The Troubled Times: Another (Fucking) Sunday

An album review of a Masterton-based trio improvising around the songs and ideas of Kiwi underground music stalwart, Antony Milton

The Troubled Times

Another (Fucking) Sunday

Another Sunday

The Troubled Times formed in 2021, and since then have released a handful of recordings; capturing moments as they arrive. The trio format was solidified in 2022 with the addition of drummer David Heath. The project largely explores the songs of Antony Milton (guitar/vocals) with the help of Dave Edwards (bass). Both are constant sonic explorers, purveyors of the underground.

Milton’s vocals are (intentionally) burried so as to be more a texture than for discernable lyrics, perhaps in the style of Michael Morley.

Another (Fucking) Sunday has all of the looseness you might expect from an album carrying that title. Long instrumental sections of songs sound like Crazy Horse without the Neil Young tunes, and there’s a real down-home feel to many of the songs here. The sprawling closer, Revolving, and the opener Glass Ball are my favourites. With the opening track bursting out of a ball of noise and finding its way into a song shape with thick crusts of rock shard and a Dead C-esque vocal from Milton, whilst the eight-minute finale sits in a nice warm woollen jam for most of its time, before noodling off into a tiny wee jazz-stroll to finish.

The album is also part of the “Another Sunday” series, which features experimental/outsider/noise artists from New Zealand releasing an album with Another and Sunday as the bookending words. With another word in the middle to give a clue towards the inspiration, aspiration or setting/theme for the music.

Check out some of the others here.

I like this type of music and the setting for it very much. So I’ll keep listening to The Troubled Times, and take them as I find them, one album after another, recording as and when the mood strikes them. You might find it a tiny bit abrassive, and/or unpolished. I sure did! That’s what I loved about it in fact.