Christchurch Earthquake 22 Febuary 2011

We were hoping like hell that we were on the road to recovery after the September 4th, 7.1 Earthquake.
Unfortunatly at 12:51pm on the 22 Febuary while I was home at Oxford having lunch, I was in my office as the house started to do another of those big wobbles that we had been having less of latley. I wasn't too bad here, a sort of slow rolling shake that sort of dragged on a bit. When it had finished I thought "I hope like hell that wasn't the outer limits of another big shake in the city". We turned on the TV and sure enough breaking new texts were travelling across the screen with coverage to follow soon. What followed was scenes of the devestation left by a 5KM deep 6.3 earthquake centered 5Km from the city. Many, many buildings have been extensively damaged and so far 38 fatalities and possibly a couple of hundred still trapped in buildings. We are ok out here 60Km from the city and all friends and family have come through unharmed. Below are a bunch of pictures i have found on the net of the mess my home town is in.

I understand 3 people may have lost thier lives in this bus.

it appears on part of the CBD was spared

Manchester Street. Jess works just around the corner. She was at the university at the time where no one was injured.

The old churches really got hit hard.

Add caption

This one is most destressing and was a CHCH land mark. our most famous building. They think someone may have been in the spire at the time

And this one was also if major historic importance. The first buildings of governence build in CHCH in the 19th centuary.

One of the worst affected buildings before and after. my uncle use to work in this building when i was young and i knew it well as the Christchurch Drainage board.

Buckland Peak 19-20th Febuary 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No 100

Buckland Peak 19-20th February 2011

Buckland peak is a 1300M hill overlooking Westport and sitting beside the Buller River on the West Coast.

This was my second visit after an impromptu trip there three years ago after another club trip was canned due to weather. The main reason for a revisit was to get up onto the tops this time as on the last trip we didn't bother as the tops were covered in cloud. Brendon and myself left the car at 11:40am on an overcast but very warm and muggy day. I had noticed a slight tickle developing in the back of my throat on the trip over and wasn't feeling 100% by the time we started of on the first leg of the trip, which is a 5.5Km slog along a very uninteresting 4 wheel drive track. After an hour or so we got to the start of the climb and the lower reaches of the forest, this first section being skinny Manuka trees. With the high humidity and heat as well as me feeling a bit drained, we sweated our way up through ever changing bush, being followed by fantails, and enjoying the beautiful diversity of flora around us. This piece of forest is stunning. We had noticed that the tops were shrouded in cloud as we were approaching the mountain along the access road and this was still the case as we dropped down into the top of a gully where the hut was. We didn't see the hut at all until we were almost right on top of it. Almost resigned to the fact that I might not get onto the tops again, with the forecast for the morrow not to inspiring, we settled into the hut with a cuppa and waited to see what might happen later in the day, we did have good daylight till about 9pm. Looking through the hut book I first noticed that it was almost exactly 3 years since my last visit, being 3 days difference to put it on the equivalent weekend. There were plenty of names of people I knew who had been up there and almost all of them reported the same thing, tops all covered with cloud, and so they didn't bother heading up.

 Later on the clag around the hut cleared and just before 6pm I ventured out for a look and found that the cloud had also cleared off the tops above us, but as i couldn't actually see Buckland peak from here, wasn't sure what was the conditions up there. I was feeling a little better after our rest and drinks and we decided to head up to the ridge and have a look at the tops. With ultra light packs now, we made quick time to the ridge and got out first clear view of the peaks. The mist was hanging around lower down the valleys but a light breeze had pushed them off the tops and after some observation and deliberation it was decided to have a go for the tops and if the mist rolled back up the hill we would make a hasty retreat. Our luck held and we managed to do a quick reconnaissance of the tops and got to enjoy the fantastic views of the Paparoas and other surrounding mountains as well as enjoying the cool rock formations of the peaks. The views and the tops themselves well surpassed my expectations. With daylight fading we enacted a hasty retreat back to the hut, arriving just as it was getting dark. After a late tea I had a restless night with what ever illness was infecting me.
The morning dawned with us again shrouded in mist and we set off about 8:30am for the trip back out the way we came. Again I felt the effects of this bug and although we still made good time out I was really feeling it. The last 5.5 km along the access road were the longest  and hardest of my tramping career.

A view of the hill from the access road with wisps of cloud sitting on the tops, bugger!

The Early part of the climb

And there were a few trees.

An a few more trees

This fella as just sitting there in the middle of the track, lucky we didn't stand on him.

I just love these twisted specimens.

The very tidy 6 bunk Buckland Hut

Looking over to the Buckland Peaks from the ridge above the hut.

The mist in the valley below, will it come back up before we get to the tops.

Another shot looking along the Paparoas.

These shots(as good as they are) really don't do justice to the magnificence of the views we got to enjoy.

I wasn't expecting the tops to be like this, it was a pleasant surprise

Just breathtaking.

One of the rocky outcrops on the Buckland tops.

Beautiful vistas

Made it.

Uncle Roddus Music Site Recommendation

Hi Music Lovers.

So far this month I haven't been listening to very many albums as such but have been exploring plenty of music from some very cool Blogs and web sites and so I though I would just give a quick nod to these sources of excellent music.
The first one I have been  playing the most music from so far this month is the enormous ALL ABOUT JAZZ.
This massive site is a sort of Magazine type site which highlights contemporary Jazz from all over the world, with articles, interviews and reviews of  all sorts of jazz bands and musicians. Also Musicians can upload MP3 tracks as samples of their work for us to download and check out. The site posts one track per day on their daily MP3 page and at present have over 2000 free and Legal songs for your listening pleasure. I have downloaded the last 12 months of free tracks and have been giving them plenty of airtime on the stereo. Most of the songs come from the artists CD releases and overall the quality of the recording and quality of the music is excellent. Most areas of Jazz seem to be covered from jazz ballads to BeBop to fusion to avant-garde and free jazz to swing and even some electronica. As I said most of this music is of very recent vintage and I am unfamiliar with most of the names of the musicians but they mostly appear to be professional and some quite successful in the current jazz scene. I have explored other sites in the past that have free legal songs from unknown and unsigned artists trying to get a little attention and mostly the music quality isn't that great, with the occasional exception. All About Jazz free downloads are far far superior in quality to any other similar site I have explored. Highly Recommended.

The next site I want to rave about is the Massive Mutant Sounds music Blog. I discovered this wonderful Blog whilst searching out various albums and they came up several times over many searches. I decided to look a little deeper at their site and discovered a huge collection of very rare and obscure weird music, most of which I had never heard of at all. With almost 3000 posts, dating back to 2007, musical styles ranging from post punk indie to krautrock to euro prog to avant-garde electronica to jazz to sound collarges and other strange and unclassifiable sounds, there is a lifetimes worth of  wonderfully obscure discoveries waiting exploration. The site appears to have been originally started by a fellow called Jim but most of the music posted now is by Eric Lumblea From the excellent Vas Deferens Organization. So if you like your music well outside the box do check out this blog and you will be well rewarded.

I think I have mentioned the one and only Voodoo Funk Blog before. Frank has just recently got back from another digging trip from Africa and found another great brace of rare Afro-funk and Afro-beat records and has posted another MP3 Mix of his discoveries. It is an awesome mix  and one of his beat so far. This great blog is a great source for an intro to this wonderful African music from the late 60s to the late 70s and Frank has about 30 mixes for your listening pleasure on his blog, as well as some very interesting stories about his digging trips.

Last but not least, those who actually read anything I write here will already know about Rare MP3 Music blog. Run by the hard working Chuntao, Rare MP3 specialises in mostly posting  rare and out of print LPs  of 60/70s rock and psychedelic music as well as forays into prog. country, bluegrass and other genres. Chuntao puts in a lot of effort tracking down these rarities that are not available elsewhere on the net at the time of posting and mostly not commercially available to purchase easily. She also post many obscurities from the blogs loyal followers, many of the records coming from Canada. I have assembled a vast archive of wonderful rare rock music from this blog over the last 18 months and have found many many obscure treasures I would not have found otherwise.

Ryde Falls - 5th Febuary 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No.99

Ryde Falls - 5th Febuary 2011

The Ryde Falls track starts only 5 minutes drive from home at Coopers Creek. A nice amble of about 2 hours one way through the black beech of Oxford forest. The day was warm but low clouds shrouded most of Mt Oxford as Aunty Roddus and I left the car and headed off along the well formed track to this lovely waterfall which I have visited several times, but this was Aunty's first. We made good time to the falls, in just under two hours where we had a snack by the campsite at the junction of the two west branches of Coopers Creek. We then headed up to view the waterfall, just 2 minutes walk from the campsite. After the photo shoot, Aunty was eager to head back, but I wanted to get some more shots of the falls. She headed off and i climbed up the steep track beside the falls onto the area above the falls. It is difficult to get any good shots of the top part of the falls, as they are almost inaccessible but the area above the falls is beautiful. I didn't stick around too ling as Aunty was getting too far ahead of me, so I scrambled back down and set off at a brisk pace to try and catch her. It took me 45 minutes to catch up and my time getting out was just over 1 1/2 hours. Went home and rested for the afternoon watching the Wellington Rugby Sevens. 

Coopers Creek near the campsite

Ryde falls Campsite

Track to the Falls from camp

The lower tier of the falls

The best shot I could get of the whole falls.

The area above the Falls

The track in from the carpark.

 

Mt Sommers Challange - 30th January 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No. 98

Mt Sommers Challenge - 30th January 2011

3rd year of the Christchurch Tramping Clubs Round Mt Sommers Challenge. 25KM 1600m height gain, not the hardest tramp I  have done, but when you are trying to do it as fast as possible, makes for a challenging day. I can't quite believe it been a year since the last one, where did it go? I don't have a hope in hell of getting near the fastest guys, who tramp it in under 6 hours but I just have to have a crack at beating the good time of 4:46:27 from last year. I wasn't feeling the fittest and was pretty sure I couldn't top that time this year. I did get closer than I thought I would with a time of 7:05:00. I did get held up on Staverly Hill with the gale Nor'west and had to sit tight for several minutes to avoid being blown off the mountain and I was a bit too sore to give it the big downhill effort at the end so lost time there as well. Still a pretty good effort overall and I am suffering for it today.

Soft Machine - Triple Echo UK 1977

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Side 1:
1. Love Makes Sweet Music (2:27)
2. Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin' (2:50)
3. Memories (2:58)
4. She's Gone (2:29)
5. Why Am I So Short? (1:39)
6. So Boot If At All (7:25)
7. A Certain Kind (4:11)
Side 2:
1. We Did It Again (3:46)
2. Plus Belle Qu'une Poubelle (1:03)
3. Why Are We Sleeping? (5:30)
4. A Concise British Alphabet - Part 2 (0:12)
5. Hullo Der (0:55)
6. Dada Was Here (3:25)
7. Thank You Pierrot Lunaire (0:49)
8. Have You Ever Bean Grean? (1:20)
9. Pataphysical Introduction - Part 2 (7:33)
10. As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still (2:34)
11. Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening(2:33)
Side 3:
1. The Moon In June (13:00)
2. Esther's Nose Job (11:57)
Side 4:
1. Mousetrap
2. Noisette
3. Backwards
4. Mousetrap Reprise (8:46)
5. Slightly All The Time
6. Out Bloody Rageous
7. Eamonn Andrews (15:19)
Side 5:
1. Teeth (9:13)
2. Kings And Queens (5:01)
3. All White (6:05)
4. Bone (3:28)
Side 6:
1. Stanley Stamps Gibbon Album (5:55)
2. Carol Ann (3:46)
3. Hazard Profile - Part 1 (9:16)
4. The Tale Of Taliesin (7:14)

Once upon a time, some time in the middle 80s, I think, I just happened to be in what was at that time my favorite record store. This store sold mostly second hand vinyl at the time and use to have rows of the more rare and interesting ones on display along the wall so we could easily see them, without having to flick through the bins. On this particular day I happened to notice this 3 record box set with the cover you see above. The cover appealed to me and although I can't explain the details of how, I was at this time pretty good at buying music I liked  just buy looking at the cover, bands name and date of release. This approach rarely failed to fine me great music that I wouldn't have heard otherwise. I don't remember, now, if I already was aware of Soft Machine, but the Name of the band and the record cover and packaging was enough to convince me to purchase this second hand set. I certainly wasn't disappointed with this purchase, and over time it became another favorite, albeit one of my stranger ones. 

 A career spanning(upto that point) set, mixing early singles, unreleased tracks, live versions and Peel sessions as well as normal album tracks, taking in the progression of the band from early pioneers of psychedelia, through the progressive rock, fusion and jazz of their later works. The track order is mostly chronological, with disc 1 starting with the psychedelic first single and unreleased 2nd single ant the rest of the side culled from the first album. The early stuff, being quite offbeat even for the 60s was the stuff that really captured my imagination when I first had this set but the later more jazz flavors of their later works.was also intriguing but a bit more difficult for me to assimilate at the time. Side two continues with material from the first album and the second album, where the band start to get a bit more experimental and the jazz start to filter in. Disc 2 is from the 3rd album era and we get some really long extended pieces and some pretty awesome work  with the jazz rock fusion played in their own unique style. "Esters Nose Job" is a stand out from this period like "We did it Again" really sticks in my mind from disc one. Disc 3 are straight album cuts from albums 4th and 5th with  "All White" being my favorite.This period is almost straight jazz with plenty of great brass work.

 The final side is material from the last few albums up to that time and my favorite from this set is the great fusion and guitar of "Hazard Profile (Part 1)" by which time there were no original members left in this band but the music, although far removed from the earliest incarnation, was still very good.

Some serious music which requires serious attention  to get the most out of it and a great introduction to this influential and very progressive outfit across the 3 discs and I suspect quite a collectors item in it's original vinyl form. Wish I still had mine. My Rating 5/5

Absolutely worth a listen Here

Wolf - Ravenous Sweden 2009

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

01. Speed On
02. Curse You Salem
03. Voodoo
04. Hail Caesar
05. Ravenous
06. Mr. Twisted
07. Love at First Bite
08. Secrets We Keep
09. Whisky Psycho Hellions
10. Hiding in Shadows
11. Blood Angel

 Sticking with the hard and heavy tonight is this little beauty from the Swedish heavy metal group called Wolf(one of many metal bands under this moniker). Classic metal in style,  heavily influenced by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, this is an excellent hard rocking album. Plenty of hot licks and great tunes to rock along too, this album has really impressed me since I saw it listed on Rate your Music.The title track is the best song but they all stand up well to repeated listens and this will defiantly be added to my small but growing list of top metal  albums.Rating 4/5

Check it out Here

GBH - Punk Junkies UK 1997

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1) Intro
2) Junkies
3) Impounded
4) Harmony
5) Tokyo After Dark
6) Shakin Hands With The Machine
7) Don't Drag Me Back
8) Break The Chains
9) Kangaroo Court
10) Stormchaser
11) Hole
12) Damn Good Time
13) Cryin' (On The Hard Shoulder)
14) Civilized
15) Lowering The Standard
16) Enzo
17) Outro

Back in the days of the early 80s I had missed the first wave of British Punk, being just a bit young and living on the opposite side of the world. But as I entered secondary school, the second wave of  British punk was hitting our shores with the likes of The Exploited, Chron Gen, Infra Riot, Abrasive Wheels and of course the mighty GBH. The music was fast and very heavy but still had plenty of great hooks and melody and I was really into it big time. I didn't go for the image so much(not too much studded leather or mohawks for me) but the music thrilled me to bits and informed my early politics. I came across GBH through the Punk and Disorderly Compilations and they were one of the fastest and most  heaviest of the new punks, a wall of brilliant heavy guitar and great tunes blurring the line between punk and hardcore and metal. Their "Race Against Time" was one of the best slabs of adrenalin fueled punk ever recorded.

 It was another surprise to recently find out these guys are still playing, having released a new CD last year and much to my chargin, played here recently and I found out too late to go. As I have mentioned before, my surprise at these guys still playing this music is that I thought that it had a very limited shelf life and although I still love their early music today I didn't think it was the kind of music to make such a long career out of.

Punk junkies was released a good 15 years after my initial finding of their early music and I wasn't expecting much from it. I think this was another of my Emusic downloads from several years back and I hadn't had the chance to give it a listen. 

 The music of GBH hasn't really changed too much from what I knew. It is still Hardcore punk in the British style I am familiar with  but nowadays I believe they refer to this as Punk Metal which is a good description as this music certainly informs the more heavy and darker forms of the modern metal scene. Although I don't mind a good Metal album, no matter what branch of the family it belongs to, I do find most of them very repetitive and formulaic and essentially boring. Not so with this very good wall of noise. Although it does not fire me as their early music did, GBH have put out another very enjoyable brace of full on punk, just as they did in my youth. A quality head banging menagerie of blistering tunes with the brilliant "Junkies" sending me into the stratosphere. The rest do not quire reach this lofty height but neither do they disappoint. My rating 4/5.

Listen Here

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technican USA 1987

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

 

If ever there was an album that the squares could use as a prime example of  the devils inspiration in Rock music, then this bizarre record could be it. I was an avid NME reader back when this came out and after reading some articles and reviews about this band and this record I thought I would give it a go and duly purchased myself a vinyl copy. On first few listens I truly thought this was the end of Rock n Roll and music had truly gone to hell, literally.

 I obviously didn't hate it because I stuck with it, being the most totally weirdest music(if you could call it that) I had ever heard up to that point. I guess I was intrigued by it and it was a genuinely new listening experience. After a while I got to know it better and it soon became one of my most favorite records. It truly was outstanding and amazing and totally unique to me at that time. I have been thinking about reviewing this for a while but have been too afraid to venture back into its sonic wastelands and I had long ago sold the vinyl copy and never replaced it on CD. I am now listening to a digital copy I found some time ago and initially I started to feel that it had dated a bit, but as I listen, the full power of the music still impresses me and blows my mind. Quite possible the most LSD drenched music ever spewed out of the bizarre minds of those that created it.

 I can't even begin to describe the music here but there is the obvious Black Sabbath influence with the bludgeoning guitars and the evil sounding atmosphere, experimental with a bit of Prog thrown in as well, and that's just the first track,things get weirder from there, but it's best to check out this masterpiece for your self. Play loud, your mother will hate it. Rating 5+/5

 Have a listen HERE

Cows - Orphan's Tragedy (USA 1994)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

"Cow Island" - 3:08
"Pussy Is a Monarchy" - 3:59
"Orphan's Tragedy" - 3:16
"Allergic to Myself" - 3:08
"Unrefixed" - 1:16
"The Bucket" - 2:30
"Pickled Garbage Soup" - 4:54
"I'm Both" - 3:09
"Witch Hunt" - 3:29
"Taxi" - 2:47
"Baby Love" - 2:26
"My Bob" - 4:04
"Shot Down" - 4:18
"Smell Shelf" - 6:23

Something a little different from my previous review with this slightly offbeat grunge inspired alt rock from this obscure American outfit. The style oozes alt rock but the guitar sound is very rooted in the grunge sound of Mudhoney. "Cow Island is a strong start with good grungy sound. The bands music isn't quite as heavy as a true grunge band although there is some pretty heavy stuff later on in the mix, especially the very Swanns like "Taxi" and this music certainly isn't at all commercial.. An average record overall that doesn't really hit too many highs. The fast punk of "The Bucket" is quite fun and "Pickled Garbage Soup" has a great bass groove and a bit more experimental sound to help add a bit more variety to the mix. Although I haven't given this album a lot of attention because  I didn't think  it would add up to much, as I review it now I find it more interesting and better than I had given it credit. Not a classic but a worthwhile effort and worthy of a Roddus Rating of 3/5. 

Check it out here

The Gun Club - Lucky Jim (USA 1994)

AN Uncle Roddus Album Review.

1. Lucky Jim
2. A House Is Not A Home
3. Cry To Me
4. Kamata Hollywood City
5. Ride
6. Idiot Waltz
7. Up Above The World
8. Day Turn To Night
9. Blue Monsoons
10. Desire
11. Anger Blues

The last Studio album from the legendary Gun Club is a fairly middle of the road affair on first listens. A more mature sounding work than their earlier country cow punk, with a much more bluesy sound. There is some very good guitar on plenty of the tracks but on initial listens the music doesn't sound very remarkable. On deeper inspection and repeated listening the music begins to impress more with the well structures songs and tight arrangements, showing more of their quiet quality and maturity of the group and the song writing,. I guess I struggled with it at first as it isn't quite like the Gun Club music I am use to and as mentioned it doesn't grab straight away. Another slow burning grower and worth the perseverance. Anger blues is an excellent slow  guitar blues charmer.Over all more AOR than MOR Rating 3.5/5

Check it out for yourself  HERE

Orlando Julius - Orlando's Afro Ideas: 1969-1972 (Nigeria)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. Home Sweet Home
2. Psychedelic Afro Shop
3. James Brown Ride On
4. Mura Sise
5. Esamei Sate
6. Alo Mi Alo
7. Ketekete Koro
8. New Apala Afro
9. Igebehin Adara 

The hot music style of the moment has been the awesome Afro Funk out of Nigeria from the end of the 60s and through the 70s and first and foremost of the myrid numbers of musicians and bands playing this brilliant hybrid of African rhythm and American jazz and funk is the brilliant Orlando Julius.  This Compilation kicks off with the excellent deep funk of "Home Sweet Home" before blasting us out of the stratosphere with the truly magnificent and legendary "Psychedelic Afro Shop" which truly funks out a brilliant melody and plenty of jazz licks from the brass. Things stay very cool with "James Brown Ride On" acknowledging the huge influence JB had on the development of this incredible music. The sublime qualities of these songs doesn't let up as we progress from one monster afro groove to the next and in my experience only the mighty Fela Kuti(who was no doubt influenced by Orlando) makes better music of this style. The melody's and the grooves all make an instant impression and are quickly recognised on subsequent listens. They weave into your subconscious very quickly. A definite 5/5 rating for this great music.


A must hear, HERE