Mt Barrosa 22 July 2012

Uncle Roddus tramping diary:tramp No 121

Mt Barrosa 22 July 2012

Ah, what a pleasure it was to finally get out in the mountains again after 2 1/2 months of working almost every weekend and also missing my ride on the last attempt to go tramping when I forgot to set my alarm and slept in.
I had been to Barrosa before, but last time had almost no views due to the clouds shrouding the hills that day. Barrosa is a lovely little 1300M bump just behind Mt Somers and is a pleasant easy/moderate day out with some magnificent views of the surrounding countryside.

I arrived at what I thought was the access point quite some time before the others arrived and soon saw the "No Public Access" sign on the gate I believe we went through last time. After waiting a while I decided to head back to Mt Somers village to make sure they weren't waiting for me there and that's when I spotted the new DOC access sign and gate. I continued on down the road and soon met Uncle Bernhard and the rest of The CTC trampers, whereupon I directed them to the access point.

Ten of us set off from the cars just past 10am on a cool overcast morning with a cool westerly breeze accounting for every one being well wrapped up as we set off. It wasn't long before layers were being removed, the wind dropped and the sun exposed itself as the clouds rolled back westwards to present us with what turned out to be a magnificent winters day. After a couple of short stops on the way up, we finally had lunch by a nice rock outcrop just below the summit, enjoying the vistas of the surrounding snow capped mountains and wondering if we could fine any of the Geodes(what ever they are)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode) . Kerrie was keen to find something to take home. Soon after cresting the summit I happen to stumble upon a fine spherical geode already split in half and handed it to Kerrie, it was the best one we found, the rest being smashed fragments.

The rest of the early afternoon we spent traversing the tops via point 1355 and enjoying the stunning views before afternoon tea at point 1321, whereupon we dropped down the spur towards Waterfall Stream and back to the cars by 3:30pm. Being the time of the year it was we were expecting a fair amount of snow but the remnants of the June dump were few and far between and all crampons and some ice axes were left in the cars.

Jerker Kluge's Deep Jazz - The Meeting (2012)

An Uncle Roddus Album review

1. Little Sunflower (9:03)

2. The Meeting (6:02)

3. No Doubt (5:51)

4. Movement (6:01)

5. Mystic Sky (8:29)

6. Don't Get Drowned (4:32)

7. Invisible (6:31)

8. Coincidence of Circumstance (4:23)

9. East & West (5:25)

10.Spirits Up Above (4:48)

11.Autumn Sun (6:25)

Time for a bit of jazz in my life just for a bit of a change and I recently came across this little gem and thought it worth checking out for a listen. I don't usually get too excited about vocal Jazz and if I'd realised I probably would has passed this set buy. It's a good thing I didn't. This lot has been swinging on the ipod at work for several days and I must say I'm very impressed. Some groovy vocals here but with some very very good boppin' over the extended tracks. Superb playing on this upbeat jazz and one that looks like it will have to go on my Amazon shopping list. Rating 4.5/5.

Bob Dylan - Together Through Life (USA 2009)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Uncle Bob's latest album of new originals from 2009 kicks off with a great mid tempo blues which I think suits Bob's gruff croon very well. "Life is Hard" is a much slower croon in keeping with the age of our troubadour, a  sort of folk jazz number. "My Wife's Home Town" recalls the ghost of Howlin' Wolf and with a lyric about Hell being his spouses home town. Things stay on the up n' up quality wise with the next track swinging with a touch of Zydeco. And so on goes the rest of this set staying consistently good and not straying too far from the formula already presented, some nice subtle guitar licks permeating the album and plenty of swinging going on, especially on "Jolene". Nothing here to get overtly excited about though, Just Bob doing what Bob does and making a pretty good record in the process. Rating 3/5

Little Willie John - Fever:The Best Of Little Willie John (USA 1993)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

After my little post on Little Willie John and Jack White I wanted to hear a bit more of this fellow's music and so tracked down this set that is considered to be the best compilation covering Little Willie John's short recording career. A wonderful blend of classic blues, jazz, soul and pop all blended to give us the classic sound of 50s R N' B. There is nothing today that can compare with this music, it is just fabulous and Little Willie is just a stunning soul belter. The highlight is still the magnificent " I'm Shakin' " and apart from the odd slower croon, of which I don't enjoy as much, the rest of this collection is not  too far behind in quality. A couple of tracks were familiar due to hearing others versions and of course we all know "Fever" well. Rating 4/5.

Ryan Adams - Live After Deaf - Box Set (USA 2012)

An Uncle Roddus Album review

Sometimes it's a bitch living at the bottom of the world. We miss out on so much good stuff. Most times it great living at the bottom of the world, we miss out on so much of the crap that goes on in other places.

Something like this I would almost kill for. A 15 LP boxset of Ryan playing an acoustic solo tour across Europe in 2011, playing material from throughout his career from Whiskeytown onwards including much of the material from his latest album "Ashes and Fire". This came out in physical form as a strictly limited edition Vinyl box set available only through Adam's web site, which does give us living here at the bottom of the world an opportunity. Unfortunately I only found out about this several days after it was sold out, not to mention the fact that I don't have a turntable to play it on. Still it would have been worth buying as an investment as the price of this set is going to sky-rocket on the collectors market, and that is not just due to it's limitedness, as the quality of the music is outstanding.

Once the vinyl sets were sold out, which has 144 tracks across 15 LP's and also came with a download card where you could access another 74 tracks, making this a very limited set of 218 tracks, a lesser version of 174 tracks has been made available for download from Amazon and apparently Itunes. The Amazon set downloads for $US108.49 at the time of writing. In the past I haven't been allowed to purchase MP3's from Amazon from here in NZ and frankly I don't like buying MP3's as they are inferior quality to CD's and I am not going to pay hard earned cash for files that I might lose when my hard drive crashes or what ever other disaster that happens regularly to data whether stored locally or online. So unless they happen to release this set on CD some time soon(and I think it would be insane not to release at lest a 2 CD set culled from this lot) then I will just have to listen to it(in it's whole 218 track form) in 320K MP3 from this site, http://exystence.net/blog/2012/07/02/ryan-adams-live-after-deaf-15cd-2012/. 

So after finally getting the whole lot down, it didn't take long to appreciate that this whole set is of just totally outstanding quality and after loading it onto the ipod and spending the day listening to it on random play across all 15 concerts I just have to say that this intimate set of  concerts is the equal of the solo acoustic sets I have of both Bob Dylan from the early 60s and Neil Young's recent releases of his solo concerts  from the early 70s. Ryan is in sublime form pickin' his way through so many of his classics and his singing is the best I have heard it. I guess the only gripe is having several versions of the same songs over several concerts, but this is not an issue if you are listening to the concerts individually. There is some great banter from Ryan as well as some cool on-the-spot songwriting in response to audience comments or other stimuli. For Adams fans this is compulsory listening and I am in 7th heaven listening to this lot. Rating and  outstanding  5+/5.

Uncut Magazine Take 181 June 2012

Uncut Take 181 June 2012

The latest Uncut to arrive last week and I have dug out from my collection the following artists for consideration this month, as well as several new releases I will be checking out to see if I will be adding them to my purchase list. Quite a big list this issue with: ACDC, Beach House, Best Coast, Comus, Father John Misty, Get The Blessing, The Gossip, Husker Du, My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Nuggets Vol 1, Paul McCartney, Public Image Ltd,  Quantic & Alice Russell, Rufus Wainwright, Sharon Van Etten, The Small Faces, Squarepusher, Starving Weirdos, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley, The Adverts, The Birthday Party, The DB's, The Good The Bad and The Queen, The Travelling Wilburys, Tu Fawning and Willie Nelson. It would be very nice to find a new release as good as The Alabama Shakes from last month.

 I'm just revisiting this latest Uncut CD after having it on the ipod for most of last week. As usual this is a quality playlist which sounds good playing along while I work or read or whatever, but as I said, after a week on the ipod I find that there is really nothing here which stands out and knocks me off my feet and makes me want to rush out and buy. Perhaps the tracks that capture my attention the most would be "Mercy" by Hans Chew, which is a good rockin' retro 70s southern rock track and The Men with "Oscillation" which pulled me in with its extended guitar break going for gold. The Dr John song I already have after purchasing his new album recently and it is not the best track off it.

The Dawes song is also a quality number with a great vocal that I dig but as I mentioned in another post their album was somewhat disappointing. So again I say, overall an enjoyable set with out any bad songs, but nothing that I'm gonna rush out and buy although I have several of these artists new albums lined up ready for a quick review. Rating 3/5.







AC/DC - Highway To Hell (Australia 1979)

On the back page of each issue someone of importance in the music biz highlights several albums of importance to him or her and this month was Greg Dulli of the Afghan Wigs and this album was picked as Bon Scott is his favourite Rock N' Roll singer.
Bon's last album before his untimely death in 1980 and this album is a total classic of basic balls out Rock. No one does it better than AC/DC, packed to the rafters with awesome guitar riffs and brilliant solos from Angus. Every song is a classic with Bon tearing the place apart with a bunch of all time great Rock vocals. This CD version I have is a 2003 reissue and the sound is outstanding cranked up loud on the Cyrus. 

It's bloody hard to pick highlights on such an amazing set but "A Touch To Much" certainly stands out and the Buzzsaw "Beating around the Bush" is just sublime. "Night Prowler" is just plain evil and a hell of a way to end such a great album. Perhaps the greatest hard rock album ever.Rating 5+/5. 


Beach House - Bloom (USA 2012

After several days hearing this on the ipod at work I can safely say that this dreamy chamber pop is not my thing. Rated 8/10 and given a full page review in this issue prompted me to check it out and although is is a well recorded and constructed set of quality indie pop songs it also all sounds a bit samey and uninspiring. There is so much of this sort of music around nowadays and it takes something special to stand out from the crowd, which for me, these guys don't do. My rating 2.5/5.

Uncut Magazine Take 30 November 1999

Uncut Take 30 November 1999

Another of the very early Uncut Magazines I picked up second hand earlier this year and from this issue I have dug out albums by: Stereolab, David Bowie, Nine Inch nails, Iggy Pop, It's A Beautiful Day, Gomez, Paul McCartney, Primal Scream, The Charlatans(UK), Hawkwind, Eurythmics, Blur and Duke Ellington, and of course not to mention the Free CD that came with the magazine. I have decided to forgo the movies from now on as I am struggling to find the time, unless there is one that must be watched, but so far I haven't found any that are must watch.

 This Issues Free CD is the usual great playlist of good music and this months worthy mentions first must be the totally brilliant "Low Rider", one of the meanest down home deep funk records ever committed to vinyl and very familiar to me from the days when Cheech and Chong were my movie heroes. I feel the Roy Ayres track deserves a mention as it is a great piece of Jazz rock which I enjoy a lot. Another song deserves mention, but this time for the other reason that is is quite possibly the worst song I have heard on an Uncut CD, take a bow Kevin Rowland for your most turgid song I have heard in a long time, though someone must like it for it to be included here. Johnny Thunder's "Chinese Rocks" is another classic slab of late 70s punk and one I also know well from some old compilation I use to own.

Anyhow, some interesting stuff here but considering the quality of the artists chosen, a little disappointing overall but still a great playlist to have ticking away in the background like most Uncut CDs. Rating 3/5

Stereolab - Cobra & Phases Play Voltage in the Milky Night (UK 1999)

This issue had an article on Stereolab in response to the recent release of this their 7th album. Indie pop firmly rooted in Krautrock and sung in French on several tracks sticks to the formula for this talented group. I like their sound and style and they have created an interesting and enjoyable sound but overall this album lacks the quality of some of the other stuff they have done and so as there is so much better albums to listen to from this band, I think I will delete this set and enjoy the others instead. That's not to say this is a bad album in of it's self and the quality of the music is intricate and interesting but not essential. Rating 2.5/5
David Bowie - Earthling (UK 1997)

I guess with such an awesome and big selling back catalogue as Bowie, you can do as you like later in life. This album sees the Thin White Duke trying hard to stay hip with the younger audience by incorporating Techno and jungle beats into his songs with not particularly out standing results. I found some interesting lyrics in places and even sounds like Nine Inch Nails in other places but the music is sterile and boring and doesn't hold my interest at all. I picked out this set due to a review of David's "Hours" Album which was reviewed in this issue and as I didn't have that one I elected to check out this one instead as it was his previous release and now I will delete it from my hard drive. My rating 2/5.

Dirty Projectors - Bittie Orca (USA 2009)

An Uncle Roddus Album review

1. Cannibal Resource (3:54)

2. Temecula Sunrise (5:05)

3. The Bride (2:49)

4. Stillness Is The Move (5:14)

5. Two Doves (3:41)

6. Useful Chamber (6:28)

7. No Intention (4:17)

8. Remade Horizon (3:55)

9. Fluorescent Half Dome (5:45)

Working my way through a backlog of recent releases picked out of some recent back issues of Uncut Magazine that I picked up second hand in my local music shop. Dirty Projectors are well regarded and so I thought I would check this out as it got a fairly strong review. Fairly standard contemporary indie pop/rock, which means lots of influences blended together and well crafted and recorded songs which make for a generally OK album of this sort of music. A couple of moments that somewhat impress but not too much here that really inspires me or likely to hear all over the radio either. Time to move on to something else. Rating 2/5.