1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
Latest release from The Troubled Timesโฆ weirdly ‘relevant’ this year. And available on cassette.
A new collection of songs for the Times.
Starting off with a weirdly upbeat track recorded pre- US election the tone drifts somewhat astray as the collection proceeds.
Trying to find purpose amongst all the doom scrolling.
Live solo electric tracks, 2022-2024
Recorded at:
Dave Edwards – electric guitar, loop pedal, harmonica (2,5), e-drum (7), banjo (8), vocal, lyrics
John Collie (1834-1893) – lyrics (5-6)
The Troubled Times‘ first recording session of 2025.
Dave on guitar and Antony on bass this time – a role reversal from our usual instruments – resulted in a distinctly different flavoured improv… a frenetic scratchiness.
David Heath – drums (2-7), bass (8)
Dave Edwards – electric guitars, harmonica (6)
Antony Milton – bass (1-7), vocal (6), drums (8)
Recorded 20 January 2025, in Masterton, Aotearoa/NZ
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: dDA (2025)”With all the subtlety of a peacock in a pigeon coop The Troubled Times return with a new album, dominated by the squeals of tortured amps and seriously tormented drums.
Boa features inadvertent post-rock gliding that crashes and bursts into jagged flames; some kind of illicit NZ spaghetti pizza western folds in on itself to become a fractalized polaroid of a dessicated lizard.
This tendency toward excess doesn’t preclude the odd lapse into a mumbled ad hoc song or 2 but the focus here seems to be on ‘loud’, ‘fucked’ and ‘intense’.
The poor bloody neighbours…
Tape version available at troubledtimestapes.bandcamp.com
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: Boa”Celebrating 25 years of fiffdimension!
A collection of short tracks by Dave Edwards and collaborators.
“Double disc collection of more than two decadesโ 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. Itโs 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 noiseโฆ thereโs something here for everybody. A good intro to Daveโs dauntingly deep discography.”
– Howard Stelzer, Noisy Bandcamp.
Produced by Antony Milton; and features Paul Winstanley, Chris OโConnor, Simon OโRorke,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.
Continue reading “2CD compilation 1998โ-โ2023”“Electric (Yang)/Acoustic (Yin)ย boasts some wildly different tracks; short instrumentals (the guitar and percussion ofย King Street Boogie, the piano and birdsong ofย Tui and Grey Sky, the guitar, rain, and bucket- possibly oboe too- ofย Classical Rain Bucket), song-length instrumentals (the gorgeous and floatyย Kalbarri Coastline, the spaced-out psychedelia ofย Shuffling The Tarot,ย October Ringโs sweet little guitar melody being countered by its evil twin sowing dissent and discord), spoken word over free-forming instruments (After The Filmshootย describing either a spiritual experience or very good drugsโฆ or both,ย @Bomb The Spaceย sounding like a guitar being attacked,ย Ornery Return Cravingsย spoken over sheer instrumental chaos), and occasionally, songs too (the stripped-back post-punk glory ofย Tony Was Here, the slithery, smoky, speakeasy feel ofย Cafes In Conversation,ย Invernoย creeping in like a fever-dream of The Cramps, and the beautiful, emotionally-chargedย Paetumokai (Pua pua i te Koanga)). Dave Edwards is a thoughtful and talented writer, composer, and performer. This double album ably demonstrates that, from the soft, delightful guitar ramblings onย Stromatolites, toย Wealth And Richesย that sounds for all the world like a battle to the death between a drumkit and a horde of toy robots.
“He doesnโt seem to so much want to push boundaries, as to act like heโs never heard of boundaries in the first place. At times soft and beautiful, at others dark and jarring, it makes for fascinating listening.” – Peter Malthus, muzic.nz
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
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,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 โkinglyโ majesty, and pathos – as the monarch discovers the limits of his worldly power.
โThe monarch ceased. The courtier train shook, muttered, gazed and shook again.
They saw lifeโs dying embers fade, they felt the sting of horrorโs 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 )
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.
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
| 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) |
Antony and Dave also collaborated on fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/album/return-of-the-sun-2021
and
layyourburdensdown.bandcamp.com/album/-
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
“It’s lo-fi, organic and about as eclectic as one could manage. Kind of reminds me of Nick Cave if he had grown up in Timaru. No pretentious American accents or catch phrase choruses, just a bunch of people making music. A little beauty!” – NZ Musician, August/September 2002
Written by Dave Edwards, and produced by Paul Winstanley,
Featuring Chris O’Connor (drums), Chris Palmer (electric guitars), Simon O’Rorke (percussion), Dean Brown (drums).
Recorded at Thistle Hall, Wellington, 2001, and mixed by Joe Callwood.
The Marion Flow was originally a longer album which spanned recordings from New Plymouth in 1999 and Wellington in 2001.
In 1999, aged 20, I’d left New Plymouth, a large rural town, where I grew up, and moved to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, where I’d been born and where my early pakeha settler ancestors had lived in the 19th century. The Marion Flow reflects this journey, geographically, sonically and spiritually.
“The lights on the city, the barrenness glowed
& behind me the sea as it ebbed & flowed,
Leave the loner alone to go face what he knows
Chained to the flow…” – Seafriends
For the earlier 1999 New Plymouth sessions see The Marion Flow (part 1, Taranaki);
By the time the opportunity arose to finish recording the Marion Flow I’d been thoroughly immersed in the Wellington free jazz and avant-garde music scene, and was very fortunate to have help from some of the top players there. I’d never studied music at school or been in a conventional band, and was out of my depth technically… so working around my limitations became a spark to creativity.
I’ve now reissued the two halves of the album separately – to emphasise the sense of time and place, and stylistic evolution, and to re-present them more concisely for the short-attention-span 21st century.
“Edwards’ music is often a sculpture rather than a melodic composition. Within this chosen form, amongst all the writings rantings & poetry there’s much difficult pleasure to be had for the musically adventurous.” – Brent Cardy, Real Groove, July 2002
| 1. | Seafriends 03:07 Dave Edwards – acoustic guitar, vocal Paul Winstanley – fretless bass Chris Palmer – electric guitars Chris O’Connor – drums | |||
| 2. | A Wedding 03:48 Dave Edwards – electric guitar, piano innards, canvas sheet, vocal | |||
| 3. | A Visit to the Beehive 00:45 Dave Edwards – acoustic guitar, vocal Simon O’Rorke – drums | |||
| 4. | Monkeys with Typewriters 03:30 Dave Edwards – electric guitar Chris Palmer – electric guitar Simon O’Rorke – percussion | |||
| 5. | Tony Was Here (but they put him on ice) 03:07 Dave Edwards – electric guitar, vocal Chris O’Connor – drums | |||
| 6. | Cafes in Conversation 03:38 Dave Edwards – electric guitar, vocal Paul Winstanley – fretless bass Chris O’Connor – drums | |||
| 7. | The Marion Flow (live at the Space) 09:07 Dave Edwards – electric guitar, harmonica, vocal Dean Brown – drums | |||
| 8. | Seafriends (instrumental mix) 04:05 Dave Edwards – acoustic guitar Paul Winstanley – fretless bass Chris Palmer – electric guitars Chris O’Connor – drums |
fiffdimension 