Don McGlashan & The Seven Sisters - Marvellous Year (New Zealand 2009)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day.

1. The Switch (4:29)
2. Bad Blood (5:41)
3. Not Ready (4:13)
4. You're The Song (4:20)
5. Everything's Broken; Life's So Sweet (3:57)
6. 18th Day (6:16)
7. Marvellous Year (4:41)
8. Radio Programmer (3:32)
9. C2006P1 (Make Yourself at Home) (3:04)
10.Bathe In The River (5:20)
11.Theme From "The COlossus of Roadies" (2:41)

Dons last album completes the Don McGlashan week and this set is the usual fare from the man, which means lovely quaint indie pop songs with stories. This one rocks out a little more than the last one in places with a nice Pink Floydish guitar flourish on "18th Day" which I quite enjoyed. Another consistent album of quality music, although nothing that stands out above the rest. Rating 3.5/5.

Don McGlashan - Warm Hand (New Zealand 2006)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day

Well, tonight I should have been enjoying Don playing a live solo gig, but I didn't get my tickets in time and it was sold out, so here I am writing my review of his first solo album after disbanding The Mutton Birds back in 02'. This is just classic Don doing what Don does best, weaving intricate stories within well crafted pop songs. I was pleasently surprised as to how good this set really is. At this stage of his career, and the fact that he's gone solo usually means a drop in quality for a lot of artists and although there don't appear to be any standout classics like before, overall this set is strong and remains so, throughout. Rating 4/5.

The Mutton Birds - Flock: The Best Of The Mutton Birds (New Zealand 2002)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day.

Day four of my Don McGlashan week and this time it is his 90s band The Mutton Birds, who actually put out their first album before the second Front Lawn record. this music is a direct continuation of what Don was doing with the Front Lawn except this is slightly more rocky and a bit less experimental, so still lots of Kiwiana based stories incorporated into some fabulous pop songs.

The Mutton Birds put out several albums over a 10 year period and created another bunch of New Zealand classic pop songs and this 18 track 78 minute best of.. kicks of with two of the best. "Dominion Road" is a wonderfully catchy slab of kiwi pop and it is followed buy the Mutton Birds cover of the NZ 60s classic "Nature" which they take and improve on dramatically and it really rocks."Anchor Me" and "Pulled Along by Love" are 2 more very successful tunes that manage to stand out on a compilation with no let downs. Rating 5/5. 

PS. I was a bit tardy getting onto the tickets for Don's Gig this Friday and the bloody thing is sold out already.

The Front Lawn - More Songs From The Front Lawn (New Zealand 1993)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day

The second and final Front Lawn album continues this weeks Don McGlashan marathon and we have more of the same quirky kiwiana pop music as on the last set but this one is even better. Some excellent pop melodies especially on the vocals with some beautiful ballad like songs as well as some more songs on our materialism such as the brilliant "Beautiful Things", which was another higher profile song here and the wonderful "Wedding Song" with its washing machine beat and lyrics about marriage to a washing machine and the line "What money has joined, let no man put asunder". Brilliant!

Another NZ classic and like nothing else around, this album is a masterpiece and gets 5+/5. 

The Front Lawn - Songs From The Front Lawn (New Zealand 1989)

Uncle Roddus Album of the Day

Day two of Don McGlashan Week and we get to my favourite Don Band with the unheralded Front Lawn.

The Front Lawn were a link in the chain of theatrical musical groups from  Blerta to The Flight of the Concords and this was the first of their two albums. This is a magnificent album of offbeat pop that is unrivalled in NZ music. Wonderful songs each telling a story and all firmly rooted in kiwiana. "How You Doing" and "Andy" were moderately successful here and I think this  album is an NZ classic and gets my approval with 5/5.

Blam Blam Blam - The Complete Blam Blam Blam (New Zealand 2003)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day.

This week is going to be Don McGlashan week due to the fact that I hope to go see him play here on Friday night. 

Blam Blam Blam were an early Post punk band here in New Zealand in which Don played drums and sang, as well as contributing to the song writing. This 19 track CD is pretty much everything they recorded in their short career and contains one of the greatest New Zealand songs ever to assault our ears in the truly fantastic "There is No Depression in New Zealand", a wake up call to the blindness and denial of some of the negative things about NZ society in the early 80s. Coming off their first EP, ".....Depression..." was a top ten hit here and was followed by another NZ Classic of their only album, "Don't Fight It Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both Of Us". These two great songs hitting the top 10 was the NZ equivalent of Joy Division hitting the charts in England(although the Blams... aren't quite so dark).

"Luxury Length" is the other stand out track here propelled along by a fab bass line, New Zealand's equivalent of The Teardrop Explodes. 

The rest of this set is good enough and has some quite interesting moments of post punk creativity, with shades of Gang Of Four in places just to give you an idea of what they were up to. Not all of it works but is was a good start for who I consider to be New Zealand's Best song writer, if not the most successful. Rating 3.5/5.

Mt Maukuratawhai - 23 September 2012

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 124

Mt Maukuratawhai - 23 September 2012

A fairly regular trip on the CTC calendar, this scribe had done this trip as recent as 2010. This time I was hoping for a lot more snow and after the disappointment of lack of views last weekend, I would have been strongly disappointed if I didn't get to see any thing again.

The weather God chose to co-operate this time as 8 keen trampers prepared for the chilly crossing of  the Clarence River on this fine but frosty morning. Everyone, bar this scribe, chose to don river crossing shoes for the fording and then change into their boots before scrambling up the hill(Uncle Roddus is made of harder stuff). It didn't take long before Alan spotted some wilding pines small enough to succumb to his silky saw and so a pattern was set for the lower part of the journey. Things progressed well, with good time being made of our ascent and the first snow being encountered. By the time we got to the last section of hill to be climbed, the snow and the steepness of the last part prompted the donning of  crampons. It was at this point that this inattentive scribe discovered that he had ripped the strapping away from one of the rivets during last weekends adventures and couldn't fasten that strap. Fortunately, ever prepared, a magic spare bootlace appeared from his bottomless day pack and all  was well as we scaled the final leg to the summit where we got to enjoy the magnificent views of the surrounding snow capped mountains.      

Leader Bryce(Who had also been on this mountain before) was keen to try another route down from the one both he and I had done on the previous club trips. Therefore we headed off along the ridge to the west this time and had no problems circling around the tops and back down the Western ridge to the Clarence River.
We estimated we walked about 13km, climbed an accumulated gain of about 1200M and executed about 40 wilding pines.

Dr John - The Sun, Moon and Herbs (USA 1971)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day.

So, on a recent shopping spree I picked up several more of the Original Album Series Box sets and due to my recent purchase of Dr Johns Latest album, "Locked Down" and the fact that I was at least vaguely familiar with some of his earlier stuff,  this promptly fell into my shopping basket.

This unusual blend of soul, funk, New Orleans R n' B, blues, jazz and Cajun is something else and I struggle to think of any comparisons. The songs are complex and  busy, and although do kind of follow traditional song structure, they are not overly catchy or poppy. That doesn't mean they are difficult to listen too but I did find myself wanting to move onto something else by morning tea today. Revisiting this tonight I don't find myself immediatly effected by this music but I have a feeling that repeated concentrated attention may reveal more to this music and should increase my affection for it, although I think this is an acquired taste. Rating 3/5.

Whiskeytown - Rural Free Delivery (USA 1997)

Uncle Roddus Album of the Day

1. Take Your Guns to Town (2:29)

2. Nervous Breakdown (2:19)

3. Tennessee Square (2:49)

4. Captain Smith (2:10)

5. Macon, Georgia County Line (2:29)

6. Pawn Shop Ain't No Place for a Wedding Ring (4:33)

7. Oklahoma (2:55)

8. Angels Are Messengers from God (4:06)

I really dig Whiskeytown and this sort of stop gap EP/Album is just as good as the three proper albums they released, although pretty hard to get your hands on nowadays, which is why I don't have it on CD. A bunch of great country tinged rockers, with elements of bluegrass, country ballads and good rockin numbers some time reminiscent of mid period Violent  Femmes(see "Captain Smith")on the more up-tempo numbers. The wonderful "Angels Are Messengers from God " is a classic and one I am most familiar with from this set and the fact that it is a slightly different version of "Faithless Street" from the first album, "Oklahoma is a very cool slab of cow punk. Not a weak moment here on this awesome set of Americana which really kicks ass in an Alt Country way. Rating 5/5.

Fela Ransome Kuti and Koola Lobitos - Lagos Baby 1963-1969 (Spain 2008)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day.

I had actually seen a new copy of this a while back as I was first discovering the music of Fela Kuti, but decided not to purchase it at that time, partly due to the price and partly due to the fact that I was grooving to his later Afrobeat stuff. I picked this up second hand recently and there is a slight possibility that this could be the same copy I saw new earlier as I would doubt there are too many copies of this floating round my town. This CD is in near new condition so I feel it is a very good score.

All the music on this double CD set was originally compiled and released via Japan and some dedicated Fela fans as " Fela Ransome-Kuti and His Koola Lobitos

Highlife-Jazz and Afro-Soul (1963-1969) (CD Japan; P-Vine PCD-18511/3) " in 2005.(see Fela Kuti Discography at http://biochem.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~endo/EAFela.html )

 That 3 CD set is very difficult to find now and this reissue I have by the Spanish label "Vampisoul" is also getting pretty scarce and has been deleted by the aforementioned label.

The whole set is made up of ultra rare recordings from Fela's Highlife Band "Koola Lobitos"  with several early single, his first album from about 1965, a live set from about 66' and a few singles of very early Afrobeat before he went to the USA and recorded the first real Afrobeat music on the " 69 LA Sessions"

The recording quality of these primitive recording is pretty lo-fi by today's standards but is far more listenable than most Bootlegs and the music is so rare that much of it was recorded off original vinyl and tapes and masters that weren't all that well looked after or indeed weren't all that good quality to begin with.

So putting aside the sound quality and concentrating on the actual music being played, we find that the Highlife music of Nigeria that Fela and his band is playing is a mixture of American Jazz, Caribbean and African rhythms. Fela and his band are great exponents of this music and there is some great playing and great grooving going on here and several tracks have become quite familiar with me now. A few straight jazz instrumentals interspersed with the Highlife tracks before we get into the Afrobeat on the second disc, which is recognisable as such but still as a strong  Highlife flavour more so than his later Afrobeat epics. A great taste of early Fela and although not as essentual as his 70s music, still a most enjoyable listening experience and again becoming a rare one as it was before this CD set was compiled. Rating 4/5.

Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits (USA 2012)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day

0.1: My Love Is Real (2:47)

0.2: Flaggin a Ride (3:47)0.3: What Gets You Alone (3:1)0.4: Would That Not Be Nice (3:59)0.5: The Salton Sea (4:19)0.6: Baby Get Worse (4:15)0.7: Civilian Stripes (2:25)0.8: For Your Heart (5:35)0.9: Shivers (4:55)0.10: Like Ice Cream (3:38)0.11: Neopolitans (3:59)

Hot off the press, so to speak, this very recent release was reviewed in the October issue of Uncut magazine and was given a 9/10 rating for the review, so I thought I had better check it out.

A sort of American indie-rock super-group of sorts, this is a slightly above average synth driven indie set of good quality catchy songs well crafted and played. After a whole day on the iPod I didn't get tired of this set, although I'm still a bit hard pressed to actually recognise some of the songs, which means that some of them sound all a bit similar. Although I am enjoying this music, I don't feel excited and inspired enough by it to want to purchase it, Rating 3/5.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (USA 2011)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day

Quite possibly album of the year, or last year as the case may be. Was Lucky enough to pick up on the most wonderful "Down By The Water" which was on one of the Uncut CD's I picked up at my local second Hand CD emporium earlier this year. The aforementioned track impressed so much that I knew I had to get this CD and after downloading a copy for evaluation and being wowed by the excellent Americana influenced indie pop contained herein, I started to keep an eye out for it in the local shops. Unfortunately, the only copy I saw was an overpriced import at the aforementioned CD emporium, so from Amazon did my copy duly come.

This is just one of those totally wonderful albums just chock full of great catchy numbers that  never grow stale after many many listens, great pop music with a real country tang to it. Colin Meloy is an excellent songwriter and has a great singing voice too, even my 81 year old Mother-in-Law was impressed with him, which also means that this is "Nice" music and unlikely to offend any one. I believe this went to No.1 on the American music Charts, if so, it's great to see such great music at the top for a change. A highly recommended album and gets a Roddus rating of 5/5.

Dead Can Dance - Anastasis (UK 2012)

An Uncle Roddus daily album review.

A new Dead Can Dance album(the first in 15 years)was always going to to be a must listen for me. I have been most impressed by some of their earlier material, although I haven't given them much thought for some time.

The quality of this recording is of the usual DCD high standards and the Medieval Gothic and ethnic sounding pieces on this set are what you would expect from Brendan and Lisa. Haunting, enchanting, dark and quite unique, this music sounds most impressive on the Cyrus via headphones, although as casual listening on the iPod at work today I was ready to listen to something else by lunch time. The sort of music that requires more dedicated concentrated listening to reap the rewards and although I am enjoying this, I'm still not convinced I really need to buy it. Roddus Rating of 3.5/5.

The Gap - Torlesse Range - 16th September 2012

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary: Tramp No. 123

The Gap - Torlesse Range - 16th September 2012

A trip along the tops of the Torlesse Range, over Foggy Peak and Castle Hill to The Gap had the potential to be a stunning trip with the amount of snow still visible on the mountains and the views available from these peaks. Nine optimistic trampers meet at Springfield with a forecast for clearing conditions later in the day. The actual weather wasn't as bad as expected for the start of this trip, with the temperature mild, the winds reasonably light but with clouds shrouding the peaks we were to climb.
After leaving Porters Pass around 9:30am and heading up towards Foggy Peak, it was starting to look promising as blue skys and the sun became visible. Re-grouping on Foggy Peak after re-donning outer layers for wind protection, it became apparent that the clag was gonna stay and we weren't going to climb above it.
Setting off in very poor visibility, following the foot prints of another group ahead of us, someone soon got wise to the fact that those aforementioned foot prints didn't seen to be going in the direction we wanted, as we couldn't hardly see more than 20 meters in front of us and certainly not out next destination, a check on a GPS soon put us back on track. First lunch was finally had on about contour 1800, just before the steep ascent to Castle Hill Peak. The mist did lift slightly to give limited views while lunching and fortunately the wind had dropped also at that point.
Donning crampons, we set off for a considerably steep climb up into more fog and finally onto Castle Hill Peak, where the stunning views remained stubbornly hidden behind the aforementioned fog. After dropping off Castle Hill Peak, the snow became softer, resulting in the removal of crampons but the terrain became more challenging due to the rocky nature of the section we were heading into. We finally arrived in The Gap around 2:30pm where we had second lunch, enjoyed the stillness of the air particles and some limited views of what was below.
With plentiful snow in The Gap and down into the Kowai a rapid descent was guaranteed via the technical art of Bum Sliding. Uncle Roddus was the last one off the top and was able to make a very rapid descent via the bum grooves left by the previous sliders, but when he got to near the bottom, after an exhilarating ride, he discovered that his crampons had come adrift from his back back and indeed there they were right near the very top of the snow slope some 200M above. The rest of the group waited patiently while he slogged back up the slope through quite deep snow until he retrieved the missing items. Then got to do and even better bum slide all the way back down again. It was at this point, after he suggested that Uncle Roddus could now be a contender for a Loo Loo award, that the ever reliable DOC Bryce(That's Droped Of Cliff) managed to trip over his own feet and do an ungainly somersault in the snow while Gashing himself in the face with his ice axe. The rest of the trip down the kowai was uneventful and we made it back to a conveniently parked car just before 6:00PM after a distance of about 15.5km and just over 1000M height gain(Except Uncle Roddus who did about 1200M).

The Martian landscape looking back to Porters Pass.

Teasing us with Blue sky.

Saying goodbye to any views.

Getting back on track.

First lunch Stop.

A brief window of clarity.

At least we had some snow to keep things interesting.

Climbing to  The Gap.

Looking down into the Kowai from, The Gap.

Uncle Roddus in The Gap.

The Bumslide.

Looking back up the Kowai.

Heading down the Kowai.