The Digitator: New Zealand Producer, Songwriter, Vocalist, Drummer, Synth Driver, Live Looping Musician.
A fellow traveller from Taranaki, New Zealand, who formed The Electricka Zoo in late 2015 with Dave Black.
Continue reading “The Digitator”
Tag: rock
Ascension Band 2004
The post-punk big band Ascension Band convened in 2003-2005… here’s the 2004 lineup performing at the Meatwaters Festival at Happy in Wellington.
| Nigel Patterson – hammond organ & conductor Dave Edwards – guitar & electronics Mike Kingston – guitar Jesse Toews – bass Warwick Donald – bass Antony Milton – violin & electronics Damian Stewart – laptop Jason Secto – cornet Simon O’Rorke – percussion Myles Climo – drums |
The following year we won best music award in the 2005 Wellington Fringe Festival
Ascension Band 2005
“With elements of punk, post-punk, jazz, classical, straight rock, opera and music hall, the Ascension Band are that rare thing: Something Wholly Other. They retain avant garde cred and still manage to rock harder than AC/DC.” – www.varsity.co.nz
| Dave Edwards – electric guitar & electronics Nigel Patterson – hammond organ & conductor Will Rattray – electric guitar Bell Murphy – bass Warwick Donald – bass Murray Stewart – keyboards Damian ‘Frey’ Stewart – laptop Ryan Prebble – tone generator Sam Jenks – trumpet Felicity Perry – vocal Atushi Iseki – vocal Matt Baxter – drums Greta Welson – drums |
This riff
Continue reading “Ascension Band 2005”Scratched Surface
The debut album from fiffdimension!
“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
Listen
About
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.
Credits
- Dave Edwards – acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica, vocal, lyrics
- Tim McVicar – bass (2, 12, 14), percussion (3), electric guitar (12, 13)
- Brett, Ross, Tammy, Dawn et al – percussion and vocals (15-16)
Recorded in New Plymouth, NZ, 1997-1998
Special thanks to Alastair Edwards, Keith Finnerty, Karl Taylor, Brian Wafer
Tracklist
Continue reading “Scratched Surface”The Road to Bogandoor
Election night 2013 in Australia mix –
At the time I lived in Perth, WA.
And Australia Day music video from an unfinished Aussie album… enjoy!
Music by Nat da Hatt & Dave Black with Snake Beings, video by Dave Black and Cylvi Manthyng
See also – our first Australian album, After Maths & Sciences,
and Dave Black & Nat da Hatt in Japan: ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes
Mezcla de Refresco
Mezcla de Refresco is a new duo featuring Nat da Hatt (who also performs with fellow kiwi Dave Black on their Japanese psychedelic duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes)
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Richard Morrison: jaw harp, Korg synthesizer, samples
Nathan Palmer: guitar, Korg vocoder, samples, thumb piano
Mixed and engineered by Nathan Palmer. Continue reading “Mezcla de Refresco”
ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (Japan, 2012)
Listen
About
Like 日本 itself, this music offers a surrealistic fusion of ancient and modern. released 31 January 2014
Crossing the Japan Alps
As well as recording music together, we completed a six-day hiking mission across the northern alps in July 2012, from Kamikochi to Toyama.
Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa)
The album closes with our rendition of a traditional Okinawa shima uta (island song). It’s a tribute to Japan’s southernmost island prefecture, where Dave lived in 2011/12. The ‘overdrive’ is a tribute to early Pink Floyd, reflecting the psychedelic update of the tune.
Credits
Nat da Hatt – electric & acoustic guitars, drum machine, synths, laptop, samples
Dave Black – bass, banjo, acoustic guitar (5), electric guitar (3), loop pedal, electronics, laptop, field recordings
Tracklist
| 1. | 東京から槍ヶ岳 Tokyo to Yarigatake 03:38 |
| 2. | 携帯電話 Keitai Denwa 05:43 |
| 3. | 幸せとは何？What actually is happiness? 04:17 |
| 4. | 剃毛電球ブルース Shaved Lightbulb Blues 04:18 |
| 5. | 福岡に到着 Arrival in Fukuoka 04:41 |
| 6. | 電機市 Denki Ken 03:58 |
| 7. | 平仮名 Hiragana 04:57 |
| 8. | 薬師岳から漓江まで Yakushidake to Li Jiang 05:07 |
| 9. | 安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa) 05:20 |
Further listening: see ethnomusicology
Dave solo trip across Kyushu, March 2012
Nat da Hatt solo albums
Other duo tracks
Nat da Hatt also contributes guest tracks to
in a Wildflower State (WA, 2013)
and
Gamelan Dimensi Kelima (Indonesia, 2014)
Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012
“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox
- Made in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.
- Includes tracks by Ascension Band, The Winter, Cylvi M, Wellington’s Most Famous Orchestra of Miraculous Delights, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt.
“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
- 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),
- Hans Landon-Lane (ukulele)
- and field recordings from Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.
“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“
- This is a sequel to the Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation.
- The third part of the trilogy, Other Islands: 2012-2018, documents my return to NZ via other Asia-Pacific countries,
- A fourth volume águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022 covers more recent works made in the Wairarapa and Fiji.
Crossing the Japan Alps 飛騨山脈日本
Music, video and hiking by Dave Black and Nat da Hatt – two New Zealanders living in Japan.
We crossed the Hida mountains in six days, losing a few kg along the way, and passed through 長野県(Nagano), 岐阜県 (Gifu), and 富山県 (Toyama) prefectures.
fiffdimension 
