Tag: psychedelic rock

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

Cassette

Continue reading “The Troubled Times: Hill Road in Winter” →

The Troubled Times: A Second Sun

about

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…

credits

Recorded in Masterton, New Zealand, 25 September 2022

T-shirt – order here!

The Dying Monarch

The album also features a key crossover track, with the Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856) project:

This track links the various spoken word,ย electricย 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 โ€˜kinglyโ€™ majesty, and pathos – as the monarch discovers the limits of his worldly power.

โ€œThe monarch ceased. The courtier train shook, muttered, gazed and shook again.

They saw lifeโ€™s dying embers fade, they felt the sting of horrorโ€™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.โ€ โ€“ John Collie (1834-1893)

(track also appears onย fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/poems-lyrics-in-the-english-dialect-1856ย )

Tracklist

Continue reading “The Troubled Times: A Second Sun” →

The Troubled Times: State Highway 2

The first proper ‘band’ recording sessions by The Troubled Times, with the addition of David Heath on drums.

Improvised psychedelic rock – inspired by the Wairarapa rural landscapes, and the main road through them – with touches of country, Brazilian jazz, and electroacoustic experiments.

credits

Antony Milton – electric guitar, banjo (6), drums & keyboard (7)

Dave Edwards – electric guitar (1,3,5), acoustic guitar (2,6,7), bass (4), aluminium ladder (7)

David Heath – drums

released August 13, 2022

——-

Masterton, New Zealand

Recorded in Antony’s garage,
17th July + 7th August 2022

Photo by Sara Rogers

Tracklist

1.Whatever you like (north of Wellington) 06:31
2.Wairarapa bossa nova 03:18
3.Passing the Tararuas 03:26
4.Waiohine river after rain 02:50
5.Driving inland 07:16
6.Sanson & Woodville (acoustic) 06:34
7.Snakes & ladder 02:08
8.Spring nor’wester 06:35
9.Bossanova Wairarapa (mais tempo)

Further listening: The Troubled Times

Antony and Dave also collaborated on fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/return-of-the-sun-2021
and
layyourburdensdown.bandcamp.com/album/-

Glimpses of Utopia (2020)

Palette-cleansing electric solo improvisations.

Listen

About

Recorded solo in Featherston, New Zealand, 2019-20.

Not specifically a ‘lockdown album’, but nonetheless recorded solo at home during the pandemic.

It marked the emergence of a new ‘late period‘ solo style.

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

Tracklist

1.Abbadebdab 03:00
2.October ring 03:37
3.11 through the viewer 7 (acoustic) 01:24
4.Torrential logistics 04:05
5.Usquebaugh 03:53
6.Walking through an aye (in Paparoa national park) 03:53
7.Solstice Shards 19 05:07
8.Teenager 01:39

Further listening

Continue reading “Glimpses of Utopia (2020)” →

Campbell Kneale & Dave Black: A Ton of Feathers

Listen

About

Campbell Kneale – electric guitar, analogue synthDave Black – bass, electric toothbrush, key ring

One continuous piece, unabridged, no overdubs – the first time we’d played together.

Campbell Kneale
Dave Black

Featherston NZ, 2018.

Two 3min excerpts appear on the compilations Other Islands: 2012-2018

and aguas brilhantes: 2018-2022 :

…but you need to hear the full length version to truly enter Campbell’s world.

Campbell Kneale is an internationally renowned sound artist, a prolific recording artist and performer and relentless collaborator. He currently releases albums as Our Love Will Destroy The World. Previous projects include Black Boned Angel, Birchville Cat Motel, Ming and Brilliant Swords.

Further Listening

Campbell curated the epic 119-track Psi-solation compilation during the Covid-19 pandemic:

Dave contributed an acoustic track, John Collie‘s poem ‘Solitude’ from 1856.

Gar mar par da nee sa

the opening track from Ruasagavulu

by Dave Black & Snake-Beings

recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd November 2019

Snake Beings and Dave Black in Fiji

This short warmup improv is based on an Indian scale, inspired by Dr Emit Snake-Beings‘ travels to Kerala in India, and harmonium lessons in Suva.

There’s an Indian influence throughout the album, as several sections are based on drones and modal improv (rather than the chord changes)… though this is not a traditional Indian album, we’ve borrowed ideas to inform our own experiments.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The temple in the photo is Sri Siva Subramaniya in Nadi. It’s built in the Dravidian style from southern India, which is also found in Singapore and Malaysia.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In contrast to other Pacific Island countries, Fiji has a large – almost half – population of Indian descent. Indians came to Fiji in the 19th century, as indentured labourers to work the sugar cane plantations.

The following videos are made in India, courtesy of www.snakebeings.co.nz

Continue reading “Gar mar par da nee sa” →

Huia Vortex

Animated visuals, with electric guitar loops, one-stringed bass, and drums – the opening track from the ‘Ngumbang‘ album (get the free download) – w/ Emit Snake-beings & Nat da Hatt

The title ‘Huia Vortex’ refers to the location where the track was recorded, in Huia, a small village on the outskirts of west Auckland.

Dave Black & Emit Snake-Beings

It’s not necessarily related to ‘Swansong (for the Huia)‘ (2004), the second album by The Winter, an electro-acoustic trio improvisation in tribute to the extinct New Zealand bird the huia by Dave Edwards, Mike Kingston, and Simon Sweetman. Its 19-minute final track remains an underrated fiffdimension epic. [send us your review]

The Electricka Zoo – new tracks, late 2019

Here’s a pair of new (late 2019) tracks from The Electricka Zoo

Keyboards & electronica by the Digitator

& Dave Black on electric guitar

in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, November 2019

the Electricka Zoo, 2017

Get our album if you haven’t already!

 

logistical torrents

31 July 2019

electric guitar and video by Dave Black,

Featherston, NZ.

One in a series of quickfire improvisations with video effects. Rather than finish an album before releasing anything in 2019, I’m opening a curtain on some of my demo ideas in progress.

The Marion Flow, March 2019

Since last year I’ve been getting back into playing solo acoustic. Here’s a 6 March 2019 version of ‘the Marion Flow‘:

It appears on the Live 2019 album:

Originally recorded in New Plymouth in 1999, it became the title track of my second album:

The Marion Flow (Taranaki, 1999)

The 1999 recording had quite a different vibe – spoken word delivery, electric guitars panned left & right, and Paul Winstanley playing a cymbal through a pitch shifter, turning it into a deep sea gong sound.

The Marion Flow (Wellington, 2001)

On other occasions it became a rock riff, based around just an E note and its octave.

I was surrounded by wider & weirder music too. I moved to Wellington and found aย  kiwi avant-garde scene with free jazz, noise, and theatre gallore. We eventually finished The Marion Flow album in 2001, after recording sessions at Thistle Hall.

Both the live electric and acoustic versions appear on the

Acoustic (yin) / Electric (yang) 2CD compilation

Two sides of a coin!

Lyrics

The lyrics are some of my favourite. They were scribbled in a notebook sometime in the late 90s. I was digesting the influence of literary modernism (eg lines like ‘yea take in that wake’ a shout out to James Joyce, using nouns as verbs and vice versa, and other general flouting of grammatical rules).

Taranaki and its coastlines inspired much of the atmosphere.

Continue reading “The Marion Flow, March 2019” →