The Beauty Room - The Beauty Room (UK 2006)

Uncle Roddus New CD of the week.

This one arrived in the post ahead of the John Zorn CD I purchased a couple of weeks earlier and is something I got onto for a while when it was released back in 2006 but then slipped off the radar so to speak. My interest was rekindled recently by the release of their second album which I have been enjoying on Spotify. This album is a very laid back and mellow take on some catchy pop tunes which give a big nod to Steely Dan. Such a big nod in fact that the vocalist sounds uncannily like Donald Fagan and Mrs. Roddus even thought it was the Dan. Anyhow that is not a bad thing and these guys make a truly beautiful noise that gently washes over you with a sense of relaxing pleasure. Normally music like this would be far too mellow and tame for my tastes but this set just hit the spot for me. A great record for a nice summers day on the lawn with some friends. Check it out, it won't disappoint. Rating 4/5.

Zipper - Zipper (USA 1975)

Rare MP3 Album Of The Week.

01. Bullets (3:24)

02. Born Yesterday (4:07)

03. The Same Old Song (3:19)

04. Face Of Stone (5:19)

05. Ballbustin' Woman (Re-release only) (3:02)

06. Scars (3:20)

07. Rollin' And Tumblin' (2:44)

08. Worry Kills A Woman (3:45)

09. Let It Freeze (3:38)

10. Behind The Door (3:36)

11. Racing For A Dollar (Unreleased) (2:38)

This one from Rare MP3 is a poorly recorded set of psych/funk/blues with some quite catchy songs and good guitar breaks and could have been a real stomper of a psych record with some more production work and better recording quality, but essentially this sounds like a set of under developed Demos and gets tiresome after the first few listens.Rating 2.5/5  

C. Ptak - Prepare Your Self (USA 2002)

Mutant Sounds Album Of The Week.

1. You're Your Yore (2:54)

2. Rome In Your Bed (3:13)

3. Grow Your Snot (3:02)

4. Your Sorry Now (4:45)

5. Yourgan Again (3:28)

6. Your Fate Denies (4:04)

7. Clouds In Your Eyes (4:39)

8. Prepare Your Self (6:27)

9. Dig Your Style (2:17)

10. Verbose Goes Your Weak (4:30)

11. Your Tough Enough (3:54)

12. Your Snore (3:11)

13. Your A Few (3:15)

Ok, after the weekend of Classic rock down in Queenstown, it's time to get weird again with another obscure recording from the Mutant Sounds Blog and this self recorded/released CDR from Carly Ptak is certainly weird alright. A set of electronic soundscapes and violin noodlings and other samples makes for a industrial tinged collage of silliness that really doesn't do anything for me at all. Very little here in the form of melody or generally accepted coherent song structure but it is interspersed with some interesting sound effects, but overall gets somewhat boring and fails to engage me much at all. Rating 2/5.

Pat Benatar/Bachman-Turner/America - Gibbston Valley Winery - 23rd Febuary 2013

An Uncle Roddus Concert review

I wouldn't have gone to a Pat Benatar concert of my own accord, although I knew her early 80s hits quite well, as many in my social group of the time were big fans and I didn't mind her blend of hard rocking pop songs. Mrs. Roddus, on the other hand is quite into Pat and was keen to go, also a couple of friends were going too and I am always keen on a road trip to that part of the country. America, All I could come up with as to their music was "Horse With No Name" and Bachman & Turner From Bachman Turner Overdrive was the same with their hit"Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" the only thing that came to mind, but both were classic 70s rock bands so would be worth seeing live.

We arrived in Cromwell late Friday night and stayed at the Mother-in-Laws before heading off to Queenstown to have breakfast with Aunty lee-Ann and Uncle Ian. After Breakfast It was off to the venue to get a decent park and position ourselves to good advantage to see the stage and screens. We arrived just past 11am and found a nice spot just to the left of the stage, with a nice big screen in front of us and toilets and food stalls quite nearby. After setting up our deckchairs, slopping on sunscreen, we settled in to watch the first support bands. A couple of bands from the local highschool, the first a dubby reggae type band playing covers of local NZ bands and the second band playing covers from indie rock bands from the early 2000s.
America were first up of the main acts and I was instantly familiar with several of their songs. They played a pretty good set and were more rocky than I expected when I though of "Horse With No Name" which is quite a folksy 70s pop song and wasn't played until their encore. Plenty of foot tappin' classic rock played to an appreciative audience set the scene for an entertaining day. Although it was by this time that I realised that I had left my camera back at my accommodation.
It was during the break between sets that I suddenly remembered that Randy Bachman had originally been in The Guess Who before forming Bachman Turner Overdrive and due to legal reasons couldn't use the BTO name when preforming, so in this context I was hoping for some Guess Who  songs in their set. Man, when these guys kicked of with "Roll On Down The Highway" they were awesome and played so heavy. Of Course I knew several of their songs, all classic rock numbers but I was unprepared for how good they sounded and how good were the songs I didn't know. They blokes could really play and really got the crowd to their feet, especially when the played "Takin' Care of Business" for their encore. I was very very impressed. Oh and they did play the Guess Who's American Woman and "Shakin All Over", The Guess Who's first single from 1965.
Mrs Roddus had disappeared to the front of the stage just before Bachman Turner and Aunty Lee-Ann followed suit for the Pat Benatar set while Uncle Ian and I stayed with our gear. After the brilliant set from Bachman and Turner I knew Pat Benatar was going to be a bit disappointing for me, as I said, I wasn't a huge fan of her music. But the majority of the 15000 strong crowd had come to see her and most were on their feet to see her and Neil play. She is looking good for a woman whose just turned 60 and was full of beans and still belting our the songs with great force throughout the set. The sound was very good and Neil really let rip on his guitar on several of the songs. They played a very good set of mostly the early hits, which the crowd lapped up with much enthusiasm and singing along. I did enjoy the set and am glad I went, it was well worth it and Mrs.Roddus and Aunty Lee-Ann loved every minute. They encored with "Heartbreaker" which is one of her strongest, heaviest  songs and one of my favourites and during a wild guitar frenzy near the end of the song Neil broke into the riff for Led Zeppelins "Heartbreaker" Which really impressed me.
A very entertaining concert and enjoyable weekend.

Gravestone - Creating A Monster (Germany 1987)

Rare MP3 Album Of The Week.

1. Master Of The Earth (4:14)

2. Right To Rock (3:44)

3. You Can't Take It With You (3:33)

4. Creating A Monster (5:45)

5. The End Of Our Love (4:37)

6. Danger (3:09)

7. Dirty City (3:43)

8. Illusions (3:42)

There is almost nothing on this album to make you believe it was created by a German group. This set is pretty much formulaic 80's Heavy Metal and the singer sounds about as German as Sammy Hagar. Fans of Van Halen will probably enjoy this set and although it fails to stamp its own identity on the genre it ain't too bad an album and is a good bit of fun. One I enjoyed more on my initial exposure a couple of years back but hasn't really improved with Familiarity and gets a rating of 2.5/5. 

The Carter Family - The Best Of The Carter Family (UK 2005)

Uncle Roddus CD Of The Week

Quite possibly one of the most influential early artists in music, I brought this set for that reason as they had a big influence on Johnny Cash(he even married into the family) and Bob Dylan to a lessor degree as well as untold other country artists. 

This double disc set covers quite a selection of their most popular songs and a few of their better lesser known numbers, with recordings mostly from the 1930's. That makes for some quite primitive music and over a larger set like this, makes for a slightly difficult listen as the songs all sound quite similar and the old style vocals can be challenging for modern listeners. Also it must be remembered that these songs were recorded to be released in pairs on old 78 records and not on long playing records like we have today.

So separating the songs out and concentrating on them individually  reveals some wonderful guitar melodies played with much skill and with some good vocal melodies if you can get past the melancholic style they sing in. Many of these songs were old folk songs even back when The Carters rerecorded them and there are also some good old style country blues in amongst these songs. Although this is a fairly budget release the recording quality is extremely good for their vintage. Not something I am going to listen to a lot but defiantly a worthwhile addition to my collection, especially in an historical sense.Rating 3/5.

Hiro Yanagida - Nanasai No Rohjin Tengoku (1971 Japan)

Mutant Sounds Album Of The Week

1. The Butcher (2:57)

2. The Murder In The Midnight (8:06)

3. Fantasia (4:56)

4. Good Morning People (3:03)

5. Always (2:43)

6. The Skyscraper 42nd Floor (3:57)

7. My Dear Mary (2:10)

8. Melancholy (4:26)

I initially thought I had a real Japanese Psych Monster on my hands with is rare and obscure set from the keyboardist Hiro Yanagida. The first track hits hard with some incendiary Japanese psyched guitaring and free-form organ from Yanagida  that knocks my socks off. Think Deep Purple on acid. The Monster " The Murder In The Midnight" gives us 8 minutes of the same intensity and I'm going Far out Man. "Fantasia" starts off a bit slower before the guitar psyches out again as only the Japanese can do and I'm in heaven. this is fantastic. Then things start to go astray a bit, the fourth track is quite catchy and funky and still with that psyched guitar, but comes across as a bit of a novelty dittie, something off a TV show perhaps. Yanagida tries to mix things up a bit but fails to pull it off with a pretty awful vocal pop track in "Always". "The Skyscraper.." has quite an infectious little melody happening with some John Cage like piano happening in the background and keeps this album from totally losing the plot, so far. Trying too hard to be eclectic spoils the show somewhat with the terrible 50s Doo-Wop of My Dear Mary", thank god it is the shortest track here. Things appear to pick up a little with the Blood. Sweat and Tears sounding intro to the final track but it turns into a bit of a tuneless dirge with terrible sounding vocals way back in the mix. So a bit of a mixed bag then with the initial few blistering tracks getting us all excited only to be let down by the inconsistencies of the rest of the set. rating 3/5.

Pell Stream Hut - 16-17th February 2013

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No 132

Pell Stream Hut - 16-17th February 2013

Pell Stream Hut is a fairly remote hut about half way up Pell Stream north of Mt Mueller and the Freyberg Range near Lewis Pass. A friend had suggested a trip into this hut some time back but time and other trips intervened to postpone the trip till now. 

This latest Epic started with Brendan and I departing my car at Marble Hill car park on a warm and pleasant Saturday morning and ambling the 3 km or so up the Mauria  river to try and find the route up to the Mueller tops. Just as we were about to cross the river to start looking for the track entrance, we spotted a cairn on the opposite bank and went to investigate, discovering that this indeed was the start of the track we intended to use to get us up the hill. Without this cairn the track would have been rather difficult to find. The track itself, which is marked on older maps, but not the newer ones, is non maintained and our early experience of tree fall and loosing the track several times within the first few hundred meters started to make it look like it was going to be a difficult trip to the bushline. Things didn't get much better as we got to the creek crossing. The creek had been gutted by the recent floods and was rank with logjams as we struggled to pick up where the track continued on the opposite side. After finally finding the track again things improved markedly as the track climbed steeply  up the ridge. This old track, from here on, was well marked with permolat and the track itself was still well formed and not overgrown. We stopped for elevenses at about 1100M  and made the bushline about 1:30PM and had lunch. We then started along the tops towards Mt Mueller. The going was slightly slower than I anticipated due to the long grasses and small shrubs in places but there is a quite well defined animal trail on the very top of the ridge. We summited  Mt Mueller around 3PM by which time clouds had settled on the tops obliterating our views and resulting in much more concentration with our navigating. The route round to point 1650 involved some rock scrambling, several short climbs and careful consideration as to our position after each point we crossed, skirting round some of the rockier points to save time. This section took us about another 3 hours and it was shortly after 6PM that we started our descent from point 1650 with low visibility, but after careful study of map and taking compass bearing. We gained the exact ridge I had decided to use for our descent, but had we better visibility higher up I would have chosen the next ridge to our west, which did look the better route to us as we struggled down a particularly steep section of dense scrub just before we hit the bushline. Once in the forest things got  much easier as we were in one of those fairly open beech forests with plenty of dead and rotting trees to wrongly grab onto as you plummet downwards. This section looked reasonably short from above the tree-line but seemed to go on forever as we kept heading down and down and down for about 600M until we finally hit the lower section and the creek we intended to follow out to Pell Stream and the Hut we knew to be 100 odd meters down stream from where the creek came out. We were greatly relieved to find the hut right where it should be, proving my navigating to be successful and the hut only slightly above the recent flood level that had chocked this part of Pell stream with logjams. We made the hut at 8:30pm after a 10 and 1/2 hour day. A pleasant warm night was had at the hut, which gets very few visitors each year, as we prepared dinner and snuggled down into unconsciousness around 10:30pm.

Slept in till 8am on a beautiful Sunday morning and left the hut by 9am for the trip down Pell Stream back to Marble Hill. After negotiating the logjams and slips and admiring the level of the recent floods that had wrecked havoc with the area, we found the track that was to take us above the first gorgy part of the river but I thought this was just one  of the flood routes and so we continued heading downstream in the river bed until it got too tricky to continue and I realised my mistake. Not to worry, we would just climb up through the bush until we hit the track. This was easier said than done as it started ok for a while but we ran into some quite thick undergrowth and some windfall that was a pain. While climbing over one particular horizontal tree with lots of other scrubby plants around it, I thought I touched some unseen stinging nettle but couldn't spot it, I warned Brendan, who was by this time climbing over the same tree, when he got attacked by wasps. We high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could considering where we were and managed to escape the nasties. Brendan got hit about 5 times. We eventually found the track, but  not before another short encounter with more wasps, where Brendan got another couple of stings. The track was easy to follow and in good condition and we were soon back in the river bed rock hopping down stream. We reached Gilchrist Stream about 11:45am and decided to have lunch. From there we were suppose to get onto the track that would take us over the last gorgy part of the river and onto the 4WD track which went back to Marble Hill, but amongst the logjam and scrub in the confluence of Gilchrist Stream we could find no track or markers or indicators to point us in the right direction. I was wondering if maybe this wasn't Gilchrist at all but perhaps another of those streams that some times don't appear on the maps, but that did seem unlikely for a quite major stream. We decided to carry on down stream and fortunately we came across a couple of blokes gold panning about halfway between Gilchrist and the next stream. The told us that the track from Gilchrist actually started about 150m upstream in Gilchrist creek but if we followed their route up from their camp we would find the track about 100m above. We followed their route for about 30M before loosing track of it and so continued with our second bush bash of the day. We found the track easy enough and followed this easy track back out to the 4WD track  which got us back to my car about 2:45pm.

The track up the hill.

View of Marble Hill from the bushline

Brendan emerging from the trees

Mt Mueller

And the clouds roll in.

Uncle Roddus on Muellwr

Visability greatly reduced.

Scrambling round the rocks.

looking down into Pell Stream

One very knackered Uncle Roddus at Pelkl Stream hut

Duck.

The river gorging out forcing us to bush bash back onto the track above.

Siamese trees.

Pell Stream.

Masters Of Reality - Masters Of Reality (USA 1989)

This weeks new CD.

Oh yeah, look what has turned up from Amazon last weekend. Definitely one of my top 20 albums of all time. Just been reissued on CD after being difficult to buy for quite some time. I have reviewed this album before and this is just another rant about how much I really really dig this great rock album. Part Led Zep, part Black Sabbath, quite possibly the forerunner of stoner rock, if you dig Queens of the Stoneage then I think you will enjoy this. I have gotten use now to the different track order on the CD than what was on my original vinyl copy and am most thankful for the fantastic extra track "Doraldina's Prophecies".Not a weak song here and unfortunately this stunning debut has just destroyed any notion of checking out their other albums as I just couldn't imagine them topping this.

This release also came with a live CD recorded in 1997 with live versions of several songs off the debut and several others that suggest some of The Masters... other albums could be rewarding to check out also, maybe. Overall though, the live set is a bit underwhelming. Ratings, Debut 5+/5, Live disc 3.5/5.

Rumpelstiltskin - Black Magician (UK 1971)

Rare MP3 album of the week

1. Lord Of The Heaven and The Earth (3:53)

2. Can't You Feel It (3:04)

3. Evil Woman (3:29)

4. I Am The Last Man (6:08)

5. Loneliness Is What My Life's All About (4:00)

6. Through My Looking Glass (3:32)

7. Black Magician's Daughter (2:51)

8. I'm So Afraid I'll Leave Unsaid (2:25)

9. I Am Alone (3:16)

10. I've Had Enough Of The Army (6:41)

11.Wimoweh (2:35)

Rare MP3 blog has been a favourite place of mine on par with Mutant Sounds for a large selection of quality out of print rare and obscure albums. The music there is a little more conventional than Mutant Sounds with a  focus on blues based rock and prog from the late 60s and early 70s, which is a sort of music I like a lot. I have found many great albums there over the last few years and although the blog has been inactive for over a year now, there are still plenty of links still up to these rare gems.

Rumpelstiltskin were a quite impressive pop/rock band with prog leanings and a touch of Blood Sweat and Tears. This set is most enjoyable early 70s rock with some nice guitar work, a strong vocalist and a good variety of well crafted songs which I have been enjoying all week. One of those quality sets that has a mix of rockier full tempo tracks mixed with mellower moments put together in a successful mix. Not a top tier release, which is why it probably sunk without much impact when it was released, but still deserving of a bigger audience. Rating 4/5 

The Loop Orchestra-The Analogue Years (Australia 1999)

Mutant Sounds Album of the week

I have been mining the rare underground sounds from the Mutant Sounds Blog.They have almost 3000 posts of obscure out of print music awaiting discovery of discerning music hounds who like their music a little on the weird side. I will be checking out in more detail some of the stuff I have downloaded from them and letting my readers know what I think.

This release comes from just across the ditch from here and as can be seen on the above image the music here is constructed from tape loops and mostly constructed(as opposed to composed) and recorded live. What we end up with  are several extended drones with subtle effects woven into the constructs as things shift glacially within each piece. This doesn't sound all to inviting on a casual listen and I thought I was gonna dispense with it earlier on the week, but on closer inspection and with headphones I have come to appreciate the soundscapes presented here. This is not easy listening or relaxing ambient music, it is a bit more weirder than that. Rating 3.5/5

ABC - Poison Arrow (UK 2002)

Uncle Roddus CD of the Week

So working through some of my existing CD collection and starting at the alphabetical start we have this cheap CD compilation I picked up some time back thinking I was actually buying their debut album "Lexicon Of love"(I had forgotten the title when I purchased this set) and so I was quite disappointed when I got it home and discovered it wasn't the aforementioned album that I had enjoyed so much all those years ago when I had it on vinyl. The two big hits that turned me on to this new wave romantic band when i was still a teenager open this set and although I still enjoy them, they haven't aged all that well and I am wondering now what it was that got me so excited about them back then."Lexicon..." was a strong album I remember and although I recognise some of the other songs on this compilation, there isn't much else here to inspire me to track down that album again. Funky well crafted pop songs with plenty of brass and string arrangements are the order of the day and frankly I have lost interest in this band. Rating 2/5.

Trovatore/Travers Peak - 10th February 2013

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 131

Trovatore/Travers Peak - 10th February 2013

This trip had been on my to do list for a while and I had an opportunity to complete it last year when there was still plenty of snow on the tops but I forgot to set my alarm and missed the boat so to speak. I had a spare day on Sunday the 10th and with the long range forecast looking pretty good, flicked off an e-mail to see who wanted to join me on this expedition.

Three of us set off along the Rolleston track from the St James car park about 9:30am on another near perfect Lewis Pass day. Thirty minutes later we hit Goings Creek and started to look for the entrance to the Trovatore track. We found it another 200 odd meters down the road and proceeded on the 900m climb to Travers Peak, through lovely open beech forest on a well formed and well used track. First lunch was had at the bushline before continuing on to Travers and having second lunch about 12:30pm. The tops were pretty easy travel to this point walking on top of a dense short snow grass. Things got slightly more challenging after dropping of the very steep North face of Travers and point 1690 and its associated ridge looked pretty gnarley in places, so we sidled round to the east of the ridge from the saddle and followed a vague benched track  northwards until we climbed up a pretty seep gut back onto the tops for the last bit of ridge travel to Trovatore.  After third lunch in the warm sun we headed off round to point 1755 trying to find the access to the scree slope that would take us all the way back down to the river nearly 800m below. We slightly over shot the scree, so backed tracked and dropped down into the gut. The slope was hard and loose nearer the top and was a bit difficult to get onto but once we got to the softer stuff the going was pretty good. Uncle Roddus, scree god, was first onto the slope and rocketed off down hill while the others were still trying to get onto it. This was not such a good idea from Uncle R. as the others were sending rocks bouncing down the scree and much vigilance and the occasional dodging was required before getting out of range. This scree had been reported by another as the one of the best he had been on, but I found it to be shallow and couldn't relax into it as we had to keep sidling back and forth to stay in the soft stuff. My scree rating, 7/10. Unfortunately the front half of the sole of my tramping boot decided to part with its lifelong partner, the innersole, just as I was nearing the bottom of the scree, so some emergency repairs were made as I waited for the others to descend. The rest of the trip consisted of a rock hop down the riverbed to the swing-bridge before the final leg along the St James walkway back to the car, which we obtained about 5:30pm. So we did an 8 hour day, travelled around 16kM and climbed about 1100M.

The stunted beach at the bushline.

Richard and Lovisa leaving the forest.

Climbing towards Travers with Mt Technical  in the background.

Blue sky and mountains, what more could we ask for.

On Travers looking at the ridge to Trovatore.

Uncle Roddus on Travers.

Dropping down from Travers.

A nice valley below.

Tarns below Trovatore, looks like good camping.

Nearing our objective.

Nearing Trovatore with Travers in the background.

Uncle Roddus on Trovatore with the Muller tops in the background(right), hopefully the destination next weekend.

The Scree. Tally Ho!

The scree from the bottom.

John Zorn - A Vision In Blakelight (USA 2012)

Uncle Roddus CD Of The Week.

Its exciting when I get home from a hard days slaving for "The Man", and find my weekly CD has arrived in the mailbox from Amazon. More John Zorn with is set being another of his 21st century Mysticism series.

This series is showing us a much mellower Zorn as he approaches his 60th year with more laid back contemporary jazz on this set, which is, of course, recorded to the highest standards and played exquisitely.

After thrashing this for the last week I have to say that I am enjoying this even more than "The Concealed". A similar feel to this set although this has a little more variety with some more avant-garde moments, which surprisingly don't detract from the laid back ambience of this record. The playing of Medeski is superb and I especially like his little piano solos on track one. Another mature set from this prolific composer and gets a rating of 4/5.