BlogRoddus

Waimakariri Fall Hut and Waimakriri Col 11-12th February 2012

2012-02-13T18:57:00.001+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary: Tramp No. 114

Waimakariri Fall Hut and Waimakriri Col 11-12th February 2012

The Waimakariri Falls Hut and the Waimakariri Col is a classic Arthurs Pass trip and quite probably the best located hut in the whole National park. I first went to the Hut back in late 2009 with the Christchurch Tramping Club, when there was still quite a bit of snow in the Col, but we didn't do the crossover trip. When the club newsletter made me aware that they were running another trip up there and this time were going to cross over, I decided to go and finish what we didn't do last time.

After the first day travelling up to the Waimak fall hut, the Club newsletter mentioned the possibilities of either heading over the Waimak Col and down into the Rolleston River and back out to the road or the other option of out over Mt Philistine. The trip leader had read a description of the Philistine traverse on Tramper.co.nz and said that this was the route we would attempt on Sunday.

Five hardy trampers assembled at Klondyke Corner, for a weekend of all Male bonding, after negotiating our way through the hoards of tents and vehicles there for the annual Coast To Coast race. After doing the car shuffle, leaving one car at the Otira river car park, the group set off for the long slog up the Waimak River just on 10am on a warm and partly cloudy morning. Apart from meandering off track while travelling up river to the Carrington hut, we arrived safely at the Carrington Hotel in the 4 hours usually expected.

From Carrington we crossed the very low White river and followed a pleasant track heading up the true right of the upper Waimak River, leaving the bush after about an hour to be confronted with the magnificent sight of the beautiful Waimak valley and Carrington Peak. Second lunch was consumed just past Campbell creek in warm, pleasant conditions before a bolder hop along the last stretch before the climb above Waimak Falls itself.

The Track climbing above the Falls is through thick low scrub, which had been well cut back since this scribes last visit. The views just kept getting better and better as we ascended the last part up to the Waimak Fall Hut, with Clive spotting a Rock Wren just below the hut and Uncle Roddus managing to get a photo of it.

The Wainakariri Falls hut is a wonderful little six bunk hut perched on the top of another waterfall, with magnificent views of the Col itself , Mt Murchison to the South East and surrounded by Carrington Peak 2010m, Mt Rolleston 2275m, Mt Lancelot 2112m, and Mt Armstrong 2110m.The hut is owned by the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, was put there in 1963 and contrary to DOC fears still hasn't succumbed to an avalanche. When we arrived, after an 8 hour hour day, we found a crew of three, building a new toilet near the hut, after the old one was apparently blown away some years back. The hut also has had a new double glazed window installed and solar lighting since this scribes last visit.

After setting up tents and donning warm cloths, as the light wind had a bit of a bite to it, and while we were making dinner, the familiar sound of squawking Kea's reached our ears and as we searched the sky in the direction of the sound, a gang of nine feathery bundles of trouble landed on the large rock near where the new dunny was being erected. Some evening entertainment was had watching the this gang attempting to carry off several pieces of building supplies and hoping they would leave our tents and packs alone while we slept. We suggested to the builders that the toilet would be deconstructed overnight and re erected on the rocks above the hut by the morning if they weren't lucky.

Sunday dawned warm but overcast and without any trouble from the Gang. The leader suggested a 7:30am start, but was still asleep at 7:15am when this scribe woke him and his tent partner up. We left camp at about 8:15 and headed for the Waimak Col , rock hopping up to where the river flows through the ravine before we climbed up the bluff on the true right of the river to take us just above the bowl below the Col. After arriving at the Col, we checked the route down and found that it was a bit too difficult to drop straight down to the Rolleston River as it was quite bluffy and not at all possible to sidle round to the Philistine ridge. The only way up to the Philistine ridge that we could see( and matching the description in my route guide) was up a long and steep shingle slide which would take up up to point 1860. But the shingle looked pretty loose and climbing up that didn't appeal. After much discussion as to alternatives, we decided to go the usual route down the Rolleston River back to Otria, unfortunately bringing us out quite some way from the car.
From the Col, we traversed Northwest just below point 1845 before dropping down to the gully below the Armstrong Glacier. This gully easily took us down to the Rolleston River. There is no track, poles and very few cairns on this route but we did have a copy of the DOC route guide which said to keep high above the true left of the Rolleston and sidle along across the tussock and steep screes. Not the easiest of travels, but it kept us out of trouble. Uncle Roddus had got a wee way ahead of the group about half way down this section and had stopped to see if he could spy any signs if a track or makers to indicate how high to stay along this slope, when he saw a couple of trampers approaching lower down. When they saw him, they stopped and Uncle Roddus assumed that they must be following a route he couldn't see and so made his way down to intersect them. After a short scramble he reached them, where upon one of the trampers said, I hope you didn't think we knew where we were going". It transpired that they were heading up stream to see if they could find an easier way down into the river bed before travelling back down stream, after giving up going to their destination of Lake Florence. Uncle Roddus informed them that according to information in our possession it was advised not to drop down into the river around this area. The three then spotted a cairn above them and climbed up to wait for the others to catch up. When the rest of our group arrived and after consulting our information the two trampers headed off back the way they came after offering a lift back to our car at the Otria car park.
Afternoon tea was consumed before heading off again, with Uncle Roddus again leaving the others behind(a most unusual situation), for more sidling along this slope before dropping down a scree just before the bush covered bluffs and climbing down a scrub covered knob just before a gut into the Rolleston river. Here Uncle Roddus caught up with the other two trampers who were directing him where to climb down and they waited for the rest of the group to descend. When the others arrived, the two trampers with the car at the end of our route again offered a lift back to our car and so Uncle Roddus(for it was his car at Otira) left with them while the others rested amongst the rocks.
From this point it was a short rock hop down stream to the track marker on the true right of the river. The track winds through some lovely forest with some great examples of Rata and doesn't climb too much. The track ends at a stream bed with a bolder hop back down to the Rolleston before the final couple of KMs rock hopping down stream to the rail bridge. These two guys were moving pretty fast and poor Uncle Roddus was pushed top keep up with his weekend pack, but stick with them he did and actually made it out nearly an hour before the rest of the party and so had plenty of time to get the car, eat, change and rest before they arrived. A challenging route but most enjoyable and a good bit of luck meeting the other two and avoiding having to hitch hike back to the car.

Near the confluence of the White and Waimak Rivers, Carrington Peak in the background.

Half way up the final stretch of the waimak, Carrington Peak dominating.

Upper Waimak.

Nearing Waimak Falls.

looking Back down the Waimak Valley from near Waimak Falls. Mt Campbell in the background.

Arriving at the hut, the construction of the new toilet.

Waimak Col center distant. Last time I was here 80% of this area was covered with snow.

Camping out.

Kea Party.

Most Kea's I have seen in one place. There were nine all up.

Fred.

Uncle Roddus at the hut.

Uncle Roddus above the upper falls.

Jim.

Julie.

Heading up to the Col, looking back to the hut.

There was a bit of rock around.

More rock scrambling.

The boys on the Col. All the route descriptions mention the permanent snow on the col, but as you can see there ain't much there this year.

Looking down the Rolleston from the Col.

Uncle Roddus on the Col.

Scrambling down into the Rolleston River.

Looking back towards the Waimak Col from Rolleston River.

looking down Rolleston.

The Rocky Rolleston.

The bush track lower down the Rolleston River.

Nearly there.

The Three Passes - 4-6th February 2012

2012-02-08T17:22:00.000+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.113

The Three Passes 4-6th February 2012

Day One: From Lake Kaniere up the Styx river to Harmon Hut.

Day Two: From Harmon Hut, over Browning Pass to Park Morph hut, then over Whitehorn Pass before camping at Ariels Tarns.

Day Three: From Ariels Tarns over Harmon Pass and out along the Waimack River to Klondyke Corner.

The Three Passes Trip is a crossover trip, traversing three alpine passes from the West Coast to near Arthurs Pass or vice-versa. This was a trip I was suppose to do back in 2004, but due to an early heavy snow, the trip was cancelled and so I was most glad to be available to tag along for this C.T.C club trip. I was in the West to East group for this trip.

After picking up Max and Uncle Roddus from Springfield about 7pm and Friday night, the group of 13 enthusiastic trampers reassembled at the Bealey hotel car park to organise car shuffles and tents etc... before heading off to Klondyke Corner, from where the East to West group was departing, lead by Jonathan. This scribe was in the West to East group of 7, lead by Uncle Bernhard, who was also Overlord of the whole expedition. Travelling in two cars belonging to two members of the East to West group, the West to East group, after taking the wrong road to where Overlord had intended to camp, arrived at the start of the track up the Styx river around 11pm. It was thought we might as well camp right here at the track but the grassy area that was originally the parking area was now a well shingled car park and Overlord decided to continue on around Lake Kaniere to where we were originally going to camp. We finally found the lovely grassy area on the edge of the lake, only to be greeted with a large "No Camping" sign. Uncle Bernhard had turned his car around to head back to another spot we had passed earlier, just as Uncle Roddus noticed another sign indicating a camping area slightly up the bank, whereabouts he blasted the horn of the car he was driving to get Uncle Bernhard's attention before he drove off again. We then drove into a quite full and very dark and quiet camping area some where in the vicinity of 11:30PM. After pitching tents as quietly as possible(although no doubt already haven woken the entire camp) we snuggled down to sleep when this scribe thought he heard the sound of a baby cough, very near by. A minute or so later another cough and a short cry was heard, in response to which this scribe was head to mutter "I don't remember bringing one of them with us" before the peace was blasted by a long and sustained bout of crying. Revenge.

Day One: Approx. 19 Km and 760m height gain.
Arising around half an hour after sparrows fart, we were heading up the Styx river just after 8am on a slightly overcast and misty but warm and very humid morning. The track starts off as a four wheel drive farm track before merging into a well maintained and wide walking track in the wonderful West Coast Native forest.
The Travel up the Styx involves bush track, several river crossings and some bolder hopping with a gradual gain in height as we progressed towards Grassy Flats hut, with several small waterfalls to keep the photographers happy and a picturesque river to follow. We made Grassy flats hut in just over four hours with a couple of short stops and proceeded to have lunch while Joanne decided to have a "roll in the hay", which was laying around the hut from a recent cut. The Hut book informed us that The Peninsular Club was also doing this trip this weekend and had a party of 5 a half day ahead of us.
Continuing up the Styx River in an almost directly east direction, we traversed the Styx Saddle before another short breather at the junction of the track leading off to Mudflats hut, after which we rounded a spur off Mt Browning and sidled along a benched track through scrub and flax and twisted trees in a southerly direction heading towards the headwaters of the Arahura River and Harmons Hut. Unfortunately, While Stephen was taking a drink from a fast flowing stream, his glasses slipped off and were carried by the rapid water into a deep and churning pond from which we were unable to find them. So it became a rather expensive weekend for him. The hut was gained around 4pm, much to the relief of this scribe, after sweating profusely on the way up due to the high humidity. We had the hut to our selves, until a lone tramper arrived about an hour later, having come all the way from Carrington hut in one day. He shared the floor with Max.

Day Two: Approx. 16 Km and 1300m height gain.
An even earlier start on this second day as we has a fair way to go and two passes to traverse. We were away well before 8am on another warmish, but less humid day and the low clouds had departed Browning pass, that were hanging about the evening before, although it wasn't quite the stunning clear day we had ordered. We soon walked off the stiffness from the previous days exertions and started to get the stunning views back down the the valley with Mt Browning majestically in the background. We made Browning Lake around mid morning, where we encountered another party of three blokes resting, who had just come from Park Morph hut, where they informed us that the two PTC groups had also stayed as well as our own group who hadn't turned up till around 10:30pm, and had camped nearby. Another party of two passed us as we approached the lake, this was a busy place. We wandered along the tops away from the lake to enjoy the views of Hall Cole, Hamer Falls and the fantastic vista down the Wilberforce river. It was now time to tackle the infamous Browning Pass, the Three Amigos we met resting by the lake headed off the way we had just been and we headed off in the opposite direction, running into the PTC crossover party hunkered down in a small depression just over the top of Browning pass. The pass itself, although steep, wasn't too bad and the views were stunning. We met our own crossover group near the bottom of the pass. They were pretty spred out so didn't stop and reconnect as a whole group, just swapped keys with those we needed to and let them get on with the slog up the pass. We lunched with the sandflys at Park Morph hut before heading off on the next leg of our journey to climb to Whitehorn pass. The travel up Cronin Stream is pretty much one long rock hop, criss crossing the stream where needed and slogging up to the quite steep and loose shingley climb to the pass. Uncle Roddus loves this kind of travelling and soon found himself well ahead of the rest of the group(mainly because Max chose to stay with the others instead of leaving us all in his dust. But by the time he got within a hundred or so meters of the pass where it gets pretty steep and the rocks aren't so nice to travel on, he was getting pretty stuffed and decide to rest while the rest of the party caught up. Max duly flew past while the rest of us mortals slowly slogged it to the summit. Here we rested and recovered and enjoyed the views quickly before the mist blew in. The final part of the days journey was to negotiate the permanent snow below Whirehorn Pass before reaching our destination of the Ariels tarns , where we were going to camp.
The top of the snow was quite steep and although we had our ice axes, we didn't need crampons, as the top was quite soft, bur still hard enough that it was difficult to dig your feet in to get good footing. Uncle Roddus was the first on the snow but after several meters, lost his footing and ended up doing an unintentional bum slide down the slope. Nearly every one else thought this looked fun, and so all did like wise, except Lovisa, who wisely decided she didn't want to get a cold wet bottom. After around 11 hours of tramping we finally reached the Tarns and found it was a really excellent place to camp. Camp was setup, meals cooked in warm but misty conditions and a later evening was had as we were aloud the luxury of a bit of a sleepin in the morning.

Day Three: Approx 18 Km.
With the weather still good, it was time to complete the last stage of the journey. With two of the three passes already bagged, the last one, Harmon Pass, was only a couple of hundred meters from our camp site and even better was the fact that we didn't actually have to climb very far to get to it, so in the blink of an eye were were on the pass and ready to drop down the wonderfully gorgey, but easily negotiable Taipoiti River, or waterfall alley as this scribe noted. Another bolder hop found Uncle Roddus hot on Max's tail, some of the time, before a scrog stop near the White river. The rest of the trip involves the long hike down the Waimack, where we stuck to the true Right, visiting both Carrington and Anit-Crow Huts before arriving at the cars around 4PM after another 7 hour or so day.

Starting off up the Styx on Saturday morning.

Max helping the girls across the river.

Styx Avenue.

View of the Styx River.

A scenic womble.

With plenty of lovely waterfalls.

Toi-Toi's on Grassy Flat.

Approaching Grassy Flats hut.

Uncle Roddus at Grassy Flats hut.

Grassy Flats Hut Weka.

Heading up Styx Saddle.

Lovisa and A Tree.

It was in a small streem like this that Stephen lost his glasses.

Heading around Mt Browning, Harmon Hut is just behind that flat ridge in the middle of the picture.

The swing bridge just before Harmon Hut.

A cracker of a rock.

Looking up towards Browning Pass from just before Harmon Hut.

The approach to Harmon Hut/

A very knackered Uncle Roddus At Harmon hut.

Looking up to Browning pass from the hut.

Heading off from Harmons hut on Day Two.

Bolder Hopping towards Browning Pass.

Great view looking back towards Harmon hut with Mt Browning in the distance.

Nearing the Pass with Mt Browning in the distance.

Nearing Lake Browning.

Uncle Roddus at Lake Browning.

The excellent view down the Wilberforce from near lake browning.

Lake Browning.

Lake Browning again just before we plunge down Browning pass.

The view from atop Browning Pass Track.

The start of the descent of Browning Pass.

Uncle Roddus about to head down the Pass.

Another view of the Wilberforce, just cos it is so cool.

A better view of the bottom of the pass. We met our crossover party near the bottom of the shingle slide.

looking back up at Browning pass.

Uncle Roddus at Park Morph Hut.

Trouble just above Park Morph Hut.

View up Cronin Creek with the Cronin Glacier in the background.

Rock hopping up Cronin.

Nearing Whitehorn Pass.


Looking back from near the top of Whitehorn.

Uncle Roddus on Whitehorn just before the fog rolled in.

Olympic bum sliding.

A quick descent.

Walking down the permanent snow below Whitehorn.

Further down Whitehorn.

Ariels Tarn Camp.

Ariels Tarns. Middle Earth.

Heading off, dat Three.

looking down the Taipoiti river from Harmon Pass.

Rock hopping again.

Bottom of an impressive slide on the White River, just before Carrington hut.

Looking back up the Waimack.

A uick visit to Anti Crow hut

Leaving Anit Crow.

The last slog back to the cars.

Mt Oakden - 29th January 2012

2012-02-02T21:25:00.000+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 112

Mt Oakden - 29th January 2012

Uncle Roddus's first tramp of the new year, a CTC club trip to Mount Oakden, a stand alone mount at the north end of lake Coleridge.

A party of 11 keen trampers headed off from the Algidus road around 9:30am on a warm but slightly overcast day, with a mild Nor' West wind to keep us company. We headed up the ridge between the two fords on the South-West corner of the mountain, through light scrub, encountering a sustained and quite steep climb of about 900M to point 1431. From here we travelled in a northerly direction along a bare ridge of shattered rock and several challenging rock outcrops that needed traversing before we reached the summit at point 1633. By this time the sun was more visible and the wind stayed low enough for a pleasant relaxed lunch while enjoying the views of lake Coleridge, up the Wilberforce and Rakia Rivers and surrounding mountains and imagining what it must have been like here during the last ice age when Oakden was surrounded by glaciers.

The trip back to the cars involved back tracking to near point 1460 before a bit of scree bashing down to the ridge just north of the one we came up earlier in the day. The cars were attained around 3:30pm.

Unfortunately Uncle Roddus left his camera in the car for this trip and so had to flog some pics from one of the other participants on this little adventure.

I really dig the way Bryce does this with Google Earth.

Some of the views we got, looking up the Rakia River.

Uncle Roddus struggling up the hill.

Onto the shingle part.

And heading towards som slightly tricky rocky bits.

Did I mention it was quite steep.

Peak hill is in the background, which I climbed last winter

I don't remember rock climbing being in the trip description.

Fuel stop.

Nice views of lake Cileridge.

Onwards and upwards.

Rock sideling.

Teddy Bear Rock.

The Arrowsmiths.

The Megaupload saga

2012-01-22T10:56:00.004+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Opinion

For those who don't know, and I doubt most visitors to this blog will not know, Megaupload was a web site where users could upload and store files, usually in a zipped format, and then they were given a link address to re access that file, and if they so choose, they could share that link address with others via blogs or networks or email or whatever other means they choose, so that those others could then download that file themselves. It is a great idea for storing and sharing large and multiple files and allowing a large number of people to access them. This service has been used by many different types of businesses, organisations, musicians, artists and others to store and share legitimate files to others and is far superior to email. Megaupload is just one of many many file store sites on the Internet and it had other services available as well, of which I am not so familiar with. Business models for theses types of sites are are complex and I don't begin to understand the technicalities of them, but I know that a fair amount of revenue is gained from a) Advertising and b) registration fees for users who want to access more of their functions(i.e bigger files, faster downloads etc....).

Two days ago the US Government shut down the Megaupload web site and issued warrants for the arrest of several key members of the creators of the site and seized most of the assets and servers associated with it. These warrants were executed in several countries, including one here in New Zealand for the head of the operation who was arrested in his Auckland mansion and his property seized. Some of the charges laid against these people include piracy, fraud, money laundering, and copyright infringements, just to name a few that I know of via the media. Time will tell weather they can make these charges stick and I think this will a long drawn out trial to get convictions. I think this whole thing is a two headed dragon, a double edged sword, with plenty of greed on both sides of the argument.

First lets take a quick look at he file sharing side. I think this file sharing service is a great idea and as I have said, has many legitimate useful applications for many many people, many of whom have lost valuable files from the closure of this service. But lets be honest, these sites, Megaupload and all the others, like Rapidshare, Filesonic, Mediafire, just to name a few of the bigger ones, all are swarming with links to copyrighted music, books, movies, etc.. Any one can search on Google for an album or movie and most likely be taken to a blog with links to these files. Some of these blogs and other sites are blatantly uploading recently available commercial material to these file hosting sites and posting links on their blogs etc.. The file hosting sites do delete copyrighted files if asked on occasion but really it seems they are unable or unwilling to stop these files being shared and I am often quite surprised on some of the content found that I could download from these sites. On the other hand, it is good to be able to access these files for review purposes before buying the product in question and many of my recent CD purchases have been informed by my ability to have a listen first, as there would have been no other medium to hear the music and to know that I wanted to buy it. A lot of the music I buy isn't played on TV or radio.
There is a mentality out there on the internet that any one should be able to share any thing they want and they all get up in arms when copyright holders delete their files. This material IS copyrighted and the owners of this material have the right to say how their material is distributed and have the law to back them up. But again, there is absolutely bucketloads of commercially unavailable and ultra rare music being posted in blog-land. The powers that be don't seem to concern themselves with this music as it is marginal and there is not a lot of money in it. Many of the artists of this rare and mostly unavailable music are no longer active in the industry and their music, being unavailable, does not generate any income and indeed many artists support their music being posted online in this way and sometimes it generates enough interest to warrant someone re-releasing the music in limited quantities. Even some more commercial artists support limited free downloads of their music to help stimulate sales, especially if they don't get much TV or radio exposure.
Another side to this, and it refers to the greed I mentioned earlier. Mr Kim Dotcom, the supposed CEO of Megaupload, was arrested in his $30 million mansion where several very expensive cars were also seized, as well as, I understand, large sums of cash. Two points for me are there seems to be a bit more going on at Megaupload than meets the eye and the amounts of money these guys were making are staggering. As to why these people feel the need to make and have so much money, its just greed and selfishness and I reckon insecurity that fuels this. Who really needs to live in a $30 Million dollar mansion and have all those cars, in a world of starving millions and grinding poverty, people like that are immoral. We can all survive quite comfortably on just small amounts of money compared to these people.
On the other side, this also applies to the entertainment industries. The ones who are kicking up the most stink about piracy and file sharing copyright material are the biggest corporations, the ones who make profits that make Mr. Dotcom look like a pauper. Do they really need to make $600 Million or what ever, profit every year. It just looks so obscene that they are so desperate to not be loosing a few measly million here or there maybe because of file sharing or maybe just because sales are down for many other reasons, like the music they try to make up buy is crap. Gee maybe they won't be able to buy that third luxury yacht this year, My heart bleeds.
People have been sharing music since the technology was available. We all use to tape each others albums, we still brought music, but couldn't afford to buy everything we liked and if someone else had an album we wanted, it was cheaper to use your limited pocket money to buy a blank tape. Like the tapes back then, MP3's aren't as good a quality as the real thing, so I would rather have the CD of something I really liked and its much more fun to hold a CD or album in your hand than just a bunch of bits on your hard drive. The Music business, back in the taping days, use to run a campaign saying "Home Taping is killing Music" It didn't, and today file sharing won't either. Just adjust your business models to suit. No matter how hard they try, this type of sharing is here to stay, they shut down Napster years ago but they just created other ways to share, like torrents, File hosting sites and other private sharing networks. Most of my music purchases today are informed by my ability to download and sample music that I couldn't hear any other way.

Spirit - The Family That Plays Together (USA 1968)

2012-01-21T23:56:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

For me there are four bands that stand as the peak of 60s popular music, not including the Beatles, who pretty much define the era, although not all of these four were all that popular at the time. The Mothers Of Invention, Buffalo Springfield, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and Spirit.

I am not sure how I became aware of Spirit back in the late 80s or there about, but Edsel records had re issued this LP and it somehow found its way into my collection. It soon became a favourite with its wonderful mix of jazzy/psychedelic rock, being a very accomplished set without any weak tracks . Although the sound is firmly rooted in the late 60s, it still sounds good today and for me back then it came across as the quintessential 60s album. The album kicks of with the single "I Got A Line On You", an upbeat rocker which had moderate success and helped the albums sales at the time and highlights Randy California's excellent guitar sound. "It Shell Be" is a more mellower number propelled along with a good base line and interspersed with brass and wind to fill it out. A much more jazzy feel with pleasant vocals. "Poor Richard" is a much more Psychedelic sounding bass fuelled number before segueing into the more ballad like "Silky Sam" with its strings and subtle guitar, although the song changed tempo before getting a bit more offbeat briefly in the middle. "Drunkard" starts of with melancholic strings and vocals before going psychedelic to fade. "Darlin' If" has a really cool, and again melancholic sounding vocal. Another song that had differing tempos with some lovely subtle guitaring in the quieter parts. 'It's All The Same" is more up-tempo and slightly funky and I really dig the bass playing and the song is topped if with a great guitar break and drum solo. "Jewish" is the most radical track here with its Indian sounding drum intro with what I assume to be Jewish lyrics before it goes psychedelic with the guitars. "Dream Within a Dream" continues on with the top quality of the song writing with a great vocal and excellent guitar support and with the ever present piano supporting to good effect. "She Smiles" is a great pop song and one of the strongest here with great piano support also. "Aren't You Glad" finishes the album as strongly as it began with this mid tempo number, with Randy pumping out some nice licks. My main gripe with this excellent album is the production is a little muddy and it can be difficult to separate out the instrumentation for closer inspection and it doesn't do justice to Jay Ferguson's great voice. There aren't really any stand out, blow your mind classic,s on this album, just a consistent bunch of very strong songs which make it a classic album as a whole and it does have a bit of a concept feel to it, especially the way the songs segue into each other. A Roddus rating of 5/5 though.

Mi-Sex - Space Race (New Zealand 1980)

2012-01-15T14:19:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

This is it, the first album I ever owned, the start of my large collection and my obsession with music.

My Mother brought a second hand Thorn integrated stereo back in late 79' or early 80'. One of those wooden cabinet things with record storage below the turntable and separate speakers. Not exactly top end but much better than the square box thing with the fold down turntable and integrated speakers that I had in my bedroom later. The Thorn wasn't too bad a system and was bloody loud, much to the annoyance to the neighbours. Mi-Sex were a local band but were based in Australia and were having success at the time with a couple of songs on fairly heavy rotation on one of the few radio stations we had back then. Now that we had a stereo, Mum, it seems, was switched on enough to what I was digging in the radio to get me this for Christmas that year along with a copy of Split Enz's "True Colours" album. The beginnings of an obsession.

Space Race was the second album by Mi-Sex and the big hit from this new wave/synthpop and slightly arty music was "People" and for me the highlight is the slower "It Only Hurts When I'm Laughing" with it's great guitar break. "Ice Cold Dead " and "Burning up" are also stand out tracks on an album without any weak songs. Still enjoy this after all these years and it has stood the test of time well and I should see if I can still gert a copy on CD. Rating 4.5/5

Nirvana - Live at Paramount 1991 (USA 2011)

2012-01-10T21:16:00.000+13:00

An uncle Roddus video review

I never got to see my favourite band of the time live in concert and hadn't been following recent concert releases from them. I had all their albums except the live 'From the Muddy Banks of the Wishka" and also haven't listened to any of their music for sometime. So when I came across this live concert from 1991, I was keen to check it out, especially after getting a Pearl jam DVD for Xmas with mention of Nirvana.. Filmed in a moderate size venue which appears packed to the gunnells and I suspect a crowd of the size that Kurt Cobain would have liked to have kept playing to, not long after the release of Nevermind, the 60 odd minute adrenalin fuelled set is culled from the first two albums and some early tracks that also turned up on the Insecticide album. One surprise was the Song "Rape Me" which was included on In Utero, so I wonder how many other In Utero songs were already written at this early stage. Three musicians on a pretty bare stage with only a white screen for a backdrop, which changes colour occasionally, and a couple of lame dancers on the sides, makes for a very pure and authentic Rock N' Roll experience. The music is awesome, the sound brilliant and the quality of the film surprisingly good. Kurt spends most of the time with his eyes closed, his hair over his face, shredding his voice, and his fingers on his guitar and appears totally absorbed in the music. He says very little to the audience, leaving Krist to banter to the crowd, and spends several periods lying on the stage in various foetal positions bludgeoning us with his guitar solos. Dave's frenetic drumming is also great to watch. The style of the filming is also very good and I really liked the way the cameras got on stage with the guys and filmed at all sorts of different angles and the way they panned and you could see a camera man filming before they cut to his shot. " Aneurysm" is my favourite Nirvana song and possibly the greatest piece of Grunge recorded and this live version gives me goose bumps and reminds me how much I love it. I haven't seen any of the other Nirvana live DVDs from Reading in 92' and others, but they would be hard pressed to be as good as this one. Highly recommended and gets a Roddus rating of 5/5

Cromwell - 26 December 2011 - 2 January 2012

2012-01-10T16:10:00.001+13:00

Uncle Roddus Holiday Adventures.

This year, for the holiday period, Mrs. Roddus and I got to spend several days down in Cromwell with her family and we got to play tourists for a change. There is plenty to see and do down there and the week passed very quickly.
Heading off early on Boxing day, we took the inland scenic route from home with our first rest stop at Geraldine before heading on to Fairlie, where we had an early picnic lunch. Another short rest stop at Tekapo for ice cream then onto Lake Pukakai where we stopped to admire Aoraki on a wonderfully fine day. The next stop was the Salmon Farm at Wairepo, where we enjoyed feeding the salmon and purchased a nice large slab of salmon to take with us to Cromwell. Our last stop before our destination was Omarama, where there is a fabulous antique and curio store with lots of interesting old books, one of Mrs. Roddus's favorite shops and I managed to find an interesting book for myself. We arrived at Cromwell in the mid afternoon to very hot temperatures and soon after unpacking the car at the Mother-In-laws, spending some time catching up with her, it was off the the Brother-In-Laws for a nice dip in his pool.
Our first excursion out while on holiday was to take a drive to see Alexander, which gave me the opportunity to see the Clyde Dam, after which we went for a short womble round the Beautiful and historic gold mining town of Clyde. One icream later we were back on the road to Alexander, where the Rail Trail Mountain bike trail begins. Alexander is a lovely town, but was a little disappointing after Clyde and apart from looking at a few shops(most of which were still closed for the holidays) a big book fair and a coffee, we didn't stay too long. Then back to Cromwell to hide in the swimming pool as the temperature at Alex was 34C.
The following day was a lazy day, reading and relaxing and swimming and going for coffee, but later in the day when things cooled off I went for a walk up the side of the hill beside lake Dunstan, overlooking Cromwell, to enjoy the rock formations and the views over the lake and township.
Day Four, I was gonna go tramping. My intention was to drive too Queenstown and Climb Ben Lomond, behind Queenstown. I had had another intention to do a walk up Wye Creek, but that was going to take too long to do in one day and I had no gear for overnight tramping. After getting to Queenstown but not finding the start of the track where it said in my tramping book, I finally located the start but then saw that the walking time up and back wasn't going to allow me to get back to Cromwell in time to pick up Mrs. Roddus and her Mum, as we were going out for dinner and a movie in Arrowtown. Also I decided it was going to be much too hot to climb 1300M that day. When I got back to Cromwell, I decided to fill in the rest of the afternoon with a short walk around the old gold mining sluicing at Bannockburn, and what an interesting little trip that was.
Day 5, I took Mrs Roddus for a drive into have a look at Skippers canyon. A spectacular place and a very hair raising road into this amazing old gold mining site. Took quite a while to drive in with plenty of stops for photos and then a short walk and a picnic before heading out again. I won't say too much about it here but let some of my photos show a bit of what it was like. After leaving Skippers Road, we decided to pop up the the Cardrona Ski field to enjoy the views, probably the best access road to any ski field in NZ.
New Years Eve and Mrs Roddus was helping her mother unpack her house after moving down to Cromwell only a couple of months before, to escape the continuing earthquakes Christchurch is still having(apparently 9427 shakes since the big on of Sept 4 2010). Uncle Roddus decided to fill in the morning by visiting the old gold mining site on the Kawarau River, a spot I have driven past many times over the years but never had the opportunity to stop. For a cheap $20 I got to do a self guided tour around the old working and a bit of gold panning at the end. Filled in the morning nicely. The afternoon was spent enjoying the old building and a coffee in old Cromwell town with Mrs. Roddus before heading out for a Thai Meal at a local restaurant, where I ordered a medium hot pork chili meal that nearly took my head off and had me sweating like a triathlete. I would hate to try one of their hot meals. The last few hours of the year were spent with the rest of the In-Laws playing Cranium before retiring soon after midnight as we were going to head off early and go to Dunedin.
New Years Day we were off early as we wanted to get to Dunedin early enought to book a ride on the afternoons Taieri Gorge Rail trip. Aftere the loveley scenic drive through the wonderful rocky landscape on the otherside of Alexander, We stopped at the lovely town of Lawrence, where we were suppose to have breakfast, but the cafe that had been reccommended was closed down, so after a cuppa and a look at some of the very cool buildings, we continued on to Dunedin, where we managed to get tickets for that afternoons train trip. January 2nd was time to go home.
Any how, enough of my dribble, please enjoy some photos from our travels that will give a much better insght into what we saw.

Uncle Roddus at Lake Pukaki on Boxing day, with Aoraki in the distance.

Salmon feeding frenzy as we throw in the pallets they gave us to feed them.

Uncle Roddus by the Clyde Dam which was completed in the late 80s or early 90s and helps form Lake Dunstan.

Main Street in the historic and picturesque town of Clyde, just below the dam.

The Clyde Dam end of Lake Dunstan.

This very cool clock is built on the side of the hill above Alexander.

The very cool old bridge over the Clutha River in Alexander.

This shot was taken on my small walk on the hills above Cromwell. The ground is very very dry, almost desert like up here and the small plants are thyme, so there was a nice strong oder up there. Looking at this landscape I felt like I was in some western movie and expected to see some desperado's hiding amongst the rocks.

A great shot of The Cromwell township. The curving waterway is the Kawarau River where it meets the Clutha. Before the Dam, this junction use to be a deep gorge with Old Cromwell town built on land now under water, near the original rivers edge. I remember seeing the old Cromwell bridge, which is now 10m under water, right in front of me here, when they were starting to fill the lake back in 91'.

More cool rock formations.

I could tell people I was on Mars(I think the blue sky might give it away).

The Bannockburn sluicing. The landscape here was drastically altered by washing away the soils in the search for gold. This area and others we explored were the scenes of the great Otago Gold Rush of the early 1860s. Another landscape that made me think of Western movies.

More of the Bannockburn gold sluicing.

This was a man made water race.

he remnants o Stewart Town, above the Bannockburn Sluicing.

Quite incredible the damage they did with giant water blasters and this was before the days of electric pumps.

Watch out for Orcs.

Looking back up the sluiced valley from the photo above.

A shot of the vast area sluiced.

CBD, Arrowtown.

A town of hardened criminals.

The warning sign for Skippers Road.

The area behind Queenstown, from near Skippers Road.

The Drive into Skippers.

Spectacular rock formations and hills

More Hills and rocks from Skippers Road.

great shot of the Shotover River from Skippers Road.

Down in the Shotover River Bed, note the road cut into the cliffs.

Rockface.

Shotover River.

This is the bridge from where loony people bungy on the Shotover.

The big scare opposite is where the old timers sluiced for gold on the Shotover River back in the 1860s.

Skippers Bridge, which appears to be another place where loonys jump off.

A wonderful camping spot, to which we will be returning to spend some more time one day.

The old Aurum Station House which had been restored as an historic place.

The restored schoolhouse.

Another lovely shot of the Shotover River. We didn't see the Shotover Jet operating.

But we did see these guys on the way back out. A must do next time.


I think this is called Castle rock, although from other angles it could be called Penis Rock. That is Skippers Road below it.

The views from Cardrona.

This is the entrance to the old gold fields on the Kawarau river.

A nice shot of the Kawarau looking towards Cromwell.

This is Chinatown in the gold fields, these huts were re-created for a movie back in the early 90s of which I can't remember the title, but the lady at reception said it was pretty boring. I believe that this particular area was the site if the first gold finding in Otago and was mined at different levels and times upto the 1920s.

More China town.

Another shot of the Kawarau River looking towards Queenstown.

One of the water Cannons used for sluicing.

Battery used for crushing rock to extract gold.

A shot of old Cromwell, these buildings were relocated and restored when to lower township was flooded by the Dam.


Old Cromwell.

Dunedin Railway Station and the Tairei Gorge Train.

This Photo and the rest that follow were taken from the train on the upper reaches of the Tairei River Gorge before reaching Pukerangi from where the train heads back to Dunedin. The land above this beautiful gorge is quite flat, very dry looking with lots of rock outcrops, but you wouldn't know it when in the Gorge, it looks so different.

Murder Junkies - Feed My Sleaze (USA 1995)

2011-12-16T23:02:00.001+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I had been aware of Bomp Records for many years, mainly through their distribution of the "Pebbles Series" 60s Garage Compilations, but later through the excellent "Straight Outta Burbank" 25th anniversary double set which I had got from Emusic several years ago. Recently checking out their web site and online shop, I found that they were selling 5CD bundles of CDs for US$10. They picked the CDs, so their was a chance that they might be pretty crappy, but as I knew some of the artists and types of music in their roster I thought that for the price it was worth the risk and I might pick up some real gems. They had several different bundles covering different styles covered by the Alive Label, which they distributed and well as one actual Bomp bundle and so I ordered 5 Bundles for a total of 25CDs for just over $100NZ incl. package and post.

Murder Junkies is my first review of this bundle of CDs and as the name implies this definitely ain't easy listening and with song titles like "Stiff Cold Fuck", "Waking up in a Pool Of Piss" and "Jism On The Cross", these guys aren't to serious. Balls out Garage Rock/Punk, think "A Fistfull Of Rock N' Roll" and Zodiac Mindwarp crossed with Anti-Nowhere League. Pretty coarse vocals and average riffs but some nice solos and a couple of stronger songs in "Stiff Cold..." and the closing track, but otherwise fails to really captivate me. Clocking in at just over 18 minutes for 7 songs pretty much makes this an EP. Rating 2.5/5.

I almost forgot to mention that these guys were originally a backing band for the extremely sick and twisted GG Allin and so have dwelt in the very lowest pits of Rock N' Roll depravity and they truly sound like it.

Paul McCartney - Back In The World (2002)

2011-12-16T22:10:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Had this playing on the ipod for a couple of weeks, a couple of months back and must say that I really enjoyed it. And why wouldn't I, as I really dig the Beatles and I also have enjoyed some of Paul's solo stuff as well as Wings. Pretty much a hits set with the later excellent "Calico Skies" thrown in as well. All the songs are played pretty straight by an excellent band and being the first Live set I have heard of this material, it was a most enjoyable experience to hear these songs that I grew up with and are etched in my subconscious. Hearing probably 30,000 Mexicans singing along to "Hey Jude" in the 21st Century brings a lump to my throat for the shear power and longevity of that song. I would love to see Paul and band play a concert of this material in person, even though it is very polished and commercial but the songs, especially the Beatles material, is just so awesome. Who else would we want to see playing this stuff in the 21st Century. A Rolddus rating of 4.5/5

Lucretia Tarn 10-11December 2011

2011-12-11T21:12:00.002+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Dairy:Tramp No.111

Lucretia Tarn 10-11December 2011

The Tops above the Lewis Pass offer stunning views with fairly easy access and great camping spots, making for great summer overnight trips. The forecast was very promising as Uncle Roddus met the other seven in the party at Amberly on Saturday Morning, led by the easy going Gareth Gilbert. Arriving at The St James car park just before 11am and while preparing ourselves for departure for our weekends adventures, Uncle Roddus found the mysteriously missing expensive tramping sock, in his tramping boot, that he had hasseled Mrs Roddus about the night before. He seriously considered not returning home after the weekend, but decided instead to just slip it in with the rest of the washing and keep quiet about it.

The track up to the Lewis tops and Lucretia Tarn starts just across the road from the car park and winds its way up through some beautiful mossy beech before clearing the bush about the 1300M mark. The travel along the tops follows a well used track through short but lush snow grass passing several lovely tarns and offering excellent views of Trovatore, Zampa, Freyberg, Mueller and also down to the Lewis Highway and Maruia Springs.

Heading West along the tops, Uncle Roddus, Craig and Lovisa, decided to bag The Apprentice, as we were passing by so close to it, with the rest of the party happy to just womble over the saddle to the tarn. After admiring the views from The Apprentice, the three dropped directly down the southern face 100m to the Tarn and beat the rest of the party there and thus nabbing the best waterfront real estate. Time from cars about 5 hours. Uncle Roddus was quite keen to have a crack at Mt Technical, as there was still plenty of daylight hours left and at only another 300 odd meters height gain from our camp, was just too tempting to let pass. After pitching tents and refueling, he conned Craig and Lovisa to accompany him.

They quickly made the top of the ridge, passing under the first two rocky outcrops before scrambling over more rocks to where the ridge changes direction. From here the ridge looked pretty difficult but it looked like others had been along this route before and so they carefully battled on until the last bit that looked a bit too technical, but were able to slip below and under before climbing up a gut to about the 1820M mark. With only a short distance to go to the radio mast things started to get much more difficult and two of the party decided they weren't comfortable with the terrain here. Uncle Roddus Had already navigated this bit and called back that he would see if he could get along any further. He was only about 100M from the summit, but after careful consideration decided it was too technical to safely traverse this last bit and had to settle for taking a photo of the top from his vantage point. He rejoined the others and they returned to camp for dinner and rest.

Sunday dawned to a very early rising and the sight of mist in Lucretia valley. Our three intrepid explorers from the night before were today joined by Andrew, as the loop party who wanted to continue down to the Lucretia Biv and out down the Nina to the highway, while Gareth and the rest just wandered back out the way they came in and picked up the cars to meet the rest at the NZDA Hut. The loop party left about 7:45am and carefully dropped down the steep col of Lucretia Stream and then struggled along the patchy but well ribboned track to the Biv. After negotiating some flood damage to the Nina Valley Track, the loop party arrived at the NZDA hut in about 6 and a quarter hours.

Climbing up through the forest

Zampa in background.

Heading up.

looking back towards Trovatore

One of the many Tarns.

Mt Technical from Apprentice

Looking down to Lucretia Tarn and Valley.

Uncle Roddus On Apprentice

Looking back to camp while heading up Technical.

Scrambling along Technical.


The Mast on Technical from the closest point we got to it.

Morning mist in Lucretia and Nina Valleys

Looking Back up Lucretia Col from Lucretia Stream.

Salmon Creek Biv - 26-27 November 2011

2011-11-28T22:38:00.001+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:tramp No.110

Salmon Creek Biv - 26-27 November 2011

I thought it was about time for another visit to Salmon Creek Biv as I hadn't been there in over 7 years and it is right on my back door, so to speak. Brendon courageously volunteered to tag along and keep me company for this trip and after voting right on opening of the polls for the General Election, we headed off on a nice warm, but slightly windy morning. From the View Hill carpark we set off on the Warfdale track, through the black beech forest and wind our way around on a fairly flat track untill the obligatory lunch stop at the saddle. From there it is about 30 minutes to the junction where we start the hard stuff, climbing up to Black Hill Hut. We arrived at the hut, much in need of a rest and sustenance, 5 and 3/4 hours from the car, where I discovered that a party of 3 trampers I knew from the CTC had been in to Salmon Creek the night before, but we never encountered them coming out(I later found out that they had come out earlier after one of their number broke a finger and had taken a different route). We Left Black Hill Hut and climbed up to Black Hill, enjoying the views, before the big descent down into Salmon Creek. Most of the way the track was pretty good, but after the half way point we encountered some serious windfall and lost the track, spending a good 20 minutes trying to find it again. Arrived at the biv after 8 hours travel and settled in to enjoy the place, a nice spot apart from the ferocious sand flys. The Biv was built in 1950 and located at its present site beside Salmon Creek in 1984. Looking through the still original hut book, the place only gets about 8-10 visits a year, to have different occupants two nights in a row is unheard of.

Sunday was another lovely fine day as we set off for the big slog back up to Black Hill. Made the top in just over 2 hours and had an extended break on Black Hill top in perfect conditions and stunning views. It was pretty much business as usual for the rest of the trip, arriving back at View Hill, sore and tired in just on 8 hours.

Uncle Roddus on lower Black hill

We saw some hills

Brendon with Chest Peak and Salmon Creek in the background

Uncle Roddus at the Biv

Nah, it's not too steep.


I just dig the moss.


The top of the climb on Sunday.

Fox River/Dilemma Creek - 11-13th November 2011

2011-11-16T00:07:00.000+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No 109

Fox River/Dilemma Creek - 11-13th November 2011

As it was mentioned in the club trip description, The Inland Pack Track is a route, cut back in the 1860s, to facilitate access to the new gold fields, long before the current coastal road was constructed in the 1920s. The long weekends trip description, as stated in the club newsletter, was to start up the Fox river on Friday, with some cave exploration on the way to our first camp site at the Ballroom Overhang, Using this site to hide from the forecast rain expected that night. Saturday was to involve a relaxed womble up Dilemma and Fossil Creeks and to camp somewhere near the Taurus Major submergence on Bullock Creek, hoping the rain had done its bit by then. Sunday was to complete the Pack track and have pancakes at Punakaiki before the trip home. A nice easy walk through some extremely beautiful country.
This is not quite how things panned out.
A party of 7 keen explorers picked up Uncle Roddus at Springfield on a pleasant Canterbury morning, before heading off on our weekends adventures. First stop(apart from Morning tea at Arthurs Pass) was Dolomite Point, where we played tourists and visited the legendary Pancake Rocks, which is, I believe, were we were at 11:11am on the 11/11/11, although were were all to enthralled with the rock formations and to busy snapping away with our cameras to actually check the time. The sea was fairly calm, so we didn't get to see the blowholes in action. What with two Germans, one Iranian, one Irish, one Canadian and three kiwis in our group, it wasn't surprising that this was the first visit to the Pancakes for many in the group.
Next stop was the Fox River and the start of our massive expedition. We readied ourselves while the drivers did the obligatory car shuffle ready for our resurgence on Sunday.
The weather was holding as we headed up the Fox in overcast but warm and humid conditions. At the track junction, where the Pack track crosses the river, we ditched our packs, as the Activities Manager(Jonathan) took over from the Logistics Manager(Thomas), grabbed our headlights and a layer of warm clothing and headed off for the first of out weekend side trips to do a bit of Spelunking in Babylon Cave. After a steep and slippery, but short, climb through the bush on a bearly discernible track lined with stinging nettle at both ends and where Uncle Roddus gave a short demonstration of downhill freeform somersaulting after placing too much faith in a rotten branch, we arrive at the gaping mouth of Babylon. We all excitedly climbed down into this rather large cavern and proceeded to travel up and down over big piles of rocks and wade through the narrower section with a flowing subterranean stream before reaching the half way point of the cave, further of which we would need a permit to proceed. Still we had traveled several hundred meters. We took a group photo, as evidence of our Spelunking and then proceeded to travel back to the surface.
Reunited with our packs, we continued on to our evenings destination. The limestone cliffs were starting to close in on the river as we progressed up stream and the natural beauty of the area was starting to become more apparent. We reached the Ballroom Overhang in the early evening and was suitably wowed by its size and the wonderful colours and patterns in the layers of rock. Tents were pitched, meals were cooked and discussions were had about how impressed we were with both Babylon and Ballroom. After eats, much discussion was had about what the Morrows plans would be. Activities Manager had several items of interest he was willing to show us and Logistics Manager was very nonchalant about whatever plan we choose to adopt. As every one was so impressed with Ballroom as a campsite and the forecast rain had so far failed to materialise, it was suggested that we stay at Ballroom for both nights(to avoid camping in possible rain and repacking and re pitching tents) and spend Saturday indulging in the very interesting and worthwhile activities that Activities Manager was suggesting. Finally we decided to wait untill morning and see what the weather was doing before making the final decision.
The forecast rain didn't arrive and a bit of a lie in was had. The motivation to walk longish distances on this second day was ranging from low to over enthusiastic and so much more discussion was had to what plan we would adopt. After Breakfast, it was pretty much decided to stay at Ballroom a second night and thus allow Activities Manager to wow us with his local knowledge. The first activity of the day then, was to walk up Welsh Stream and visit a small cave with some glow worms and a waterfall in it.
Welsh Stream is a stunningly beautiful moss covered creek bed flowing through the towering limestone cliffs on a limestone bed and greatly impressing the group with its greenery and mini waterfalls and cool rock erosion's. The cave arrived and Activities managed sourced 3 inflated inner tyre tubes hidden in the forest. The cave was full of deep water and so those wanting to explore had to strip down to bare minimum clothing and paddle in using the inflated tyre tubes. Logistics Manager was first in, followed closely by Uncle Roddus, but, as the others teased him about later, as the water started to envelop his midriff, Logistics Manager "Shrieked like a girl", said it was too cold and backed out as Uncle Roddus passed him, also letting out a little shriek as the not so warm water passed his neither regions. Continuing on and soon fully immersed in the water and paddling along with the aid of the tyre tube, Uncle Roddus was soon joined by Andrea and Chantal as we paddled about the cave checking out the waterfall, blocked by a large tree in the recent floods, and then plunging ourselves into darkness to enjoy the glow worms. The rest of the party declined to get quite so wet.
Back at Ballroom, with the weather still not raining, another lengthy discussion was had to what the plan for the rest of the day would be, and it was finally decided to definitely stay the second night at Ballroom, thus negating the car shuffle, and abandoning the original trip plan. Activities Manager had enough activities in the area to keep us enthralled for the rest of the day and informed us that the best of the scenery was actually contained in the area we were to explore.
Leaving Ballroom again, we backtracked down the Fox to Dilemma Creek and reconnected with the Pack Track. Continuing up Dilemma, we admired the awesome limestone walls that enclosed us on both sides of the creek and more pancake rocks, some of which are in a more uplifted angle than their seaside brethren. Next we got to travel up stream in another wonderfully moss coated creek, called Waterfall Creek, to (you Guessed it) a waterfall. Photos were took and we climbed to the top of the waterfall for more pictures and a bite to eat.
Back in Dilemma and Activities Manager had commented several times about the state of the area after what appears to have been some major flooding recently, as well as his noticing that the water levels were still higher than normal. This contributed to his slight difficulty in finding the target of our next adventure and he soon disappeared from our view as the rest of us were putting our noses into various nooks and crannies looking for a certain cave. We did find a small cave where the creek submerges to come out further down by Waterfall Creek. Activities Manager soon reappeared, finding what he was looking for and then explained to us that this excellent glow worm cave had been damaged in the floods but was still worthwhile checking out and he would guide us in two separate groups. Getting into this grotto, involved squatting down almost in the water lapping at the entrance and then waddling over some rocks blocking the entrance before wading through the narrow bit with waste deep water and then climbing up and over a large rockfall before descending into the glow worn dell. Once headlights were extinguished and our eyes adjusted and the worms also readjusted, we settled down to marvel at the awesome display of this galaxy of glowing worms. Everybody was suitably impressed.
The rest of the days activity was to continue up Dilemma and into Fossil Creek, following the Pack Track in the picturesque Fossil Creek untill we got to where the track leaves the creek bed and disappeared into the forest. After encountering two wild goats in the creek bed, we reach the aforementioned destination by late afternoon.Although Activities manager recommended another waterfall about 1km further up the track, it was decided to flag this and start on the return to Ballroom.
We arrived back at Ballroom after leaving Dilemma for a lateish dinner, after which Myra exclaimed that she was "Attacked" by a giant Eel down at the river while washing her dishes. We all rushed down, hoping to see this beast and instead saw this lovely small greenish/yellow eel of the like none of us had seen before.
A pleasant night was then had in front of a small fire, socialising, spotting the possums and rats hanging round the perimeter if the camp and consuming the large quantities of chocolate that Moss had trucked in in his pack.
On Sunday we had a longer lie in before breaking camp. Chantal discovered a rat had chewed through the front of her jacket to get at some nuts she had in a bag in a pocket. Logistics Manager, also doubling as Transport Manager, left camp earlier with Transport Under Manager to do the car unshuffel, while the rest of us finished packing and plodded off in light drizzle back out the Fox.
Our final activity, before heading back to civilisation again was to play tourists again and check out the short Truman's track and rocks/beach below. Some impressive Rimu and Rata were encountered amongst the Nikau palms and the formations on the beach were very cool.

A taste of the Pancake rocks.

Very cool the way they used the natural formation of the rocks to make this part of the walkway.

Starting up the Fox River.

The Track to Babylon

Babylon Mouth

Descent into Babylon

looking back to the cave entrance.

In Babylon, All those spots are water vapour reflecting in my flash.

Climbing down more rocks in Babylon and we didn't encounter any Orcs or cave Trolls.

The group shot in Babylon

Heading back out along the cave stream.

Towering Limestone on Fox river

Looking up Dilemma Creek.

And Heading for Ballroom.

More Cliffs near Ballroom.

Approaching Ballroom.

The Ballroom Overhang.

Camp.

Welsh Creek.

More of Welsh Creek.

Abd more of Welsh Creek.

Moss in Welsh Creek

The Welsh Creek Cave.

The Welsh Creek Weka

Delimma on Saturday.

Dilemma Creek

More Dilemma

Howdy!

The curving rock wall.

Waterfall Creek

More Waterfall Creek

Lower Watergfall

Upper Waterfall

Uncle Roddus At Waterfall

The rock that looks like a tortoise shell is just above the waterfall.

Where some of Dilemms flows under the hill

Is that a cave?

Coming out of Glow Worm cave

Approaching Fossil Creek

In Fossil Creek

Iranian drinking habits

A tree in the wrong position

Goats

Rimu trees on Trumans track

This is a Mati Tree with a Rata tree growing around it.

Nikau

end of Trumans track

Cool

Trumans cave.

Some open air Spelunking

Caught a shot of this fella by the car park

Babylon

Uncle Roddus emerging out of Welsh Creek

Cuppa at ballroom.

Crazy Penis - Wicked Is Music (UK 2002)

2011-11-07T20:48:00.002+13:00

An Uncle Roddus album Review

1. There's A Better Place! (7:20)
2. You Started Something (7:29)
3. Soulmutation (7:55)
4. Keep On (7:10)
5. Give It Up (7:14)
6. You Are We (6:49)
7. Change (5:37)
8. Beautiful People (6:34)
9. Bad Dismount (6:43)
10.Mind Wind Open (6:20)

I was defiantly curious about this when I came across it in one of the chain record stores several years ago, why? Well the name of course. I didn't buy it at the time but I knew it when I came across it in Blog-land a while back and so got the opportunity to check it out. House music I think is what this is classified as, slower tempo electronic based dance music, kinda funky with soul influenced vocals quite commercial sounding but not outstanding. "There's A Better Place" is my favourite track and "You Started Something" is a pleasant radio friendly number with a nice vocal. The rest of the album cruises along nicely with a nice late night laid back feel, good back ground music, with "Keep On' reminding me a bit of Sade. Gets a bit tedious over its 70 odd minutes with the music blurring into itself and failing to really hold my attention and even after being on the Ipod for a week, no tracks really stand out as being familiar, for lack of impinging themselves on my subconscious, except the first track. Worth keeping though as a nice piece of mood music and gets a rating of 2.5/5

Mt Oxford loop - 6th November 2011

2011-11-06T21:25:00.000+13:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 108

Mt Oxford loop 6th November 2011

My Annual Mt Oxford Loop trip to kick start my tramping season for the third year in a row. A very pleasent day with little wind and mostly clear skys after snow earlier in the week.

Rail Band - Belle Epoque Vol.1 Soundiata (Mali 1975)

2011-11-05T21:41:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

A much admired and successful band from Mali, this double CD release of their brand of traditional Malian music fused with elements of western soul and jazz is not one that I really enjoyed. Some of the tracks went on far to long and the whole sound is far more traditional than I prefer. A slow tempo music with plenty of monologue over the music. Rating 1.5/5

VA - Fabric 35 - Ewan Pearson (UK 2007)

2011-11-04T21:29:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. Ali McBills - Jahcoozi

2. Nimrod - Marcashken

3. Push In the Bush - Gui.Tar

4. Honeymoon's Over - Snax

5. Tranquillite - Jens Zimmerman

6. Bellhead - Liquid Liquid

7. Treat 'Em Mean, Keep 'Em Keen - Lee Burridge

8. Trustlove - 100 HZ

9. Paspd Ft. Big Bully - Samim

10. Looking For God - Laven

11. Plastik - Simon Baker

12. Can You Relate - Samuel L Sessions

13. All For One - Johannes Heil

14. Panopeeps - Kaos

15. Medley: 'Tides'-C's Movement No.1/Berghain - Beanfield

An Electronica remix album from the long running Fabric series,and as you can see we have volume 35 here, without having heard too many of the other volumes yet, I am not sure how this one compares but I am quite enjoying this mix although it is quite hard to stay with it for 80 minutes. I think I prefer this music when I am doing something or as background sounds while reading, gets a bit repetitive in places. Not a form of music I listen to a lot but good enough to give a go. Rating 3/5.

Apples In Stereo - Science Fair (USA 1996)

2011-11-03T21:03:00.001+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1) Tidal Wave; 2) Motorcar; 3) Turncoat Indian; 4) Haley; 5) Not The Same; 6) Stop Along The Way; 7) Running In Circles; 8) Hypnotic Suggestion; 9) Touch The Water; 10) Glowworm; 11) To Love The Vibration Of The Bulb; 12) Time For Bed/I Know You'll Do Well; 13) Rocket Pad

60s inspired 90s indie pop is the order of the day on this compilation of early recordings from The Apples.... Jangly guitars, some ok melodies and a few slightly interesting tracks which are keeping me indecisive as to weather I will keep this or not. Could be worth some closer investigations, which means it is not too bad, but doesn't really grab you straight away. I will rate it 2.5/5.

Sticken-In - Chinese (Germany 1985)

2011-11-02T20:24:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Back in the world of Mutant Sounds again with this German release from 85' and this album is firmly rooted in the indie post-punk of the period. This could have easily be a record by any number of English, Can influenced, alternative types of the time. Think shades of PIL, Mekons, Pop Group et al. The question is, is it any good, and the answer is definitely yes. This set stands tall with the rest of the esteemed company mentioned above and stays interesting throughout. An album that appears to be one that will grow in stature as one becomes more familiar with its intricacies and digs deeper into its subtleties. Rating 3.5/5

Buddy Scott - Bad Avenue (USA 1993)

2011-11-01T19:31:00.001+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Here we are with another of those "Gitanes" releases. As we know by now, this is well polished and well played contemporary Blues and the highlight of this release is the slow blues of "Bad Bad Feeling" which I first heard on the Gitanes comp I mentioned in an earlier post. Overall a pretty average album, Buddy has a good blues voice and some nice licks, but the song selection isn't the strongest and I will rate this with 3/5
Oh, and this album is brought to you by the letter B.

Destroy All Monsters - Swamp Gas (USA 2001)

2011-10-31T21:03:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Another obscure item from the aptly named Mutant Sounds Blog, This strange release consists of some weird sound-scapes used as background for extended spoken monologues and other tracks of strangeness without singing or monologues at all. Some humorous and some interesting but mostly doesn't really hold my interest and although there are also some interesting sounds therein I find my self loosing patience with this. But don't take my lack of interest as a bad sign, as this is a quality and worthwhile release of this sort of thing and the industrial/minimal synth and overall tripped-outness of this release will bring enjoyment to others. Rating 2.5/5

Demon Fuzz - Afreaka! (UK1970)

2011-10-24T20:28:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album review

This release has really caught my attention over the last week. A seven peace, all black, progressive rock band from England, releasing this, their only album in 1970 and this CD reissue also included 3 bonus tracks from a maxi- single they also released, which appears to be their complete recorded output. Although I have read about the supposed Latin and African influences on this album, this, to my ears sounds pretty much like Prog, and very good prog it is too. Long, extended, mostly instrumental numbers with plenty going on, like tempo changes and stylistic changes within a track and some nice jazzy breaks as well. An accomplished set with track one, "Past, Present and Future" being the stand out track for me. A highly recommended album and I give it a Roddus rating of 4/5.

Chewck this out over at Rare MP3

2011-10-23T23:49:00.000+13:00

Well we Survived the end of the world again but we almost didn't survive the Rugby World Cup Final, which would have really been the end of the world, but thankfully the All Blacks downed the French 8-7. So all in all a successful weekend.

The End Of The World! Again.

2011-10-17T21:32:00.000+13:00

Due to the impending end of the World, Again, this Friday, this blog will take a short recess. See Ya Monday, After we win the Rugby World cup.

VA - Absolute Funk Vol 1 (2005)

2011-10-16T11:44:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

What with all the Afro funk I enjoy so much, it stands to reason that I would also groove to the original funky sounds that came out of the USA from the late 60s. I have quite a large collection of these funk compilations, many yet to be explored. This first volume from the recent Absolute Funk series is chock full of excellent funk and is a very enjoyable listen. A well selected compilation and looking forward to checking out the rest of the series.3.5/5

Axolotl - Abrasive (France 1981)

2011-10-16T11:16:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Travelling across to the other side of the musical universe with this release of some avant-garde free jazz from France. Free form random sounding horn blowing with some other random sound effects thrown in for good measure. No song structure, no melodies, boring and pretentious. I don't mind this sort of music incorporated into other music or the occasional track blended into normal sounding music on an album, i.e John Zorn or even Frank Zappa play this stuff but a whole album of this just leaves me cold and board and wondering why?

Rating 1/5.

Jake Holmes - The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes (USA 1967)

2011-10-16T10:34:00.002+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

What a surprise this one has turned out to be. The surprise being that this guy is the original composer of the mighty "Dazed and Confused" from Led Zeppelins first album. The depth if their thieving appears to be bottomless. A sort of Psych/Folk album with some pretty cool sounding psych guitar infused into these powerful folksy songs .A Fairly lo-fi recording but that doesn't take away from the quality of these tracks. Jake sings with plenty of emotion, these strong lyrics and although this is not very commercial music it is powerful. This guy is up there with the likes of Nick Drake and Tim Buckley in the Singer/Songwriter stakes and I highly recommend this set. An interesting surprise and worth a Roddus Rating of 4.5/5.

Stack - Above All (USA 1969)

2011-10-16T09:55:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

More obscure psych rock from the US with this ultra rare sole LP from Stack, an above average Psych/acid rock outfit from Los Angeles. Re issued on CD in 1999, it is still available online and definitely worth checking out if you are into this sort of thing. Kicks off with a good version of the classic "Poison Ivy", "Da Blues" is a cool slab of acid blues that could only come from the late 60's and the highlight of this set is the awesome "Everyday", which is so good that I put it on one of my Roddus samplers some time back, a Classic of underground late 60s rock. Blue Cher is another reference point for the music on this release and overall it is a fine release of it's genre. Rating 3.5/5

Head,Hands & Feet - Head, Hands & Feet (UK 1971)

2011-10-15T20:15:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

01. I'm In Need Of Your Help (1:51)

02. Send Me A Wire (3:54)

03. Look At The World, It's Changin'/You Beacuse You Know Me (8:42)

04. Green Liquor (5:45)

05. Country Boy (5:32)

06. Tryin' To Put Me On (3:21)

07. I Wish You Knew Me (4:26)

08. Devil's Elbow (5:02)

09. Pete Might Spook The Horses (5:18)

10. Everybody's Hustlin'/Hang Me, Dang Me (8:09)

11. Delaware (4:55)

12. The More You Get, The More You Want (6:54)

13. Song For Suzie (7:12)

14. Tirabad (3:30)

15. Little Bit Lonely (2:22)

Another excellent find on the Roddus hard drive today, this wonderful debut album by this short lived but much regarded country rock group from the UK. This is another great rarity from the awesome Rare MP3 Blog. Had this on repeat for the later part of the day and for a double album by such an obscure act, it sure holds up well throughout and has also aged very well. Alt country or Americana was alive and well in England with this bunch way back then, with some nice jazzy bits and plenty of great pop/rock and a bit of prog thrown in for good measure. Plenty of great guitar licks and the impressive and beautiful guitar break in Song for Suzie foreshadows Dire Straits. A quick review as the rugby is on, rating 4/5.

VA - The Keine Experimente (Germany 1983)

2011-10-14T22:27:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

It's great having so much unexplored music on my hard drive. A big change of pace with this German punk compilation and it is amazing what a difference 12 years made to the German rock scene. This is one of the best Punk Compilations I have heard in a very long time. Full on hardcore punk of the second wave of the style and if it weren't for the singing in German, I'd swear this was a London comp. Really enjoying this lot and glad that this type of music still impresses me. Rating 4.5/5.

Haze - Hazecolor Dia (Germany 1971)

2011-10-14T21:27:00.002+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Very good German Progressive rock with some wonderful guitar melodies happening throughout these extended musical musings. The singing is the albums weakness with the singer hitting some cringe inducing notes. Apart from that I am enjoying this a lot, with the music staying consistently good throughout. Rating 3.5/5.

Haystacks Balboa - Haystacks Balboa (USA 1970)

2011-10-14T21:15:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Early 70's heavy psych rock is the order of the day for this obscure release and a damned fine example of the genre it is too, definitely one of the better ones I have heard so far. Plenty of cool here, rocks out with great fuzz guitar playing and totally cool rockin' songs. That describes the first three tracks . "Auburn Queen" starts with a quantum shift to something a lot slower and a lot lamer for the first 3 minutes before turning into Deep Purple and blasting off to the stratosphere for the middle section and then going a bit weird for the last part.

"Sticky Finger" gets us back on track with some straight out psych before we get to the second epic of the set "Ode To The Silken Men", another organ driven progressive number and perhaps the weakest track here. The last track is an acoustic pop number and finishes the album on a much tamer note than the way it started. Good on them for not just sticking to the formula but mixing it up a bit, but they don't quite pull it off and the album looses momentum on the second half. Rating 3.5/5

Asakawa Maki -Maki II ( Japan 1971)

2011-10-14T20:22:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. shounen (3:29)
2. nemurunoga kowai (3:40)
3. gin house blues (4:16)
4. hanaichimonme (5:05)
5. govinda (4:02)
6. shounen(part 2) (3:22)
7. mekurabana (3:32)
8. yuki no umi (3:24)
9. minato no higanbana (2:53)
10. watashi ga shoufu ni nattanara (3:45)
11. godown moses (2:26)
12. asahi no ataru ie (6:08)

Sticking with the Japanese scene for this release and this set fits very well with the last review I did, except this one is a far superior album than the previous one, to my ears. Maki has a lovely voice, smooth and clear and easier on my ears than Kiyoko Itoh. A real interesting mix of styles with a strong jazz flavour and blues on some tracks, alt pop on others and even a fairly heavy psych number to make it really interesting. A couple of surprises with the last two tracks, with track 11 we are presented with a very good version of "Go Down Moses", a Spiritual I know quite well and even more surprising is a live Japanese folk type version of "The House Of The Rising Sun", which is brilliant. " Govinda" is very Indian sounding with Sitar and Maki sounds very authentic with her singing. "Shonunen" sounds like something out of the soundtrack to a Western movie, with that melancholic harmoniker in parts before straying into more Blood, Sweat and Tears territory. The Western theme belongs even more strongly to "Yuki No Umi" and to make sure they didn't miss out incorporating every style of modern western music into this album, track ten has a real jazzy funk vibe to it. A wonderful musical journey and worthy of a Roddus rating of 4/5.

Kiyoko Itoh - Woman at 23 hour-love In (Japan 1971)

2011-10-12T21:28:00.001+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

01. Goji kara juji made no watashi

02. Poem: "Moshimo ryuusei ga..." Shiroi mori

03. Check Mate

04. Kiken kashira

05. Watashi ga michi o aruku toki

06. Chinmoku

07. Onna no sengen

08. Poem: "Papa oboeteiru?..."

09. Crayon

10. Dekigoto

11. Kyoujo

12. Poem: "Hitoribotchi no kokoro ga..."

13. Itsumo to onaji asa

A quick one tonight as time is short. Entering the deep, dark and mysterious world of Japanese music is a journey for the brave and adventurous. This weird piece of oriental Chamber pop was found on the excellent Mutant Sounds blog. Album consists of quirky off kilter pop weirdness, with hints of jazz overlaid with the silky smooth and sugar sweet, slightly girlish vocals and poetry of Itoh. Although interesting and unusual, the music failed to grab me and her high Japanese whisper got to annoy me a bit after several listens, not one to keep and gets a rating of 2/5

Aztec Two-Step - Second Step (USA 1975)

2011-10-11T21:06:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

01. It's Going on Saturday (3:14)

02. Our Lives (3:22)

03. I'm in Love Again (3:18)

04. Faster Gun (3:49)

05. Humpty Dumpty (3:27)

06. Move up to Love (3:43)

07. Cosmos Lady (3:03)

08. Walking on Air (2:26)

09. Lullabye on New York (5:03)

10. Hey Little Mama (2:41)

Uncle Roddus has got his hands on another Laptop, finally, and so am back to more regular reviews, hopefully. I start of my random reviews again with this obscure little nugget posted over on Rare MP3 Blog some time last year. This was the second album from this folksy duo, who are still active today. The music contained in this set is pleasant Pop/folk with a good nod to CSN&Y. Enjoyable enough and consistent, with nothing really standing out and pretty much rooted at the AOR end of the musical spectrum. A Roddus rating of 3.5/5

Clarence "Gatemouth"Brown - The Man (USA 1994)

2011-10-10T21:30:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

The other Gitanes release I picked up last week from Gatemouth-Brown, this one also has a very large line up of musicians and again is very well recorded. The Man was entering his 70s when he recorded this set and his playing and singing sounds like someone still in his 40s. The album starts off well enough with some excellent blues number,s both covers(Louis Jordan's "Early in the Morning") and self penned ( the cool slow blues of "You Can Disagree"). Unfortunately for me, Gatemouth doesn't feel restrained by just one style of music and although I usually really enjoy albums that incorporate diffrent styles, I am not really a fan of Cajun or Zydeco, of which there are several examples here. "I Wonder" is a pretty straight Country song and not one that I enjoy too much, I don't like Gatemouth's country singing either, although Tommy Moran's Steel guitar solo is quite nice." Unchained Melody" takes half the song to get into gear before becoming an uninspiring instrumental. The self penned "There You Are" gets us back to some seriously excellent slow tempo R&B with the Hammond B-3 giving it a serious Jimmy Smith feel. Another blues is enjoyed before we go all country again and it is quite amazing the difference between Gatemouth's country singing and blues singing. I like some country music and I respect the talent of The Man to have a go at this stuff, but it just fails to move me.After the Zydeco version of "Jambalaya" another great self penned slow blues, just proves again what an awesome blues composer and player Gatemouth really is and the album finishes with a much more enjoyable old fashioned, fiddle lead country hoe-down. Some better choice in country covers and doing away with the Zydeco songs would have made this an excellent album, all the Bluesy numbers are excellent, but the rest don't do it for me.Rating 3/5

Johnny Copeland - Catch Up With The Blues (USA 1993)

2011-10-10T20:23:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I had to make a quick trip to the Earthquake ravaged city last week and while there had sufficient time for a quick browse at my favourite CD emporium, of which there are not too many left now, and was fortunate enough to come across a couple more of those Gitanes releases, of which I mentioned a few reviews back, in the second hand blues section. Another quality contemporary blues album with full band including brass section and backing singers. This is the second Copeland release I have found on Gitanes and I am finding this one as enjoyable as the other one. There is not too much to say about this album as it is a fairly generic example of the genre and Copeland is an accomplished exponent of the style. So if you like well recorded, well executed, standard modern blues then I give this the thumbs up. Rating 3.5/5

VA - Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute To Nirvana - Cleopatra Records

2011-10-09T15:52:00.000+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. Come As You Are - Vibrators

2. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Blanks 77

3. Stay Away - UK Subs

4. On A Plain - Agent Orange

5. Breed - Total Chaos

6. Nagative Creep - Dee Dee Ramone

7. Lithium - Vice Squad

8. Something In The Way - Burning Brides

9. Scentless Apprentice - Flipper

10. All Apologies - DOA

11. Aneurysm - Dr. Know

12. Dive - I.C.U.

Got this one from the same place as the last one and were at the other end of the quality spectrum with this one. First point of note is that all the bands that I recognise on this collection were around well before Nirvana and some of them were influential for Kurt Cobain and the boys. Second point of note is that many of these bands were well past their use by date when they recorded these songs. Third point of note is that this is a punk tribute and so doesn't give much scope for creative interpretations of these songs as was the case on the last comp I reviewed. So what we have is mostly second rate, straight covers of some pretty awesome songs that none of these artists have really added to and some of them have actually butchered the songs they have chosen to destroy. Quite often the shear quality of the music that these tributes try to cover, lifts the interpreting artists to new levels of creativity and gives us some great versions of already great songs, sadly this set is not one of them.Rating 2/5 and will be deleting, would rather listen to the originals.

VA - Star Power! K-Tel Hits Of The '70s - Pravda Records

2011-10-09T14:09:00.001+13:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. Venus - Southern Culture On The Skids

2. Welcome Back - Rex Daisy

3. Spiders And Snakes - World Famous Blue Jays

4. Mama Told Me Not To Come - The Silos

5. Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, The - Vic Chesnutt

6. Kung Fu Fightin' - Fig Dish

7. I'm Not In Love - Red Red Meat

8. Popcorn - Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet

9. Don't Give Up On Us - Brown Betty

10. How Do You Do - Wanna-Bees

11. Ode To Billy Joe - Susan Voelz

12. One Tin Soldier - Dick Nixons

13. White Bird - Love Battery

14. Rock The Boat - A-Bones

15. Half Breed - New Clear Clouds

16. I Am Woman - Big Fish Ensemble

17. Give Me Just A Little More Time - Falstaff

18. Horse With No Name, A - Loud Family

This very obscure curiosity was something I obtained from Emusic quite sometime ago and had not actually listened to it as it was buried somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my hard drive. I found it again while loading all my music into Itunes on the new laptop.

This release was volume three in a set of compilations released by Pravda Records back in the early 90s and consists of a bunch of alternative types, ranging from Grunge through Punk to Alt Country and a few unclassifiable versions as well, doing their own warped versions of all these well known K-Tel chart hits from the 70s. Most of the songs were familiar to me and several are well liked in their original versions and others are quite impressive in their reinterpretations even though I'm not a fan of the originals. Overall I am enjoying almost all that is on this set, although I can't stomach "One Tin Soldier - Dick Nixon's", some of the highlights are Southern Culture On The Skids minimal rockabilly version of "Venus", Rex Davies version of the Theme to "Welcome back Kotter is a bit of a giggle and a trip down memory lane and an enjoyable version."Spiders And Snakes" by the World Famous Blue Jays is a cowpoke version of a song that I don't recognise and so they make it their own. "Popcorn is another giggle and very well done in a cooler version than the original and the highlight of this set is the brilliant Low inspired version of my old fave "Ode To Billy Joe". Also worth a mention is a grungy spacerock version of the fabulous "White Bird". A very interesting and surprisingly good compilation and I am curious to hear the other two volumes, which are still available to buy.Rating 4/5

The Reverend Horton Heat - Space Heater (USA 1998)

2011-09-23T22:52:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

This was one of those wonderful bonus finds that occasionally fall into your hands when collecting music. I was browsing in a pretty nondescript music store while on holiday several years ago when I spotted this baby for 5 bucks in a bin. I wasn't really there to buy any thing, but I had heard of Horton and for a fiver I thought it was worth the risk. This later day Punkabilly album is well polished, heavy enough and very well written enough to impress me considerably and the best find since a mate found Elvis Hitler in another bargain bin several years earlier. The Trio of "Lie Detector", Hello Mrs. Darkness" and "Jimbo Song" are the real highlights here, with Jimbo being an absolute punkabilly classic(check out all three tracks on this Roddus Sampler) while the rest of the record is still entertaining and pretty bloody impressive for a bargain bin find.

My rating 4/5

Fusion - Border Town (USA 1969)

2011-09-23T22:25:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Quite probably my favorite album found in that little bookshop that I mentioned in the previous post and most fortunately another one I have finally found on CD. This awesome late 60s showstopper is another fabulous Blues/Rock/Jazz/Fusion set with Beefheartian overtones, inflicted by the singer, who sounds a little like the captain himself. Every song is awesome, with no duds and plenty stylistic changes to keep it interesting. Stand out tracks include the wonderfully bluesy "Struttin' Down Mainstreet", which really sets the pace for the rest of the album, the very catchy "One More Hand" and the very Jazzy finale of "Erebus"

A Classic LP, still sounding fantastic after 40 odd years. Rating 5/5

Rock Workshop - The Very Last Time (UK 1971)

2011-09-23T22:04:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Many moons ago, I used to browse a small second hand book shop, nestled amongst a small group of other rundown shops in an outer suburb of the central city. This particular shop also had a fairly large collection of used vinyl, which was the main reason I went there. Back in those days, I was always on the lookout for obscure early 70s rock bands and occasionally I would find a real gem or two in this shop, this album being one of them. I parted company with this album, after much enjoyment, when I sold my vinyl collection back in 98' but was lucky enough to find a re-release on Cd a couple of years back.

Rock Workshop was a short lived project and this was their second and last LP. This exceptional record is a great mix of Funky, Soulful, Motown influenced Rock/Jazz fusion with some great guitar work, plenty of cool jazzy brass licks and plenty of variety to keep it interesting. A mix of uptempo rockin' funky tracks with some slower folk tinged numbers and cool soulful Male/Female vocals and a very impressive extended jam on the outstanding "Street War". A somewhat political album with anti war sentiments and what with the unlimited plethora of obscure 60s & 70s Rock, Fusion and Prog albums posted on so many blogs in Internet land, a set that stands well above many of those rarities that I have managed to hear. One of several little masterpieces that I managed to discover in that little shop.

As with many re-issues, this Cd has several bonus tracks of live and demo tracks cut between the two albums, all previously unreleased. The first 3 bonus tracks feature the Manic Alex Harvey on Vocals, as he also sang on the first album(Which I haven't heard). These numbers are a lot more chaotic with some real free jazz blowing thrown in as well and all are good but not as good as the original songs on this album. The rest of the bonus songs are interesting and ok but don't really add anything to the original album either. I Rate the original LP 5/5 and the CD release with extra tracks 4/5.

Joe Louis Walker - Blues Survivor (USA 1993)

2011-09-23T21:12:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Some years ago I stumbled across a brilliant compilation of contemporary Electric Blues (for an absolute bargain price) from the Verve Records "Gitanes" Imprint. This compilation is packed full of outstandingly well recorded modern blues and has become a favorite over the preceding years. Slowly I have been collecting any Blues CDs that I come across supporting the "Gitanes" label from the mid 90s(although they have been not easy to find) and I find them to be stunningly produced examples of great contemporary blues, with this set from Joe Louis Walker is no exception.

A full band plays on this set, with some tracks with brass section and choir. Joe's Guitar playing is wonderful and his singing and style of blues reminds me a bit of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The Overall sound is very polished and sounds very nice blasting out of the Cyrus. The songs are not outstanding but very strong and accomplished with a mix of upbeat numbers mixed with some slower numbers and some jazzy bits as well. A most enjoyable release which doesn't flag even after 60 minutes. Rating 4/5

Pearl Jam - Twenty -Tuesday 20th September 2011

2011-09-23T20:32:00.002+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Movie Review

Mrs. Roddus, Bless her heart, spotted that this doco was being shown in town for one night only, and due to her new found love of Pearl Jam (since I took her to see them here in 2009) and her lust for Eddie Vedder, she paid for the tickets to go.

Pretty much par for the course as far as band docos go, with plenty of rare and original footage of the band early in their career and indeed footage from the previous band (Mother Love Bone) that two of the founding members were in back in the late 80s. Some good concert footage and although pretty egocentric towards the bands success, it was pleasing to see them paying tribute to the debt owed Nirvana and Kurt Cobain for leading the way for this type of music to crossover. An enjoyable film, if somewhat predictable and ending just in time with its two hour length, before it became too long. Fans of the band will enjoy it, fanatics of the band will have already seen a fair bit of the footage and know the story. Rating 3.5/5

VA - Nigeria Special - Modern Highlife Afro sounds and Nigerian Blues 1970-76 (Strut 2007)

2011-09-13T22:03:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Here it is, the last of the Afro compilations that I have on CD(for Now) and another excellent Strut release, with this volume being a double to help dissipate the large quantity of totally brilliant Afro-centric music they have unearthed. I still have another couple of these Nigeria Special collections on the hard drive, but I think that this one is the best of the series, full of sublime tunes with unforgettable melodies and a real mix of different styles, not just all heavy Afrofunk.

Time and laziness prevents me from ranting on in more detail about the awesome quality of this set and anyway, the music speaks for its self. For those who dig this sort of music and want to explore some more, then I highly recommend this release and rate it 5/5.

Well that about wraps up the all the Afro comps that I have on CD for the moment. More on the way in the near future(I hope).

VA - Nigeria Rock Special - Psychedelic Afro Rock And Fuzz Funk In 1970s Nigeria

2011-09-12T21:52:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Back to Nigeria again as I take a breather from the Rugby World Cup, being held here, with another quick review of yet another African compilation, this being the 2nd to last of my recent CD purchases of these excellent 70s Afro music collections.

This set is one I didn't have on my hard drive, but I picked it up at a local music store last Christmas, along with the "Ghana Special" and "World Ends" comps which I posted about earlier.There are several volumes to the Nigeria Special Series which are compiled and released on the wonderful Soundways Label.

As the title suggests, this set is more rooted in Rock than the usual Funk that we normally groove to with these comps, but that don't mean that this stuff don't make ya want to shake ya bootie. The Hygrades "In The Jungle" is a magnificent Afro-Psych extravaganza with some truly awesome Psychedelic sounding guitar pyrotechnics and there are plenty of other class groups here like Ofo The Black Company, Mono Mono and the Funkees, which have been featured on the Voodoo funk Playlists.

After a very enjoyable set with plenty of wonderful guitaring, this disc closes with the monumental Afro-Psych Classic "Chant To Mother Earth", which must be heard to be believed.

A great collection keeping up the very high standards of the Soundways catalogue, gets a rating of 4.5/5.

VA - Ghana Sounds Vol 2 - Afrobeat, Funk And Fusion in 70s Ghana (Soundways 2004)

2011-09-10T19:22:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Still on planet Afro Groove with another totally mind blowing Soundways release and so looking forward to getting my hands on a physical copy of Vol 1 as well. With my collection of these Afrofunk CDs growing rapidly and several more awaiting more moolah to purchase, these Reviews are really just mini rants from me about how utterly fantastic this music is and how much it just blows my mind and that every one should be grooving to this wonderful music.

Of course this second volume of Ghana Sounds goes a long way to showing that Ghana was just as capable of producing this outstanding music as was Nigeria at the time, and this mighty comp is just stuffed full of non-stop funkadelic, Afrodelic, jazzadelic, grooveadelic and beatadelic muse to feed your feet and your soul.

Another 5/5. Dig It!

VA - The Danque!! - A Compilation Of West African Funk (Afrodisiac 2003)

2011-09-10T18:44:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Yet another Afrofunk Comp recently arrived from Amazon and one which I had found on some blog a while back. When I first found this particular comp(and another which I have yet to obtain on CD) I thought they were actually original collections from the actual time at which the music herein was originally recorded. I now know that this is a more contemporary release and judging from the packaging and lack of liner notes and band information, a budget release as well. Although not quite of the awesomely high standard as the Strut and Soundways releases, this is still a very very good collection of Afrofunky groovieness. Definitely a bit more heavy on the funk angle with the African influences a little more subtle but still discernible to give the music that exotic feel.

I don't have too much else to say in detail about all these African compilations I am collecting except that all the ones I have so far are bursting at the seams with fantastic music, toe tappingly groovie with excellent vocal melodies to equal any classic western Pop and also loaded with brilliant funky jazzy brass instrumentation. I just love this music.

Overall, this compilation pretty well keeps up that standard and has no really weak tracks, and so will get a Roddus Rating of 4/5

VA - Nigeria 70 - Lagos Jump:Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife and Afro Funk (Strut 2009)

2011-09-05T20:13:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

The second volume of the awesome Strut Records Nigeria 70 series completes my purchase of this 3 volume set(with maybe more to come). As with the others, chock full of funky Afro classics and not a dud track to be found. Another essential disc of this wonderful music from the fertile music scene of 1970s Nigeria. Rating 4.5/5

The Mothers Of Invention - Weasels Ripped My Flesh (USA 1970)

2011-09-05T07:50:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

As I was working in my office the other day with my Ipod sitting on my desk still playing with the headphones attached, I happened to hear the most excellent "Directly From My Heart To You" seeping out of the phones. I decided that, as I had the time, I would dig out the offending album from which it came and give it a listen, as I hadn't heard it in quite a while.

In light of some of the Sun Ra and John Zorn I have been getting into lately, " Didja Get Any Onya", The opening track from this first period Mothers of Invention album fits quite well, with its free sounding Jazz madness and Avant-Garde leaning and other all round weirdness. A prime slab of Zappa weirdness. It then segues into something completely different with the aforementioned "Direct...", a Jean Luc Ponty violin led slow blues number which along with the brilliant psych rocker"My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama" are the two most normal sounding tracks from this disc.

Culled from both live and studio material recorded between 1967-1969, "Weasels..." is one of The Mothers albums that never really got a lot on my attention(apart from the two brilliant "Normal" songs mentioned above)due to the difficult experimental material that comprises most of this LP.

Listening now, later in life, with much more listening experience under my belt, I am able to appreciate this kind of music more(although I have always enjoyed much of Zappa's weirdness) and i must say that the opening track is a most enjoyable and classic peice of Zappa weirdness. After the interlude of "Direct...", track three resumes the Avant-free jazz style, sounding almost industrial in its manufacture and hits some of those brilliant 60s Zappa rhythms before getting even more bizarre with the vocal antics, but starts to loose the plot with the infamous piggy noises towards the end.

'Toads of the Short Forest" is a more conventional sounding instrumental with discernible melody and reminds me a bit of some of the stuff Zappa will do much later with his Sinclaver, before degenerating in to more Jazzy wackiness with impressive free sounding Sax. Another Zappa, Varese, Coleman hybred.

"Get A Little" is a pleasant shot number with Zappa presenting some nice guitar noodling over a good backing track. The "E.B.M.B" is a slower Jazz/Rock fusion type of instrumental with Vibes played in the beginning before descending into more avant territory and then oscillating between the two styles a bit . Pure Zappa and incomparable.

The next track is similar in style to the above mentioned "Toads..." for about 45 seconds before lapsing into some aimless sounding weirdness and then segueing into the aforementioned wonderful "my guitar...".

"Oh No!" is a sort of Zappa ballad with a kind of Doo-wop cum operatic vocal, an interesting little dittie.

"O.C.L.T" is one of those great Zappa guitar instrumentals with Frank letting rip on the strings for some nice pyrotechnics, a minor Zappa classic and we end this set with the title track consisting of a minute and a half of wall of noise that would make Throbbing Gristle proud, recorded at the end of a concert, before Frank bids us all goodnight.

Not the best Mothers record from this period, but still a classic of of 60's freak rock and chock full of signature Zappa. My Rating 4/5

Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band - Egyptian Jazz [1968-73]

2011-09-04T21:06:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I'm on a roll here tonight and as I am listening to this album as I was typing in my last review, after downloading it for a listen from a link directing me to it from the blog where I got the last album from that I reviewed.

A quick post to say that this album contains the three tracks that so impressed me off the previous post and that the rest of the material on this album maintains the quality of the other three. Have been most impressed with all that I have heard off this set and totally recommend it for an enjoyable listen to a bit of World Jazz.

Rating 4/5

Check it out here

Sun Ra - The Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt (Released 1999)

2011-09-04T20:45:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Sticking with Sun Ra for the moment with this interesting and rare release of Ra and Arkestra playing in Egypt with a fellow called Salah Ragab, the founder of Egypt's first Jazz band and the one who invited Ra to Egypt to play and record. in 1983/4. The first 3 tracks on this release were recorded by Ra and The Arkestra, with the first two written by Ragab. Both these tracks fit the Arkestra well and are not bad with some good solos and interesting rhythms, although "Dawn" gets a bit tiresome, maybe goes on a bit too long. The 18 Minute live version of "Watusa", although most probably very impressive in the context of a RA live show, with all the costumes and dancing ect...also gets a bit tiresome on record, especially with the long solely percussive section.

The Two Tracks "Ramadan" and "A Farewell Theme" are preformed by the very impressive Cairo Jazz Band and "Oriental Mood" is preformed by a smaller group led by Ragab. All three tracks are very good Jazz compositions and fit well with Sun Ra with the Egyptian feel of their rhythms, most impressive and for me and the highlight of this release. This disc closes with a chaotic free jazz workout by the Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble which isn't too bad and allows me to give this an overall Roddus Rating of 3.5/5.

For more info and to listen to this set check it out Here

Sun Ra And His Arkestra - Jazz in Silhouette (USA 1958)

2011-09-04T19:50:00.002+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

A small diversion from reviewing some of the recent CD arrivals, but staying with the Jazz stuff(especially what with all the Masada Stuff that has arrived(more on that later)) and staying with Sun Ra, as I have been inspired to listen to some more of his music after reviewing "Live at Montreux" recently(must do a shop on Amazon for more Ra soon) and not to mention some of the interesting rare Ra stuff on the Adventure-Equation Blog .

"Jazz in Silhouette" is another of the records that I borrowed from the local public library about the same time as the Live album mentioned above and it made such a big impression on me that it was the first Ra CD that I purchased several years back. Probably one of my favorites of the early Arkestra's 50's Saturn big band Swing/Bop discs. The influence from Ra's time with Fletcher Henderson earlier on had a big influence on the music of these early releases and so the music on this excellent disc is a lot more conventional sounding Jazz swing than much of his later compositions.

"Enlightenment", "Saturn" and "Velvet" are all very strong and very enjoyable swing numbers with some good solos and very good melody's which make them sound like they should be Jazz Standards, although the Liner notes suggest this album was little noticed at the time. "Ancient Aiethopia" is a bit more exotic and experimental with its Egyptian sounding rhythms and was a taste of what was to come from Ra. The rest of the album continues on with some more excellent swinging numbers to keep the toes tapping and the set closes with the wonderful 11 Minute Bop work out of "Blues At midnight"

I have always really enjoyed this set and it would easily make my all time top 20 Jazz albums and so I would rate it 5/5.

VA - Nigeria 70 - Sweet Times: Afro-Funk, Highlife and Ju Ju From 1970s Lagos (Strut 2011)

2011-09-01T07:00:00.002+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

79 Minutes of pure awesomeness from the consistently fabulous Strut Records with this third volume of the Nigeria 70 series, which kicked off with the first volume 1(reviewed Here) back in 2001 and was one of the first Afro-Funk Comps in the latest re-discovery of this brilliant music.

All three volumes of this set have recently arrived in my post box for my listening pleasure and the music on this volume is still up there in quality even after all the other comps of this type of music from Strut, Soundways and Analogue Africa, just to mention a few that i have been enjoying. The shear wonderfulness of the tracks on offer here is still outstanding. I don't need to talk about what this music sounds like as the title goes a long way towards that end but of course this disc is crammed full of all the usual great African rythems, jazzy melodic brass playing and some wonderful vocal melody's,sounding all the more exotic for being sung in Native African langauges. The first few tracks are excellent examples of Highlife and Ju Ju but not so much Afro-Funk. Tracks four and five are mind blowers with their sublime grooves and vocals and things settle down again for the Overly long "...JU JU Music" of track 6, before going stratospheric with the awesomely funky "Unity in Africa", which could be one of the coolest tracks of the whole series. The first half of this compilation is more in the Highlife and Juju vein and gets more Afro-funky in the later stages.

Plenty of sleeve notes and bits if info about the artists helps makes this another well executed Strut release and the re-mastering is also excellent.Rating 5/5

Oran Etkin - Kelenia (USA 2009)

2011-08-31T20:22:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

With all the debate and jumping up and down about the downloading of music from the Internet, let me point out that my purchase of this album is a direct result of downloading a song off the web and several others I have also recently purchased, have been because I was able to download the complete albums off some blog or torrent and was impressed enough to go and buy them, especially the African comps I have been getting recently.

This particular album was brought to my attention by downloading the Track "Nama" from the "All About Jazz" web site from their daily MP3 page(they have almost 2000 sample MP3s of all types of contemporary jazz to check out). I was so suitably impressed by that song and it's smooth Afro rhythms and great Sax soloing, that I added this disc to my Amazon wishlist.

Oran is an Israeli born Clarinet and Sax player living in the US and has made this excellent album of jazz and Mali music, with tracks evoking traditional Malian music both vocally and rhythmically with jazz styled sax and clarinet playing giving it the jazz angle. The album has a wonderfully laid back vibe with the playing flowing effortlessly out of the speakers. An excellently well produces affair and more mellow than the 70s Afro Funk/Jazz that I usually groove to. Would sit nicely with the Gasper Lawal albums I reviewed some time back.

Rating 4.5/5

Sun Ra and His Intergalatic Cosmo Arkestra - Live At Montreux (USA 1976)

2011-08-28T20:36:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I was introduced to to the music of Sun Ra many moons ago via a radio show solely dedicated to his music on our local student radio station.( The same way I was introduced to Frank Zappa). From listening to this show, I was intrigued enough to investigate further into the mysterious world of Ra. I raided the local public library and found they had a small collection of Ra on vinyl and one of those records was this live recording, which I duly borrowed and took home to annoy my flatmates with.

For many years, the thunderous and chaotic free jazz type piano solos from this album stuck in my mind, but I was unable to find a copy for purchase as it was out of print and hadn't yet been re-released on CD and second hand copy's seemed to be non existent here. A few years back, I did some online searching to see if I could find a digital copy to download until I could find a CD copy. Again I turned up blank. I requested it over at Rare Mp3 blog and fortunately the intrepid MP3 sleuth, Chuntao, found me a copy, which she posted on her blog for all to enjoy.

Unknown to me at the time, Inner City Records had re-issued it on CD(I believe for the first time) in 2008 and a CD copy of this album has finally arrived in my mail box from Amazon in the very recent past.

Normally I don't go for much in the Avant-garde/Free Jazz scene, although it permeates most modern jazz in small amounts. I find it frustrating and quite grating and annoying to listen to, but there are a few exceptions and for some strange reason John Zorn and Sun Ra are two composers of this type of music that I do enjoy.

Live At Montreux is an excellent, colossal rollercoaseter of a live recording of Sun Ra and his big band Arkestra blasting out their brand of warped jazz for a very appreciative audience. The actual music is not as free sounding as it sounds on these discs as, like Zorn, Ra directs the musicians in their playing and the whole thing is tightly controlled.

Wild sounding, chaotic Archestra ensemble playing is interspersed with manic trumpet and sax solos and topped off with some awesome piano excursions from Ra himself, not to mention some of the almost industrial sounding organ and Moog experiments. Not a lightweight listening experience and not a lot of melody here, just a large group of musicians really letting loose within the context Sun Ra allows them. Rating 4/5

Osmium - Relentless, Primal Being (New Zealand 2008)

2011-08-28T10:12:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

And Now for something considerably different.

Staying in Invercargill with this next acquisition and found on the same day, same shop as the one below, this is another band that I stumbled across on my blogging travels and as they were a Kiwi band, I decided to check them out.

Self released on their own Osmium Records, this thunderously heavy riff monster of an album probably won't see too much world wide distribution. Which is a shame really, as it is a quality slab of New Zealand Metal. Not outstanding, but competent and accomplished, as well as being well recorded. Average vocals but plenty of enjoyable guitar riffing. Pretty standard Metal fare in the Pantera/Metellica vein, probably has some specific Metal genre nomenclature, but I am not too sure which category it would fit into. Speed/thrash are the strongest themes here. My rating 3.5/5

Pretty Wicked Head And The Desperate Men - New Age Savage (New Zealand 1989)

2011-08-28T09:43:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I had this long lost album on request over at Rare MP3, as I hadn't replaced my original copy, it was commercially unavailable and, until recently, I had actually forgotten that it existed. Until even more recently, a Google search on this album turned up very little information.

Just this last week, Mrs Roddus and I were browsing in one of the few remaining CD shops left after the recent earthquakes, when low and behold, I find a second hand CD copy of this release, which I immediately purchased for a surprisingly reasonable sum.

I don't now recall how I first heard of "Pretty Wicked Head..." back in 1989/90, but the name alone would have been enough to gain my attention, back then. Anyhow, they were playing at the old Zetland hotel(one of the last gigs there before they remodeled it into the Cafe Bleu in 1990) when a mate and myself stumbled across the gig and decided to check it out. I remember being very impressed with a great fast paced all out rockin' affair, considering that I knew none of their music. I may have purchased the one of the 500 copy limited addition cassette of this album at that gig or soon after from a shop. It was later re-issued on CD in limited quantities.

Back in those days, Hotels like the Zetland had to close at 11PM and I remember after the gig, someone handing out flyer's to a private party/gig at an old house on the other side of the central city. The band playing at this party was a local post punk type outfit all dressed in Nuns Habits and calling them selves Nuns Fart.

After being so blown away by their live act, The Heads.... "New Age Savage" album itself was, on first listen, a little disappointing and I thought it was a bit tame. So it didn't get as much attention at the time as it deserved and after disposing of my tape collection several years later, I then forgot of its existence.
Listening to it now, some 20 years later, it is apparent to me that this short lived foursome from the arse end of the music world, Invercargill, have produced a classic of New Zealand Indie Pop/Rock that had fared well over the test of time. Full of great pop vocal melody's and well constructed tunes make for a whole album of catchy numbers that were instantly recognisable after all these years and I am pleased how much more I am enjoying this now than I did back when I first heard it. The closing track, "All New Zealand Hero's" is a minor NZ classic, and I think did some time in the charts. "Mercy Of The Moon Girl" is also a beautiful stand out track, a slow atmospheric sound scape of a pop song. A touch of the Dunedin sound, gives this album it's New Zealand feel, but otherwise this could have been recorded anywhere(and some of it was recorded in Canada).

A fun and enjoyable listen that deserved more attention than it got on initial release, and maybe the recent re-release will go some way towards changing that. My rating 4/5.

VA - Next Stop...Soweto Vol 3:Giants,Ministers and makers:Jazz in South Africa 1963-1978 (Strut 2010)

2011-08-26T21:39:00.001+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review.

CD 1

01. THE MINISTERS – NGENA MNTAN'AM
02. SKYF – BE THERE *
03. SPIRITS REJOICE – JOY
04. DENNIS MPALE – ORLANDO
05. MANKUNKU QUARTET – DEDICATION (TO DADDY TRANE AND BROTHER SHORTER)
06. BATSUMI – ITUMELENG
07. THEMBA – OU KAAS
08. MALOMBO JAZZ MAKERS – SIBATHATHU
09. TETE MBAMBISA – STAY COOL

CD 2

01. EARLY MABUZA QUARTET – LITTLE OLD MAN (MAXHEGWANA)
02. THE SOUL JAZZMEN – INHLUPEKO
03. CHRIS McGREGOR & THE CASTLE LAGER BIG BAND – SWITCH
04. THE HESHOO BESHOO GROUP – EMAKHAYA
05. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FEELINGS – OOSOGA *
06. MALOMBO – SANGOMA
07. DUDU PUKWANA AND THE SPEARS – JOE'S JIKA *
08. THE SOUL GIANTS – PINESE'S DANCE
09. JAZZ MINISTERS – TAKE ME TO BRAZIL
10. CHRIS SCHILDER QUARTET feat. MANKUNKU – SPRING

Uncle Roddus has been shopping on Amazon again, and has, over the last couple of weeks, received a plethora of excellent CDs from my wishlist. This excellent compilation from the awesome Strut Records, is one that I had come across on my internet travels and had downloaded a copy for investigation and knew I would have to get my hands on the real thing, along with the rest of the series. The clued up dudes from Strut have struck gold again with their in depth knowledge and awesome good musical tastes to bring us an outstanding collection of melodic, African tinged jazz from an assortment of mostly Black Musos from the deep, dark days of Apartheid. Heaps of great sax melodies here that worm their way very quickly into your subconscious and not a dud track to be heard. All pretty straight ahead stuff, from big band swing to be-bop quartets, with great rhythm tracks to support the excellent brass solos. Too many highlights to mention in a quick review like this but very highly recommended for lovers of Afro Jazz and getting a Roddus Rating of 5/5

Ebo Taylor - Life Stories - Highlife And Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980 - (Strut, 2011)

2011-08-26T20:38:00.000+12:00

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

African Music month

1. Ebo Taylor - Heaven (6:04)

2. Ebo Taylor - Atwer Abroba (8:14)

3. Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu - Victory (4:20)

4. Asaase Ase - Ohiani Sua Efir (4:02)

5. Apagya Show Band - Kwaku Ananse (3:11)

6. Ebo Taylor - Peace on Earth (7:45)

7. Ebo Taylor - Aba Yaa (14:59)

8. Pat Thomas & Ebo Taylor - Ene Nyame Nam 'A' Mensuro (6:16)

9. Apagya Showband - Tamfo Nyi Ekyir (3:57)

10. Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu - Love and Death (8:19)

11. Ebo Taylor - Ohye Atar Gyan (6:07)

12. Super Sounds Namba - Yes Indeed (4:56)

13. Apagya Showband - Mumude (3:04)

14. Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu - What Is Life (4:38)

15. CK Mann Big Band - Etuei (6:28)

16. Ebo Taylor & The Pelikans - Egya Edu (6:51)

Oh yeah! Strut have done it again. Another essential Afro funk release from the Ghanaian Ebo Taylor with this compilation of solo recordings and other side projects he was involved in during the 70s. Packed with plenty of excellent tracks that I know from various compilations I have, this wonderful blend of Jazz and Funk infused with Afrocentric rhythms has been blowing my mind on the MP3 player at work for the last week. Lots of great jazzy Sax solos and excellent guitar work getting into fusion territory on occasions, really keeps me interested.This collection is right up there with Fela kuti and Orlando Julius in the awesome Afrobeat stakes and is an essential purchase for all Afroheads, I will be looking out for this in my favorite record store soon. Rating 5/5

This one has recently arrived from Amazon to boost my ever growing CD collection and it sounds even better on CD, so get your copy today, you won't regret it.

Woolshed Hill 3rd July 011

2011-07-03T20:51:00.000+12:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary: Tramp No.107

Woolshed Hill 3rd July 2011

This little trip I did with The CTC was a revisit to Tramp No.6 Which I did about 10 years ago.

A very frosty start promised a clear day for this trip lead by Bernhard and with the forecast clear, was very well attended by 18 keen trampers eager to get a taste of the recent snow that had finally fallen earlier in the week. The trip looked like it wasn't to get off to a good start when one of the party informed the leader that he had left his boots in his car back in the city. Fortunately, before Bernhard had to make any hard decisions, his boots magically appeared in the hands of another party member who had seen that he had left them behind and diligently brought them along. It then became known that he had also not brought a head torch. Again, fortunately, our well prepared leader had a spare.(Could be a possible for Loo Loo of the year, Carl).

We headed off along the grassy area to the lodge, before the climb up the well used track through Beech forest, heading for Woolshed Hill. The ascent was fairly quick and in about an hour or so we cleared the bush line and started encountering the snow and the great views we have come to expect from tramping in this area. The trip along the tops was fairly easy going with the snow still soft and not too deep, and the crampons we all diligently brought never threatened to leave our packs. Lunch was had between points 1420 and 1445, in very pleasant sunshine on the Andrews side of the ridge, to shelter from the cool breeze. Discussions were had as to how far along the tops we would travel in relation to how much daylight we had left and in due course the choice was made to head down the scree run just north of Point 1445, before the bushbash back down to the Hawdon River bed. The bushbash was a relatively easy one and we ended up following Trap Lines through the thicker stuff near the bottom. Much relief was expressed as we reached the cars before darkness descended. About 12KM walked with about 800M height gain in a fairly leisurely 7 hours.


A great shot of the Waimack river.

A little but of snow.

looking towards Pt 1445

Some signs of winter

The Hawdon valley

Mt Binser, The target of several other trips.

The Andrews River


Another shot of the Waimack and the Cass river valley to the left.

milling around on Pt 1445

Time to descend

The Bushbash

A nice spot for afternoon tea

looking up the Hawdon valley

Peak Hill 26th June 2011

2011-06-26T20:53:00.000+12:00

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.106

Peak Hill 26th June 2011

A nice easy/moderate winter trip, as was listed in the CTC trip calendar, and after talking to the trip leaders they said that it was a particularly beautiful trip in snow with great views of the surrounding mountains and lake, so it said in a description by Pat Barrett. I left home on a cool but frost free morning to meet the rest of the party at Windwistle. The clouds were lumpy and sitting low on the Torlesse range as I headed for our meeting place and I hoped they wouldn't also be sitting on the tops of the 1240m hill we were to climb. The wish for snow was still unfulfilled, even though the forecast earlier in the week had been for a light coating, so it was going to be even easier trip. 20 CTC trampers headed across the old farm paddock from the road heading for the start of a well marked and used track on the south west side of this hill which is now on another DOC conservation estate.

Being a climb of just over 600m on a good track took us a fairly short time with a couple of stops to admire the views and lunch was had on the top with light but cold wind and pretty good views of Lake Coleridge and the Rakaia. The Leaders said that this was the third year they had been up this hill and still hadn't done it in the snow. Better luck next time. A nice trip to fill in the day and look forward to doing it again when we finally get some snow.

The eastern end of lake Coleridge

Lake Coleridge, with the Rakaia to the right

Peak Hill

This lot were too busy socialising and fell behind

A higher shot of the lake

On the top.

Uncle Roddus with the upper Rakaia in the background

The western end of the lake