Cloudy Hill/Mount Lyndon - 25th January 2014

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.141

Cloudy Hill/Mount Lyndon - 25th January 2014.

With the summers weather so far thwarting many a tramp, 22 keen trampers turned up after this trip got moved to Saturday, as Sundays forecast wasn't at all promising for a pleasant day in the mountains. We got a pleasantly warm day with a slight Nor' west wind as we accumulated at the start of the access road to Porters Heights sky field. First order of the day was a short but rather steep ascent up to point 917 to get the sweat flowing and the breathing laboured. After regrouping and attempting a headcount, we continued on via point 1014 onto Cloudy hill with a scrog stop on the way. The views of the Cragiburn range and Castle Hill Valley were impressive and enjoyed by all before setting off to point 1456 via point 1345. Here we had lunch checking out the views down into the Porter river and lake Coleridge in the distance. The drop down onto the saddle between point 1456 and Mt Lyndon was fairly rapid for some as the scree was passable but a little hard underneath. We accumulated at the saddle while the rest of the group caught up before the painful climb back up the 200M in scree to the summit of Mt Lyndon, where we again enjoyed the vistas offered us by our hard work. It was a easy descent back down the hill to Lake Lyndon with some soft scree runs again assisting those keen screers to get down fairly quickly. The day wasn't too long with us being back at the cars by about 2:30pm.

Accumulating at the start of our journey with part of our destination in the background.

Climbing above the highway.

Accumulating at point 917.

The main highway towards lake Lyndon.

Still climbing with the Torelesse Range in the background.

Accumulating on Cloudy Hill.

Uncle Roddus on Cloudy Hill.

Our lunch time view.

Coming down to the saddle.

Climbing back up onto Mount Lyndon.

A shot of where we had been.

Lake Lyndon.

Crass - Penis Envy (UK 1981)

Uncle Roddus Classic albums.

 

Late one night a very young Uncle Roddus was listening to his favourite late night alternative radio show on his tiny transistor radio in his bed when he heard the song "Systematic Death" By Crass. It was certainly a bonus to hear something so totally anti establishment and so full of naughty words on New Zealand Radio back then. I was instantly smitten with the song, it was like nothing I had heard before, which was a regular occurrence on that particular radio show and so was my introduction to Crass and their nihilistic brand of anarcho punk. Crass albums weren't all that easy to get your  hands on back then and I had to wait till I came across their records on Import from my local record emporium of the time. "Penis Envy" was the 3rd album from Crass and the one I most had to have due to the fabulous "Systematic Death", a harsh evaluation of male/female relationships and their role in the western system and how the system crushes them. As perhaps can be divined from the albums title, the albums is a pretty extreme feminist statement as well as a dig at  the male dominance of the SYSTEM. Musically the album goes way beyond standard anarcho punk, although harsh, there is plenty of melody interweaved into these interesting punk experiments and I have heard nothing else like it. It is Crass's best album. The album has stood up very well the test of time and I still connect with it big time. Not a lightweight listen. Rating 5/5.

Gabriele Coen : Yiddish Melodies In Jazz (Tzadik USA 2013)

Pick of the night from the Tzadik CDs I have been sampling. After some cursory listens when this arrived last year, I find my self connecting with it tonights in a serious way. A great swinging jazz album with some excellent melodies and piano, guitar and Clarinet solos. Awesome for start to finish and highly recommended. Rating 5/5.

Barbez : Bella Ciao (Tzadik USA 2013)

Another from Tzadik.

Yet another high quality release from Mr Zorn's Tzadik label. As usual, A highly creative blend of all sorts played by exceptionally talented musicians in a rock based formula but with quieter almost classical pieces in the mix. An album that grows with repeated exposure revealing its' subtle nuances

Rating 3.5/5.

Pierre-Yves Macé : Segments Et Apostilles (Tzadik USA 2013)

More From Tzadik.

Another classical release from Tzadik, this set of recent compositions is very sparse and sounds of random instrumental flourishes and electronic noises. I don't object to this type of composition but it is hard to stay with this stuff, with out much structure  or melody. On concentrated listening there are some interesting moments but again it is pretty hard to stay with this set. Rating 2/5.

AutorYno : Cosmopolitan Traffic (Tzadik USA 2013)

More from Tzadik.

Another of Tzadik's progressive Jewish rock bands. All instrumental rock music played with jazz melodies and some rockin guitar. Very accomplished and well recorded and most enjoyable, but not something to rave about, sounds like could be good live. Rating 3.5/5.

Kings Of Leon - Mechanical Bull (USA 2013)

The other stadium Band I like.

Since they hit the big time, each new album, on initial listens, gets me to thinking that they have gone too commercial and they lost their initial Mojo etc, etc... and this will be the last KOL album I buy, but, as before, after several casual listens I suddenly find my self going, thats a good song and I really like  that track as they crop up on my itunes playlist of recent albums purchased. And so another KOL worms its way into my affections and shows that these guys, a bit like Pearl Jam, have settled into a successful formula that works very well and provides some good rock music for the 21st century. There are not many other contemporary rock bands that impress me enough to keep buying their albums but KOL and PJ certainly do. Rating 4/5. 

Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt (USA 2013)

What I Got For Xmas.

There are two unashamedly commercial stadium rock bands that I enjoy immensely and Pearl Jam are one of them. They have released a string of consistently good Rock albums over the last 23 years and this is their 10th studio set. I really admire Eddie Vedders singing and this album is chocked full of what will become PJ classics. Plenty of great riffs and the songs very quickly become entwined in the memory and grow in stature with repeated listens. PJ haven't let us down with this set, just doing what PJ do best and that is enough. Rating 4.5/5.

Various Artists - The Rubble Collection Volumes 1-20 (UK Late 1960s)

Hot on the Stereo this week.

 

 

Back in my younger days, soon after my initial punk phase, I started exploring the earlier musics of the decade of my birth and soon after that I was somehow introduced to the growing proliferation of sixties garage and psychedelic compilations. The initial plunge into these murky waters was via the first two volumes of Pebbles and then the Back From The Grave comps. Not long after, these Rubble compilations appeared in our local stores and I managed to pick up several volumes on vinyl. They became staples of the scene with quite a few of my friends grooving to these obscure lost sounds while playing card games and partaking mind altering green substances etc...(The Card Game was called "Grass", you can guess what it was about").

 Unlike the other comps mentioned above, the Rubble sets were of British origin and had a more psychedelic tinge to the rare 45RPM pop singles included within. I no longer have the vinyl copies but did manage to download the entire 20 volumes of the net some time back. Am hoping to procure the CDs some time soon. 

The first six volumes and Volumes 11 & 12 were the ones I originally had and they are an  absolute stunning collection of totally awesome lo-fi psychedelic pop like only the 60s could produce. All this stuff just blows all the modern indie pop off the planet. It has been so good to blast these classics again, so many of which have been etched into my subconscious from the thrashing they got 30 years ago. This music hasn't lost any of it's potency through age and volume one introduced me to the totally mindblowing "I Must Be Mad", The Craig's all time classic which would be close to the top of my favourite 60's garage/psych list. It has been a real trip down memory lane revisiting so many fabulous tracks that still sound so familiar today, to many classics to mention. The rest of the volumes have managed to keep up the quality of the earlier ones and  have thrown up some more tracks that could compete with those already familiar classics. Plenty of great little 60s psych guitar solos throughout this large collection and plenty of catchy melodies dripping psychedelica. A highly recommended collection for the 60s psych affectionado.  Rating 5/5.