23 Dec 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking
  • Articles »
  • Reviews »
  • David Edwards - Album Review: Electric (Yang) / Acoustic (Yin) - 2CD Compilation 1998-2023

David Edwards - Album Review: Electric (Yang) / Acoustic (Yin) - 2CD Compilation 1998-2023

30 Dec 2023 // A review by Peter K Malthus

Fiffdimension is the name under which Dave Edwards records and performs, having released the debut album Scratched Surface back in 1998. He's certainly been busy since then; I think I counted around 40 releases listed on his website. He's also found time in the last quarter century to study, travel the world living in several different locations, and collaborate with a huge host of other artists, winning awards and playing at festivals. One might wonder when he finds time to sleep but given some of the glorious musical madness on offer over the 35 tracks on this double album... maybe he doesn't.

Fiffdimension's Bandcamp page describes the offerings as "Spans acoustic & electric noise, rock, folk, spoken word, postpunk, free jazz, gamelan, lo fi, electronica, & ethnomusicology", which not only sums things up nicely, but saves me having to try to describe the massive breadth of the eclectic nature of this work. Electric (Yang)/Acoustic (Yin) boasts some wildly different tracks; short instrumentals (the guitar and percussion of King Street Boogie, the piano and birdsong of Tui and Grey Sky, the guitar, rain, and bucket- possibly oboe too- of Classical Rain Bucket), song-length instrumentals (the gorgeous and floaty Kalbarri Coastline, the spaced-out psychedelia of Shuffling The Tarot, October Ring's sweet little guitar melody being countered by its evil twin sowing dissent and discord), spoken word over free-forming instruments (After The Filmshoot describing either a spiritual experience or very good drugs... or both, @Bomb The Space sounding like a guitar being attacked, Ornery Return Cravings spoken over sheer instrumental chaos), and occasionally, songs too (the stripped-back post-punk glory of Tony Was Here, the slithery, smoky, speakeasy feel of Cafes In Conversation, Inverno creeping in like a fever-dream of The Cramps, and the beautiful, emotionally-charged 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 on Stromatolites, to Wealth And Riches that sounds for all the world like a battle to the death between a drumkit and a horde of toy robots. He doesn't seem to so much want to push boundaries, as to act like he's never heard of boundaries in the first place. At times soft and beautiful, at others dark and jarring, it makes for fascinating listening.

 

About David Edwards

A self-taught outsider, David Edwards began writing songs as a teenager in New Plymouth, and released the debut Fiffdimension album Scratched Surface on CDR in 1998.

He spent the turn-of-the-millennium era in Wellington (his birthplace), amid the free-improvisation and avant-garde music scene (& yes was an extra in Lord of the Rings). Over the next six years he made an idiosyncratic series of albums on CDR and cassette, fusing acoustic folk and electric postpunk with modernist spoken word and free improv. And formed The Winter Trio with Mike Kingston and Simon Sweetman.

In 2005 Dave collaborated with Nigel Patterson (The Black Seeds), winning Best Music Award in the NZ Fringe Festival with their 18-piece punk orchestra Ascension Band.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for David Edwards

Releases

águas brilhantes: 2018-2022
Year: 2022
Type: Album
Escape Velocity
Year: 2018
Type: Album
The Electricka Zoo
Year: 2017
Type: Album

Other Reviews By Peter K Malthus

Narcotic Tonsils - Album Review: You'll Get What You're Given
18 Dec 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Now, I'm just going to get this out of the way right at the start: I know these guys, their guitarist Troy is a really good mate of mine, and I used to share a house with their frontman/bassist Andy - in fact, when he first started talking about a new band he wanted to put together, back in 2019. Two years later, Narcotic Tonsils erupted into being, and swiftly became my favourite Christchurch band (apart from the ones I'm in myself, obviously).
Read More...
Damien Binder - EP Review: Heartful
16 Dec 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Damien Binder is now well into his fourth decade of releasing music, and his third as a solo artist. He has an impressive back catalogue to show for it, and his latest EP Heartful sits admirably alongside his previous releases.
Read More...
Gig Review: Otautahi Smoke BBQ Fest @ Hagley Park, Christchurch - 14/12/2024
16 Dec 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
I had a fair amount of trepidation about heading along to Otautahi Smoke BBQ Festival, the temperature was forecast to be 31 degrees, and I'm one of those folk who, as Billy Connolly so eloquently put it, is "so white, I'm pale blue". Luckily, I found a nice shady spot with a great view of the stage, and easy access to the free water station, and with a nice cool breeze blowing through, I didn't have to worry about burning to a crisp.
Read More...
Lavender - EP Review: Types Of Infatuation
29 Nov 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Types Of Infatuation is the name and the theme of the debut EP from Tamaki Makaurau based Lavender, who has been songwriting and performing from a young age, and whose style has developed into a well-crafted blend of indie folk-pop and alt-rock. Lavender has performed at many high profile events over the past few years, and if this EP is anything to go by, looks well set to go on too much bigger things again.
Read More...
Dylan Kay - EP Review: (I Could) Watch You Forever
29 Nov 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Dylan Kay is a seasoned player, having begun 35 years ago, and having been teaching for the last 25 of them, including setting up what is now Auckland's biggest guitar school, in 2012. Originally from the U.
Read More...
Star Chart - EP Review: White Girl Whining
26 Nov 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
White Girl Whining is the sophomore EP from Tamaki Makaurau-based Star Chart, a project created and fronted by Chrissie Hart, multi-talented multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire. After an impressive career of touring the world playing on cruise ships, in hotels, and as a session musician, she returned to her hometown to finally start recording some original music that she'd been quietly working on since high school.
Read More...
CAITLIN - EP Review: Legacy
22 Nov 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Legacy is the latest in an impressive list of releases from Otautahi-based CAITLIN, an EP comprised of her last three singles and one previously unreleased track, Attention. The four songs presented here amply demonstrate her growth and maturing as an artist and songwriter, as she examines the emotions involved in some deeply personal experiences, at times laying herself bare with rawness and honesty.
Read More...
Patients - Album Review: Homemade Pills
19 Nov 2024 // by Peter K Malthus
Homemade Pills is a new album by Patients, one of the projects of Christchurch's Aeneas Jones. As well as fronting heavy rockers PhatSak and performing with Chickenyard and When I Was Sexy, Aeneas drew together the collective Patients to play and record this latest effort.
Read More...
View All Articles By Peter K Malthus

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • APT.
    ROSÉ And Bruno Mars
  • DIE WITH A SMILE
    Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars
  • BIRDS OF A FEATHER
    Billie Eilish
  • TASTE
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
    Gracie Abrams
  • ESPRESSO
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • SAILOR SONG
    Gigi Perez
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
    Shaboozey
  • GOOD LUCK, BABE!
    Chappell Roan
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem