2025 roundup

Another productive year here! We released:

Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji)

An acoustic solo album, made in the Yasawa islands, Fiji. Ukulele and field recordings, with acoustic bass and percussion.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

A musical adaptation of my ancestor’s book, finally ‘close enough’ to finished after seven years… or 169, depending how you count it.

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

A new collaboration with turntablists Guy Walker and Alex V – free improv electronica for the regions.

Experiments Under the Hills

October-November, with Guy Walker and Alex V

The Troubled Times

with Antony Milton and David Heath in Masterton NZ.

Unsteady Ground

As close as we’ve come to a ‘political’ album

dDA

We swapped instruments and almost formed a new band.

Homo Homini Lupus

We appeared on this ‘various artists’ compilation from Louisville, Kentucky

Smudge

Winter was too cold for the garage, so we played ‘lounge music’

Thanks for listening! See you in 2026...

The Troubled Times: Smudge (2025)

“Nutso falling over kind of wonkiness from mid-winter” = Antony Milton

Listen

credits

The Troubled Times are:

Antony Milton – guitar, synths
Dave Edwards – guitar
David Heath – drums & percussion

Tracks 1-9 recorded July 2025; tracks 10-12 recorded August 2022
in Masterton, Aotearoa/NZ

about

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The Troubled Times: Unsteady Ground (2025)

Latest release from The Troubled Times… weirdly ‘relevant’ this year. And available on cassette.

Listen

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.

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Trying to find purpose amongst all the doom scrolling.

credits

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Live 2022-24

Live solo electric tracks, 2022-2024

Recorded at:

the Miracle Room, Featherston NZ – 10 June 2022
Solway Showgrounds, Masterton NZ – 19 August 2023
2MBS Fine Music, Sydney, Australia – 20 October 2024

Dave Edwards – electric guitar, loop pedal, harmonica (2,5), e-drum (7), banjo (8), vocal, lyrics

John Collie (1834-1893) – lyrics (5-6)

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The Troubled Times: dDA (2025)

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.

Credits

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

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2024 roundup

Following the 25th anniversary of fiffdimension in 2023, it was in some ways tempting to leave it there, and retire…

… but I soon found myself creating new music in 2024:

Quietism

January: Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electronic percussion.

The Margins

April: New combination of old free improv collaborators Simon O’Rorke and Antony Milton.

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

The Troubled Times: The Latest Poll / Boa

June-August: A pair of new albums from The Troubled Times (trio with Antony Milton and David Heath):

The Latest Poll marked a departure into semiacoustic freak folk; whereas Boa leaned more towards noisy electric rock.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

June-July: Recorded a couple more of my ancestor’s poems for this epic acoustic/folk work-in-progress (& hoping to finish it off this summer when my nephews visit):

The Troubled Times: Pyramid Club – live 28/09/24

September: A long-overdue return (after six years!) to live performance in Wellington, and The Troubled Times‘ first appearance there at the Pyramid Club.

Dolby FM interview

October: A career-spanning longform interview, telling my life story and the background influences behind the music.

Live in Sydney 20/10/24

October: An international performance across the ditch :

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The Sydney performance can now be heard on the Live 2022-24 album:

Jovial Blade 7″

November: A new solo 7″ on vinyl (first one since 2016):

“Some seriously scrambled dissonance. 80’s vocals hits 60’s electro/cut-up nonsense whilst smothering an ever mutating bassline […] the track contains more musical ideas in its 5 mins than some exhibit in musical careers.” – Simon Baker, What Lies Beneath

A Second Sun t-shirt

December: A thoughtful birthday present (thanks Talei!): a t-shirt featuring the cover art from The Troubled Times’ A Second Sun album.

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I also enjoyed a visit to my hometown of New Plymouth (& hope to play a gig there next time!)

More to come in 2025!

7″ singles

2x new 7″ lathe cut singles:

Jovial Blade / Extant Body & Weight

“Some seriously scrambled dissonance. 80’s vocals hits 60’s electro/cut-up nonsense whilst smothering an ever mutating bassline […] the track contains more musical ideas in its 5 mins than some exhibit in some musical careers.” – Simon Baker, What Lies Beneath

(Dave solo – A-side is bass & electronics, B-side is clarinet & electronics)

and

The Troubled Times: Cellophane

Discs manufactured in NZ by Johnny Electric

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The Troubled Times: Boa

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.

The Troubled Times also play live this month – in Wellington, at the Pyramid Club on 28 September!

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

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The Troubled Times: The Latest Poll

Available on cassette or download –

The Latest Poll is the debut release for the new Troubled Times Tapes imprint, which will be releasing music by, and associated with, The Troubled Times.

A rare session out of Antony Milton‘s garage and into his lounge due to the frigid winter conditions. Also a departure from our usual psychedelic garage rock sound – we left our regular instruments behind and played mainly what was at hand, resulting in completely different sonic textures:

Antony Milton played casio keyboard, banjo and contact mic’d nylon-string guitar through his home stereo,
Dave Edwards played steel-string acoustic guitar, banjo and clarinet through his effect rig into a tiny busking amp, and
David Heath played Dave’s cheap toy electronic drum kit.

The result is a freakish free-folk psychedelic synth pop shambles that also somehow creates a comfy abode, a shelter from the stormy stormy night.

credits

released June 13, 2024

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The Margins: 21/04/24

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

Recent (2024) recordings from a new combination of old collaborators – Antony Milton and Dave Edwards (The Troubled Times) with Wellington free-improv legend Simon O’Rorke.

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

Credits

Simon O’Rorke– falcon software synth
Dave Edwards– guitar, bass, electro-drums, harmonica
Antony Milton– guitar, drums, microphonic feedback

Recorded at Fleet Street, Masterton, NZ/Aotearoa on 21 April 2024
Cover art by Antony Milton