1856 to 2026 – DIY outsider music, from Aotearoa NZ and beyond
“Nutso falling over kind of wonkiness from mid-winter” = Antony Milton
The Troubled Times are:
A return to the duo lineup of our earliest recordings (Antony Milton and Dave Edwards).
Limited edition physical copies of Sparkle Tube are available from Antony’s Grey Cyphers CDR label, along with other NZ artists including Rain Sleepers, Agentsss, L$D Fundraiser, CJA, Tower of Heaven, and more.
Old school cdr label out of back blocks New Zealand/Aotearoa releasing music by Agentsss and other lo-fi mystic wannabes
Antony Milton
Duo outing for The Troubled Times on this disk, ostensibly this is material Dave and Antony recorded while waiting for drummer David to show up for practice. He never showed up…
More of a weird improv noise album this one- except for the ‘musical’ bits..
Kind of dreamy.
(But you know what dreams are like, cruising one minute- terror the next.)
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: Sparkle Tube (2025)”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.
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”Early 2024 – the first new recordings made since the 25-year-spanning 2CD compilation; the start of the fiffdimension 2nd quarter-century.
By Dave Edwards– early 2024, summertime in NZ –
Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electric drums – one single take of each, using overdubs to create a virtual trio.
Tracks 1-3 and 12 recorded early January 2024 – the rest recorded 6th February 2024, in Featherston, Aotearoa / New Zealand
The title ‘Quietism‘ refers not so much to the sound, but to the absence of vocals – or any reference to current news or politics. Part of the fiffdimension aesthetic is a certain wilful irrelevance, and ignoring of trends.
The last track ‘Hypnopompia‘ (waking up) experiments with a possible new ambient style.
The cover art is an abstract scribble drawing – attempting to bypass conscious self-doubt and create ‘something… anything’. A theme also explored in works such as Assembling Disconsonant (2023).
For the third year in a row, we held a recording session on the first day of daylight savings – a short session of spaced out noisy psychedelic ‘rock jams’ this time.
A highlight this session was a bigger & louder bass amp!
Dave Edwards – Bass
David Heath – Drums
Antony Milton – Guitar
| 1. | Ventures Sans Hairsprayย 12:54 |
| 2. | Calliper Waltz 02:34 |
| 3. | Ad For Rolling Down 07:48 |
The first physical CD by The Troubled Times (Antony Milton, Dave Edwards, David Heath),
Fizzy dreamy shambolic ramblings from the Wairarapa‘s dustiest garage.
Instant songs committed to disk for posterity.
This was the first chapter in Antony Milton’s acclaimed ‘Another Sunday‘ series of CDs:
anothersunday.bandcamp.com – different artists, each making an album with the same title.
Other discs in the series include Michael Morley, Greymouth, Seht, Teen Haters, Perpets, and Sunset Temples
released August 1, 2023
David Heath- drums
Dave Edwards– bass
Antony Milton– guitar/vocals, video, CD producer
A contrasting companion piece to the ‘Another Sunday‘ CD –
Avant jazz meets squealing rambunctious noise. A frenetic blast down to the end of the driveway and back. The set finishes with a tribute to Albert Ayler.
What more could you want? (well there’s The Troubled Times’ live debut coming up on 15 July….)
Antony Milton – electric guitar Dave Edwards – bass David Heath – drums
releases July 15, 2023
Continue reading “The Troubled Times: Elevate”
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