Wairarapa
Summer Skin
Live 4th May 2019, at Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon, in Masterton NZ.
Solo guitar & harmonica version of track http://www.fiffdimension.bandcamp.com/track/summer-skin
Originally recorded in Wellington NZ, September 2003, for the album ‘Loose Autumn Moans‘, with a mini string section of Mike Kingston on cello and Sam Prebble (RIP) on violin. It also appears on the Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation.
Seafriends
4th May 2019 live solo version at the Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon.
This song was originally recorded in June 2001, at Thistle Hall, Wellington. It was the opening track of the album The Marion Flow.
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
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‘:
Originally recorded in New Plymouth in 1999, it became the title track of my second album.
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.
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 a 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.
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.
2018
The main project for 2018 was Other Islands: 2012-2018;
The last five (of the 20) tracks were recorded in 2018 – each in a different genre:
Campbell Kneale & Dave Black
A Ton of Feathers is the first collaboration
by Campbell Kneale (guitar, analogue synth)
& Dave Black (bass, electric toothbrush, video).
Made in Featherston, Wairarapa NZ in 2018.
New Zealand folk music, in the tradition of Birchville Cat Motel, the Dead C, and Len Lye.
This excerpt appears on the compilation Other Islands: 2012-2018, and is part of a longer piece…
the battle of Le Quesnoy centenary
This Sunday is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Le Quesnoy, in France, a week before the end of WW1.
New Zealand soldiers recaptured the town from German occupation, climbing the walls with a ladder to avoid civilian casualties.
My great granduncle Victor Bernard was one of over 100 New Zealanders killed there that day, so I’ve been reminded of him.
