Fiffdimension is multi-instrumentalist Dave Black. He’s based in beautiful Wairarapa (like me, yay!), and his repertoire spans over 25 years.

There are times when you come across something so utterly avant-garde you’re momentarily left at a loss for words. This isn’t a bad thing. Not a criticism. Music can, and often should, challenge barriers and disdain “the norm”. Many artists throughout modern (the last 60 years) music have understood this and enthusiastically attack these walls of conformity, producing some of the most mentally psychedelic groupings of sound you’ll ever hear. What’s cool is they will dip into more recognised genres just to make a point.

Late, great artists such as Frank Zappa, or Syd Barrett, spring to mind when I hear Assembling Disconsonant by Fiffdimension. This is recorded and dropped onto Bandcamp entirely raw – so raw in fact, that you can hear his seat squeaking at the beginning and the end. The banjo is picked and he’s gone for pointedly discordant notes. Bass is not washed, and the vocal, a deep baritone breathily growled – almost chanted – sits low in the mix. I don’t pick up a mastering, although I could be wrong; but I feel this is deliberate. Another bird flipped at conformity?

This is hypnotic. It’s quite some way too harsh and dystopian to be useful for some form of meditation, however. It feel like more of a rail against any and everything that’s acceptable to the more staid member of our society. I like that concept. It’s not what I go out of my way to listen to, and is very, very niche in who is going to pick up on it. This type of fan tends to be long-term and very loyal.

Fiffdimension is releasing a double record called Electric (Yang)/Acoustic (Yin) which is a collection of the music he’s put together across the years 1998 to 2023, available now on Bandcamp. There are 35 tracks on the release, so we have a lot of material and we’re not talking exclusivity on the mind-bending Zappa-esque stuff that Assembling Disconsonant is; we have more conventional sounds too – because he’s making that point, that the regular stuff is do-able and stepping outside it doesn’t indicate an attempt to demonstrate against it being absolutely fine. He asked me to review this specific song – and it takes serious stones to do that when he could have asked for a review on a “safer” number.

Seriously check out Fiffdimension because this is interesting, collectible music and a different way of thinking. Massive kudos for asking me to review this one, Fiffdimension. Thanks for having faith in me to understand where you’re coming from with it. I hope I got it right?

Oh, and as well as living in Wairarapa, he’s originally from Taranaki, so another tick! You’ll find the band on FaceAche, and remember that it’s one word: Fiffdimension.