days: 2003-2015 compilation:
fiffdimension 
