A 24-hour recording of RNZ National. The following rundown is sourced from the broadcaster’s website. Note some overseas/copyright restricted items may not appear in the supplied rundown:
22 March 2016
===12:04 AM. | All Night Programme===
=DESCRIPTION=
Including: 12:05 Music after Midnight; 12:30 Spectrum (RNZ); 1:05 From the World (RNZ); 2:05 The Retro Cocktail Hour (3 of 3, KPR) 3:05 Juggling with Mandarins, by V M Jones, read by Matt Whelan (9 of 10, RNZ); 3:30 An Author's View (RNZ); 5:10 Witness (BBC)
===6:00 AM. | Morning Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's three-hour breakfast news show with news and interviews, bulletins on the hour and half-hour, including: 6:16 and 6:50 Business News 6:18 Pacific News 6:26 Rural News 6:48 and 7:45 NZ Newspapers
=AUDIO=
06:00
Top Stories for Tuesday 22 March 2016
BODY:
We look at the quality of imported steel amid claims of faked certificates. The number of NZ soldiers who fought at Gallipoli is dramatically revised, it's doubled and who is keeping track of how much personal data is being collected by the country's spy agencies?
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 32'05"
06:06
Sports News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'03"
06:09
High speed chase overnight in Auckland
BODY:
Firearms were involved with a second vehicle being taken at gunpoint on Auckland's Southern Motorway after the fleeing vehicle was stopped.
Topics: crime
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: high speed chase
Duration: 1'11"
06:11
Terror suspect 'worth his weight in gold'
BODY:
Belgium has named a new suspect in the Paris terrorist attacks.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Belgium
Duration: 2'45"
06:13
Rules for spy agencies accessing personal data
BODY:
The Privacy Commissioner says as far as he's aware, no-one is keeping an eye on what personal data is being collected by spy agencies the GCSB and SIS, and the rules should be tightened.
Topics: politics, security
Regions:
Tags: GCSB, SIS
Duration: 2'03"
06:18
Early Business News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'03"
06:23
White Ferns have stunned defending champions
BODY:
The New Zealand White Ferns have stunned defending champions Australia in a crushing six-wicket win at the Twenty20 tournament in Nagpur.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags: white ferns, Twenty20
Duration: 1'17"
06:25
Morning Rural News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sectors.
Topics: rural, farming
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'06"
06:38
Expert fears NZ risks becoming dumping ground for bad steel
BODY:
The country's leading watchdog on steel quality fears New Zealand risks becoming a dumping ground for the world's most inferior steel products.
Topics: law, politics
Regions:
Tags: steel
Duration: 2'14"
06:40
PM defends use of taxpayer money in defamation case
BODY:
The Prime Minister is defending his plan to use taxpayer money to settle a defamation suit with a journalist over the so-called Teapot tapes controversy.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Teapot tapes
Duration: 3'44"
06:49
Government expects oil prices to impact interest in exploration
BODY:
The government says it expects continuing low oil prices to have an impact on the interest in its latest petroleum exploration offer.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: oil
Duration: 2'45"
06:53
Survey points to increased international M&A interest
BODY:
A study by the advisory firm, KPMG, points to increasing international investor interest in New Zealand, as the low dollar makes mergers and acquistions more attractive.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: investor interest
Duration: 1'40"
06:55
Economy is danger of becoming two speed
BODY:
The latest look at consumer sentiment is raising the prospect of a widening divide between town and country.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: consumers
Duration: 1'57"
06:57
Morning markets for 22 March 2016
BODY:
Wall Street fairly flat today - losses in energy and materials stocks offset by gains elsewhere.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 58"
06:58
Business briefs
BODY:
The troubled children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch has posted a large loss on a fall in sales and restructuring.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 1'08"
07:07
Sports News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'08"
07:10
New Zealand structural steel market a ``wild west"
BODY:
The country's leading watchdog on steel quality says New Zealand is a wild west and falling further behind Europe's gold standard for testing.
Topics: law, politics
Regions:
Tags: steel
Duration: 4'32"
07:15
Research doubles the number of NZ soldiers at Gallipoli
BODY:
New research has officially doubled the number of New Zealanders who fought at Gallipoli.
Topics: history
Regions:
Tags: WW1
Duration: 4'41"
07:20
No-one checking what personal data spy agencies are collecting
BODY:
New Zealand's spy agencies, the Security Intelligence Service in particular, are described as having "open slather" access to New Zealanders' personal information from both government agencies and private companies - including banks.
Topics: politics, security
Regions:
Tags: GCSB, SIS
Duration: 2'39"
07:23
Opposition parties irked by decision
BODY:
Opposition parties are lambasting John Key's plan to use taxpayer money to settle the so-called 'teapot tape' defamation case.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Teapot tapes
Duration: 3'57"
07:27
Net migration to NZ peaks again: but gaps remain in job market
BODY:
Long term arrivals into the country maybe at an all-time high but it appears some employers are still struggling find the workers they need.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: immigration
Duration: 5'22"
07:36
AA disputes report Wellington traffic among world's worst
BODY:
Satellite data released by the navigation firm, TomTom, shows the morning commute in Wellington is worse than Los Angeles, London and Sydney.
Topics: transport
Regions:
Tags: traffic jams
Duration: 3'01"
07:39
Opposition parties irked by decision to pay PM's defamation
BODY:
As we reported in the last half hour the Prime Minister is under fire over his plan to use taxpayer money to settle his defamation case with journalist Bradley Ambrose. Opposition parties are crying foul, saying the settlement should be paid by the PM. Andrew Little is the leader of the Labour Party
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Teapot tapes
Duration: 7'15"
07:47
Vets tell Tribunal damage of war continues
BODY:
Harrowing accounts of the lasting impact of war are emerging this week at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing in Northland.
Topics: te ao Maori
Regions: Northland
Tags: war
Duration: 3'49"
07:52
New Zealand Women beat Australia by 6 wickets
BODY:
The White Ferns have smashed arch rivals and defending champions Australia at the World Twenty20 championship in India.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags: white ferns, Twenty20
Duration: 3'56"
08:07
Sports News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'21"
08:10
Notebooks lead to major Gallipoli discovery
BODY:
New research shows the number of New Zealanders who served in Gallipoli is almost double than the official figures reported for close to a century.
Topics: history
Regions:
Tags: WW1
Duration: 5'17"
08:16
Watchdog says complaints flooding in over poor quality steel
BODY:
A trickle of complaints about overseas steel manufacturers faking strength test certificates is turning into a flood.
Topics: law, politics
Regions:
Tags: steel
Duration: 4'52"
08:22
Bar owners oppose lock-out policy
BODY:
Venue and bar owners say a lock-out policy for central Auckland bars won't work, despite assault rates in Sydney dropping after a similar policy was introduced there.
Topics: law, politics
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: bar owners
Duration: 3'31"
08:25
Australia's PM threatens early election
BODY:
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has threatened federal parliament with an early election.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Australia
Duration: 3'23"
08:28
Markets Update for 22 March 2016
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 49"
08:35
What would an "Age Friendly Aotearoa" look like?
BODY:
New Zealand is undergoing a "longevity revolution", according to an international expert on ageing.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags: aging
Duration: 3'50"
08:39
Obama and Castro meet at Palace of the Revolution
BODY:
The U.S. President Barack Obama has met with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Cuba, US
Duration: 5'30"
08:44
Wellington morning commute among world's worst
BODY:
The navigation firm, TomTom has released data showing the morning commute in Wellington is worse than Los Angeles and London and Sydney.
Topics: transport
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: traffic jams
Duration: 3'25"
08:48
Fears that oil search will be limited this year
BODY:
Energy analysts and the Government are bracing themselves for a tepid response to the latest call for more exploration for oil and gas.
Topics: energy, politics
Regions:
Tags: oil
Duration: 3'30"
08:52
West Coast DOC tramp track closure continues to irk
BODY:
The Department of Conservation is being accused of neglecting its core functions after failing to repair and reopen a West Coast track damaged in a storm two years ago.
Topics: environment
Regions: West Coast
Tags: DOC
Duration: 3'31"
08:55
360 degree cameras to monitor snapper trawlers 24/7.
BODY:
Commercial trawlers fishing for snapper in waters around the top of the North Island will soon be under non-stop surveillance by cameras that can film 360 degrees in real time.
Topics: business, politics, law, environment
Regions:
Tags: fishing
Duration: 2'36"
=SHOW NOTES=
===9:06 AM. | Nine To Noon===
=DESCRIPTION=
Current affairs and topics of interest, including: 10:45 The Reading: One Girl One Dream by Laura Dekker (2 of 8, RNZ)
=AUDIO=
09:09
Ditching ACC Court appeals won't resolve the problems
BODY:
A Government proposal for ACC appeals to be heard by a new Tribunal rather than the District Court is being firmly rejected by ACC lawyers. The Government has been consulting with stakeholders on changes to the review and appeal system of ACC decisions. It's investigating whether to set up an Accident Compensation Appeal Tribunal to replace the District Court for situation when ACC disputes are not resolved by a review hearing. The ACC Minister Nikki Kaye says the aim of the Tribunal would be to reduce the time it takes to deal with ACC appeals - "while maintaining a fair process". But the New Zealand Law Society says none of the options outlined by the consultation paper - including maintaining the status quo - will achieve those objectives. Don Rennie is the Law Society's ACC Committees convenor and Warren Forster is a Researcher at the University of Otago's Legal Issues Centre. He became involved in ACC advocacy after his mother experienced problems with ACC back in 2007.
Topics: law
Regions:
Tags: ACC, District Court, ACC Tribunal, Don Rennie, Accident Compensation
Duration: 28'12"
09:37
The growing outrage in the US over solitary confinement
BODY:
Between 80 thousand and 100 thousand prisoners across America are in solitary confinement at on any given day. Last month a former Black Panther, Albert Woodfox walked out of a jail in Louisiana on his 69th birthday after being held in solitary confinement for 43 years. Serving a sentence for armed robbery in the early 1970's he was then accused of killing a guard in prison; he was convicted twice and both cases were later overthrown - yet he remained in solitary confinement. Jean Casella is from US project Solitary Watch which aims to bring firsthand accounts, news, research and policies about solitary confinement into the public arena.
Topics: law
Regions:
Tags: Solitary Confinement, Solitary Watch, Jean Casella, Albert Woodfox, President Obama
Duration: 12'19"
09:49
US correspondent, Steve Almond
BODY:
Despite considerable resistance to both candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton appear to be headed for the general election. The rhetorical battle lines are already been drawn up. He also has the latest from President Obama's historic travels to Cuba.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: USA, United States
Duration: 9'35"
10:14
Imploring employers to help people with disabilities
BODY:
Auckland recruitment consultant Adrian Coysh has three children who are slowly losing their vision and he is appealing to employers to think about helping people with disabilities to get a job. He has specialised in job recruitment for accountants, but his life has taken a different turn and has a new emphasis. Mr Coysh is a father of four, three daughters and a son. A shock diagnosis six years ago that one of his children had the genetic condition, retinitis pigmentosa lead him to rethink his work-life. He has set up the Possibility Project aiming to get employers to look at their hiring practices.
EXTENDED BODY:
Auckland recruitment consultant Adrian Coysh is a father of four, three of whom are slowly losing their vision, and he is appealing to employers to think about helping people with disabilities to get a job.
He specialised in job recruitment for accountants, but his life took a different turn and has a new emphasis.
The shocking news, six years ago, that one of his children had been diagnosed with the genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa led him to rethink his work-life.
The condition is degenerative and leads to blindness - and subsequently, two of his other children were diagnosed with the condition.
Coysh has used his experience running a recruitment company to set up the Possibility Project that aims to get employers to look at their hiring practices and how they can facilitate work for disabled people.
He talks to Kathryn Ryan about his business.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: jobs, employment, disabled, blind, Adrian Coysh
Duration: 29'21"
11:06
Book Review - Rushing for Gold
BODY:
Rushing for Gold Edited by Lloyd Carpenter & Lyndon Fraser. Reviewed by Harry Broad, and published by Otago University Press.
Topics: books
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'16"
11:11
Business commentator Rod Oram
BODY:
Rod Oram discusses Energy Minister Simon Bridges' bullish outlook for gas exploration and multinationals low tax payments in New Zealand.
Topics: business, technology
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 15'43"
11:26
Geraldine's Marvellous Medieval Mosaic
BODY:
Michael Linton from Geraldine's 'Giant Jersey' workshop has spent over 25 years recreating the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Battle of Hastings which lead to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. He's done it by making a mosaic using tiny metal off cuts from a very large industrial knitting machine. The incredible attention to detail and its historical accuracy is such that it is about to travel to the UK as part of the 950th Battle of Hastings celebrations. Michael and his wife Gillian Linton will be travelling with it, meaning that they'll be shutting up shop in April after over 30 years of supplying knitwear.
EXTENDED BODY:
Michael Linton from Geraldine's ''Giant Jersey'' workshop has spent over 25 years recreating the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Battle of Hastings which lead to the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
He's done it by making a mosaic using tiny metal off cuts from a very large industrial knitting machine.
The incredible attention to detail and its historical accuracy is such that it is about to travel to the UK as part of the 950th Battle of Hastings celebrations.
Michael and his wife Gillian Linton will be travelling with it, meaning that they'll be shutting up shop in April after over 30 years of supplying knitwear.
He talks to Kathryn Ryan.
Topics: life and society, history, arts
Regions:
Tags: tapestry, knitting
Duration: 18'32"
11:46
Media commentator Gavin Ellis
BODY:
NZME's integrated newsroom is showing its muscle with the announcement of a new daily online video news programme starting in mid-April. Like Radio NZ, the company is demonstrating how media companies now need to operate in a multi-media environment. The question is whether will it challenge OneNews, NewsHub and Prime News or simply be part of an overcrowded market ? Gavin Ellis is a media commentator and former editor of the New Zealand Herald. He can be contacted on gavin.ellis@xtra.co.nz
Topics: media
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 14'16"
=SHOW NOTES=
09:05 Ditching ACC Court appeals won't resolve problems says NZ Law Society
A Government proposal for ACC appeals to be heard by a new Tribunal rather than the District Court is being firmly rejected by ACC lawyers. The Government has been consulting with stakeholders on changes to the review and appeal system of ACC decisions. It's investigating whether to set up an Accident Compensation Appeal Tribunal to replace the District Court for situation when ACC disputes are not resolved by a review hearing.
The ACC Minister Nikki Kaye says the aim of the Tribunal would be to reduce the time it takes to deal with ACC appeals - "while maintaining a fair process". But the New Zealand Law Society says none of the options outlined by the consultation paper - including maintaining the status quo - will achieve those objectives.
Don Rennie is the Law Society's ACC Committees convenor and Warren Forster is a Researcher at the University of Otago's Legal Issues Centre. He became involved in ACC advocacy after his mother experienced problems with ACC back in 2007.
09:25 The growing outrage in the US over solitary confinement
Between 80 thousand and 100 thousand prisoners across America are in solitary confinement at on any given day. Last month a former Black Panther, Albert Woodfox walked out of a jail in Louisiana on his 69th birthday after being held in solitary confinement for 43 years. Serving a sentence for armed robbery in the early 1970's he was then accused of killing a guard in prison; he was convicted twice and both cases were later overthrown - yet he remained in solitary confinement.
Jean Casella is from US project Solitary Watch which aims to bring firsthand accounts, news, research and policies about solitary confinement into the public arena.
09:45 US correspondent, Steve Almond
Despite considerable resistance to both candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton appear to be headed for the general election. The rhetorical battle lines are already been drawn up.
He also has the latest from President Obama's historic travels to Cuba.
10:05 Imploring employers to think about helping people with disabilities to get a job
[image:63070:third] no metadata
Auckland recruitment consultant Adrian Coysh has three children who are slowly losing their vision and he is appealing to employers to think about helping people with disabilities to get a job. He has specialised in job recruitment for accountants, but his life has taken a different turn and has a new emphasis. Mr Coysh is a father of four, three daughters and a son. A shock diagnosis six years ago that one of his children had the genetic condition, retinitis pigmentosa lead him to rethink his work-life.
He has set up the Possibility Project aiming to get employers to look at their hiring practices.
10:35 Book Review: Rushing for GOLD Edited by Lloyd Carpenter & Lyndon Fraser
Reviewed by Harry Broad
Published by Otago University Press
10:45 The Reading: 'One Girl, One Dream' written and told by Laura Dekker
(Part 2 of 8)
11:05 Business commentator Rod Oram
Rod Oram discusses Energy Minister Simon Bridges’ bullish outlook for gas exploration and multinationals low tax payments in New Zealand.
11:30 Geraldine's Marvellous Medieval Mosaic
[gallery:1857]
Micheal Linton from Geraldine's 'Giant Jersey' workshop has spent over 25 years recreating the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Battle of Hastings which lead to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. He's done it by making a mosaic using tiny metal off cuts from a very large industrial knitting machine. The incredible attention to detail and its historical accuracy is such that it is about to travel to the UK as part of the 950th Battle of Hastings celebrations.
Michael and his wife Gillian Linton will be travelling with it, meaning that they'll be shutting up shop in April after over 30 years of supplying knitwear.
11:45 Media commentator Gavin Ellis
NZME’s integrated newsroom is showing its muscle with the announcement of a new daily online video news programme starting in mid-April. Like Radio NZ, the company is demonstrating how media companies now need to operate in a multi-media environment. The question is whether will it challenge OneNews, NewsHub and Prime News or simply be part of an overcrowded market ?
Gavin Ellis is a media commentator and former editor of the New Zealand Herald. He can be contacted on gavin.ellis@xtra.co.nz
===Noon | Midday Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ news, followed by updates and reports until 1.00pm, including: 12:16 Business News 12:26 Sport 12:34 Rural News 12:43 Worldwatch
=AUDIO=
12:00
Midday News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
John Key has announced the next Governor General and Historians are excited about a discovery doubling the number of New Zealanders who fought in Gallipoli.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 15'29"
12:17
Kathmandu back in the black
BODY:
The outdoor clothing retailer, Kathmandu, has restructured and cut costs to lift its profitability.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 1'57"
12:19
US tech firm expands Chch research facility
BODY:
American technology company, Enphase Energy, is spending close to four-and-a-half million dollars to expand its research facility in Christchurch.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Canterbury
Duration: 2'03"
12:21
Petroleum industry to plan future with protesters - public
BODY:
The managing director of Elemental Group, Brett Rogers, told the New Zealand petroleum conference that the industry must find a way to better communicate with the public, including protestors, who've been locked out of the two-day meeting, that winds up in Auckland this afternoon.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'26"
12:24
Midday Markets for 22 March 2016
BODY:
Market update with Belinda Stanley from Craigs Investment Partners.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'54"
12:26
Midday Sports News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
Novak Djokovic causes controversy over equality within tennis.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'44"
12:32
Midday Rural News for 22 March 2016
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sectors.
Topics: rural, farming
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 8'04"
=SHOW NOTES=
===1:06 PM. | Jesse Mulligan, 1–4pm===
=DESCRIPTION=
An upbeat mix of the curious and the compelling, ranging from the stories of the day to the great questions of our time (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
13:15
President Obama's Visit To Cuba - Michael Voss
BODY:
We're heading to Havana now, to speak about President Obama's historic visit. It's the first time an American leader has walked on Cuban soil since 1928. A State Dinner at the Palace of the Revolution, has just begun. It's a chance for Obama and President Raul Castro to further their talks.Michael Voss is CCTV's correspondent based in Cuba. He moved to Cuba in 2007 as the BBC's 'Man in Havana'.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Cuba, USA, Barack Obama
Duration: 7'36"
13:20
Risky Places - Julian Grimmond
BODY:
They're the people who get companies in and out of risky places, and look after film stars when they travel to conflict zones, high risk locations and remote wildernesses. Queenstown's Global Film Solutions, has looked after productions featuring Bear Grylls, Anthony Bourdain and Ricky Gervais. The company assesses and manages risks of film productions in some of the world's most challenging environments. And it's one of two New Zealand finalists up for an international award next month. Julian Grimmond is the president and CEO of GFS Risk.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: film, risk assessment, GFS Risk, film production
Duration: 9'48"
13:35
Raising Awareness With The Easter Kiwi - Rebecca Kemp
BODY:
Australia has an alternative to the Easter Bunny, they've got the Easter Bilby, and have had since 1991. So, is it time New Zealand ditched the Easter Bunny and adopted the Easter Kiwi? The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute is calling for a more heroic icon for Easter, questioning its worthiness and villainous history. The president is Rebecca Kemp.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Easter, Easter Bunny, icons
Duration: 6'11"
13:40
Favourite Album - One Man Band
BODY:
James Taylor's "One Man Band", a great show case of James Taylor's song writing brilliance and musicianship.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: James Taylor
Duration: 21'35"
14:10
Not Solar - Dr Jan Wright
BODY:
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is calling for people to take notice of a report suggesting that electric cars help combat climate change, but solar panels do little. The report by Concept Consulting looks at the impact of both electric cars and solar panels on New Zealand's carbon footprint. Dr Jan Wright is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: solar panels, solar power
Duration: 7'17"
14:20
Great NZ Concert - Dr Hook
BODY:
Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show formed in New Jersey in 1967 and played around the greater New York area for years before picking up a recording contract. They have toured New Zealand a couple of time, the first when they were at their peak in 1977. The tour took in a number of cities, including Hamilton and Palmerston North.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Dr. Hook
Duration: 40'49"
15:10
Barbara Bradley Hagerty
BODY:
Hollywood's version of a midlife crisis is simple: the spouse of 25 years is ditched. Men buy expensive sports cars, women go on yoga retreats to Thailand. Science has another version of what happens in our 40's and 50's. Author and former National Public Radio correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty felt anxious and stuck in her 50's, on cruise control in her marriage, her career and life. She did her own investigation, talking to 400 people including scientists and researchers about living well at midlife. The result is a book called "Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife."
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags: age, midlife, midlife crisis
Duration: 26'47"
15:45
The Panel pre-show for 22 March 2016
BODY:
Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 14'57"
21:34
Restoring nature at Nelson's Brook Waimarama Sanctuary
BODY:
A 14.5 kilometre-long pest proof fence will soon be keeping nature safe from invasive animals, in a nearly 700-hectare forest sanctuary on the outskirts of Nelson
EXTENDED BODY:
“This pest-proof fence has to repel the strongest pig and it also has to repel the cleverest mouse.”
Jim Livingstone, Operations Manager, Brook Waimarama Sanctuary
The pest-proof fence that rings the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary is no ordinary fence. More than 2 metres high and 14.5 kilometres-long, it has taken more than 7000 fence posts spaced at 2-metre intervals to provide a firm attachment for the tightly woven mesh which has a gap size of just 5 by 25 millimetres, “fine enough to keep out even a young mouse.”
A wide skirt that fans out from the base of the fence is designed to prevent animal intruders digging their way underneath, while a slippery metal hood along the top of the fence will foil even the most determined climber.
When the sanctuary fence is finished in autumn 2016 a new regime of twice-weekly fence checks will begin, to ensure that its defences can’t be breached.
It has taken 14 years since the idea of creating a pest-free sanctuary on the outskirts of Nelson was first suggested, and while it has been a long haul the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary trust chair David Butler is delighted to have got to this point.
He first dreamed of the beech forest sanctuary when he was working on the Department of Conservation’s mainland island at Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. The mainland island is not fenced, and David had experienced first-hand the difficulty of keeping pest numbers down, despite lots of trapping and poisoning.
After seeing the early success of Zealandia Sanctuary in Wellington, David and other Nelson conservationists began to think about creating a similar sanctuary close to Nelson city so that people would have easy access, and so that wildlife from the sanctuary could spill over into surrounding parks and gardens.
‘Returning nature to Nelson’ became their catch cry.
The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary Trust chose the Brook Valley, which was a retired water catchment that contained pristine and regenerating forest. It had the benefit of just one owner – Nelson City Council – and it wasn’t long before hundreds of volunteers were joining in to begin track building and animal control.
Since 2007 more than 30,000 pest animals have already been trapped and removed from the sanctuary, from a list that includes red and fallow deer, goats, feral cats and hedgehogs, as well as mice, rats, possums and stoats.
There is now more than 100 kilometres of tracks, including public and trapping tracks, the Trust has raised $4.7-million dollars to build the fence, and it is currently seeking resource consents to carry out an aerial drop of brodifacoum anti-coagulant baits inside the fence to kill off the remaining rats, mice, possums and stoats.
The sanctuary encompasses a steep-sided valley that is more than 600 metres in elevation at its highest point.
Bird monitoring co-oordinator Katherine Chamberlain says she loves being in the forest.
“It’s beautiful. You don’t have to go far and you feel like you’re in the forest primeval.”
David and other staff and volunteers are looking forward to seeing wildlife in the sanctuary blossom. Regular bird monitoring inside and outside the sanctuary has already shown that bellbird and weka numbers have taken off in the city, and they hope that kaka and other rare birds will soon be joining them.
The sanctuary has plans to reintroduce rare birds such as saddleback, kiwi and seabirds, as well as insects such as giant weta and reptiles such as tuatara.
Katherine says that she is looking forward to hearing birds that she’s never heard before and seeing rifleman everywhere.
Trust general manager Hudson Dodd says he is “looking forward to a community asset that is beloved by folks in the region and is on everyone’s shortlist of what to do with friends and family when you come to sunny Nelson.”
David says he is especially looking forward to the seabirds returning.
“That wonderful experience of being on an offshore island at night, and a rain of birds crashing through the trees … and then what that brings, all the droppings coming ashore which leads to a diverse invertebrate population which leads then to lots of lizards and tuatara. It’s the seabirds for me.”
The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary will be the largest public fenced sanctuary in the South Island, and the only New Zealand sanctuary in beech forest.
Orokonui Ecosanctuary near Dunedin has featured on Our Changing World, and we have also featured a number of stories from Zealandia, including the recent spotted skink translocation.
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: conservation, eradication, invasive animals, rats, birds, nature, sanctuary, pest-proof fence
Duration: 26'07"
=SHOW NOTES=
1:10 First Song
'Muros y Puertas' - Carlos Varela.
1:15 President Obama's Visit To Cuba - Michael Voss
We're heading to Havana now, to speak about President Obama's historic visit. It's the first time an American leader has walked on Cuban soil since 1928. A State Dinner at the Palace of the Revolution, has just begun. It's a chance for Obama and President Raul Castro to further their talks.Michael Voss is CCTV's correspondent based in Cuba. He moved to Cuba in 2007 as the BBC's 'Man in Havana'.
1:25 Risky Places - Julian Grimmond
They're the people who get companies in and out of risky places, and look after film stars when they travel to conflict zones, high risk locations and remote wildernesses. Queenstown's Global Film Solutions, has looked after productions featuring Bear Grylls, Anthony Bourdain and Ricky Gervais. The company assesses and manages risks of film productions in some of the world's most challenging environments. And it's one of two New Zealand finalists up for an international award next month. Julian Grimmond is the president and CEO of GFS Risk.
1:35 Raising Awareness With The Easter Kiwi - Rebecca Kemp
Australia has an alternative to the Easter Bunny, they've got the Easter Bilby, and have had since 1991. So, is it time New Zealand ditched the Easter Bunny and adopted the Easter Kiwi? The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute is calling for a more heroic icon for Easter, questioning its worthiness and villainous history. The president is Rebecca Kemp.
1:40 Favourite Album
One Man Band - James Taylor.
2:10 Not Solar - Dr Jan Wright
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is calling for people to take notice of a report suggesting that electric cars help combat climate change, but solar panels do little. The report by Concept Consulting looks at the impact of both electric cars and solar panels on New Zealand's carbon footprint. Dr Jan Wright is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
2:20 Great New Zealand Concerts - Dr Hook
Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show formed in New Jersey in 1967 and played around the greater New York area for years before picking up a recording contract. They have toured New Zealand a couple of time, the first when they were at their peak in 1977. The tour took in a number of cities, including Hamilton and Palmerston North. This was the song which first brought them to the attention of the listening and, ultimately, the concert going public.
3:10 Feature Interview - Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Hollywood's version of a midlife crisis is simple: the spouse of 25 years is ditched. Men buy expensive sports cars, women go on yoga retreats to Thailand. Science has another version of what happens in our 40's and 50's. Author and former National Public Radio correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty felt anxious and stuck in her 50's, on cruise control in her marriage, her career and life. Ss she did her own investigation, talking to 400 people including scientists and researchers about living well at midlife. The result is a book called "Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife."
3:30 Our Changing World
Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in Nelson is about to become New Zealand's newest fenced sanctuary. Alison Ballance finds out what motivated David Butler to establish the Brook Waimarama Trust in 2004, Jim Livingstone takes her on a tour of the nearly completed 14.5 kilometre-long predator-proof fence, and volunteers Dave and Alistair explain why they spend so much of their free time helping out.
3:45 The Panel Pre-Show
What the world is talking about with Jesse Mulligan, Jim Mora and Zara Potts.
=PLAYLIST=
JESSE'S SONG:
ARTIST: Carlos Varela
TITLE: Muros y Puertas (Walls and Doors)
COMP: Carlos Varela
ALBUM: Los hijos de Guillermo Tell (The Sons of William Tell)
LIVE: Download
FEATURE ALBUM:
ARTIST: James Taylor
TITLE: My Traveling Star
COMP: James Taylor
ALBUM: On Man band
LABEL: Hear Music
ARTIST: James Taylor
TITLE: Copperline
COMP: James Taylor
ALBUM: On Man band
LABEL: Hear Music
ARTIST: James Taylor
TITLE: You've Got A Friend
COMP: Carole King, James Taylor
ALBUM: On Man band
LABEL: Hear Music
ARTIST: James Taylor
TITLE: You Can Close Your Eyes
COMP: James Taylor
ALBUM: On Man band
LABEL: Hear Music
GREAT NEW ZEALAND CONCERT: Dr Hook 1977
ARTIST: Dr Hook
TITLE: Sylvia's Mother
COMP: Shel Silverstein
ALBUM: Live In The UK
LABEL: CBS
ARTIST: Dr Hook
TITLE: When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman
COMP: Even Stevens
ALBUM: Live In The UK
LABEL: CBS
ARTIST: Dr Hook
TITLE: The Cover of Rolling Stone
COMP: Shel Silverstein
ALBUM: Live In The UK
LABEL: CBS
ARTIST: Dr Hook
TITLE: Sexy Eyes
COMP: Chris Waters, Keith Stegall, Bob Mather
ALBUM: Sometimes You Win
LABEL: Capitol
PANEL - HALF TIME SONG:
ARTIST: Elton John
TITLE: Philadelphia Freedom
COMP: Bernie Taupin, Elton John
ALBUM: Single
LABEL: MCA
===4:06 PM. | The Panel===
=DESCRIPTION=
An hour of discussion featuring a range of panellists from right along the opinion spectrum (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
15:45
The Panel pre-show for 22 March 2016
BODY:
Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 14'57"
16:05
The Panel with Julia Hartley-Moore and Duane Major (Part 1)
BODY:
John Key has reached an out-of-court settlement with Bradley Ambrose over the so-called teapot tapes. Andrew Geddis talks about the settlement, Andrew Geddis talks about whether our spy agencies have too much freedom, Economist Dominick Stephens talks about the idea of a $200 universal allowance in New Zealand, and Does any new stadium in Auckland have to be on the waterfront?
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: anorexia nervosa
Duration: 23'15"
16:06
The Panel with Julia Hartley-Moore and Duane Major (Part2)
BODY:
New Zealand tennis great Belinda Cordwell talks about the furore over mens' tennis vs womens' tennis and the players' pay packets, Dr Cynthia Bulik of the University of North Carolina discusses a new world-wide study of anorexia nervosa which is about to begin.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 26'55"
16:07
Panel Intro
BODY:
What the Panelists Julia Hartley-Moore and Duane Major have been up to.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'18"
16:10
PM settles with camera operator
BODY:
John Key has reached an out-of-court settlement with Bradley Ambrose over the so-called teapot tapes. Andrew Geddis talks about the settlement.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'06"
16:14
Spies "open slather" in NZ
BODY:
Andrew Geddis talks about whether our spy agencies have too much freedom.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: spy agencies, surveillance
Duration: 6'54"
16:20
$200 universal alowance
BODY:
Economist Dominick Stephens talks about the idea of a $200 universal allowance in New Zealand.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: universal allowance
Duration: 9'02"
16:27
Auckland CBD stadium
BODY:
Does any new stadium in Auckland have to be on the waterfront?
Topics:
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags:
Duration: 1'41"
16:32
Battle of the tennis sexes
BODY:
New Zealand tennis great Belinda Cordwell talks about the furore over mens' tennis vs womens' tennis and the players' pay packets.
Topics: sport, life and society
Regions:
Tags: tennis, gender
Duration: 9'03"
16:40
Panel Says
BODY:
What the Panelists Julia Hartley-Moore and Duane Major have been thinking about.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 7'34"
16:52
Landmark anorexia study
BODY:
Dr Cynthia Bulik of the University of North Carolina discusses a new world-wide study of anorexia nervosa which is about to begin.
Topics: health
Regions:
Tags: anorexia nervosa
Duration: 8'35"
=SHOW NOTES=
===5:00 PM. | Checkpoint===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's weekday drive-time news and current affairs programme
===6:30 PM. | Worldwatch===
=DESCRIPTION=
The stories behind the international headlines
===7:06 PM. | Nights===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's weeknight programme of entertainment and information
=AUDIO=
19:12
Our Own Odysseys - Kathmandu Catastrophe
BODY:
Wellington photographer and keen mountaineer Andre Budd was on a climbing tour in the Himalayans when the earthquake struck Nepal last April...
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: travel, Himalayans Moutains, Mt Everest, Nepal. Nepal earthquake, Kathmandu, climbing.
Duration: 17'12"
20:45
Nights' Pundit - Kai-A-Miro
BODY:
'Eating the berry' with Shannon Haunui-Thompson from Radio New Zealand's Te Manu Korihi team; from the proverb 'Ko te Manu kai Ana I te Miro nona te Ao' (the Bird that eats the Berry owns the World), encapsulating the idea of a seed when eaten gives insight to the one who consumes it... a Hawke's Bay whanau that had 65 of its taonga stolen while they were supposedly safe in a bank vault held by the Crown, wants answers...
Topics: te ao Maori, life and society
Regions:
Tags: Maori, stolen taonga.
Duration: 13'02"
=SHOW NOTES=
[image:62718:half]
7:12 Our Own Odysseys - Kathmandu Catastrophe
Wellington photographer and keen mountaineer Andre Budd was on a climbing tour in the Himalayans when the earthquake struck Nepal last April...
7:30 The Sampler
=SHOW NOTES=
=AUDIO=
19:30
The Sampler for 22 March 2016
BODY:
This week in the Sampler Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album of Wellington teenager Lontalius; a reflective double set from Auckland singer-singwriter Derek Lind; a reissue of rhythmic pioneers From Scratch; and the wide-canvas impressions of The Renderers.
EXTENDED BODY:
This week in the Sampler Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album of Wellington teenager Lontalius; a reflective double set from Auckland singer-singwriter Derek Lind; a reissue of rhythmic pioneers From Scratch; and the wide-canvas impressions of The Renderers.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Lontalius, Derek Lind, From Scratch, The Renderers
Duration: 29'57"
19:30
In The Sodium Light by The Renderers
BODY:
Nick Bollinger gazes over the wide-canvas impressions of Christchurch band The Renderers.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger gazes over the wide-canvas impressions of Christchurch band The Renderers.
It was the Christchurch quakes that persuaded this band that it was time to leave their native Canterbury and head for America. But this is a group that, in one sense, has always had its imagination, if not its feet, planted in some mythic American soil.
Though more than a dozen different players have now passed through the group’s many line-ups, the central figures remain the singing and guitar-playing couple of Brian and Maryrose Crook, who have helmed the group for twenty-five years. And through all the various personnel changes, the different sonic approaches and an extraordinary number of different labels – their nine albums being spread over seven different indies – there has been something incredibly consistent about the Renderers.
When their first album Trail Of Tears appeared on Flying Nun in 1991 it stood out from almost all other local alternative rock at the time, for its strong flavour of country music – something that was just starting to infiltrate the American indie scene but was still largely unfamiliar here. The songs were like signposts to the country of country: Texas, Arizona, Dakota, not to mention the Trail Of Tears itself. But with successive releases, it became clearer that the Renderers were not some wannabe Americana act. Like Nick Cave before them, America – and particularly the mythic West – just provided an irresistible metaphor, or at least a state of mind in which to couch their gothic visions. And it’s perhaps ironic that now they have actually recorded in America, the universal nature of their songs is more apparent than ever.
‘Seaworthy’ is an epic ballad in the tradition of ‘Buffalo Skinners’ or ‘Days Of 49’, that might equally apply to present day victims of history, whether from Syria or Christchurch. And if there’s still a mournful country melody at the heart of the song, the impressionistic weave of viola, electric guitars, electronica and percussion makes me think more of a 21st century Velvet Underground. It’s a more muted yet more sophisticated sound than I’ve heard from the Renderers before, and it’s a sound they dive into even deeper in the tracks that follow.
That old American mythos lives on in ‘Mr Pulse’, in images of crossroads and shacks, but again the action seems to be taking place more in some Mississippi of the mind. And the music, too, has become increasingly abstracted, with just Maryrose holding on to the ancient, folkish tune while the instruments play as though they have been released from their country moorings and are drifting in mad patterns around the melody.
Near-ambient passages fall in between some of the songs and certainly make the album feel like more than just a collection of songs. They are like the molecular clouds out of which the songs take shape, and they lend the whole thing an almost-cinematic structure.
You could even hear this album as the reverse image of its immediate predecessor, 2011’s A Rocket Into Nothing, where they took this splashy, painterly use of sound to wild, roaring extremes. Here it’s almost the opposite, as though the Crooks might be playing along to the echoes of that earlier album.
In The Sodium Light was made partly in Joshua Tree, California - itself a place of legend - with the Crooks joined by several American musicians including multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who mixed some of the tracks in his Brooklyn studio. Yet perhaps more than any record they have made, this is music that creates its own place.
Songs played: Seaworthy, Mr Pulse, Strange Love, Not Really Falling, You Raise Me.
In The Sodium Light is available on Ba Da Bing Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: The Renderers, music, music review
Duration: 9'20"
19:30
I'll Forget 17 by Lontalius
BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album from internationally acclaimed Wellington artist Lontalius.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album from internationally acclaimed Wellington artist Lontalius.
How often have you been reminded simultaneously of Drake – and Nick Drake?
Kick In The Head’, a tingling single from the album that was released as a teaser last December, has been kicking around online for a good three years, though in a more lo-fi version. And that’s just one of dozens of tracks that Eddie Johnson – the Wellington teenager who records as Lontalius - has posted since he started recording in his early teens. It’s an original, as are all ten songs on this official and much-heralded debut.
Johnson’s talents are on full display in I’ll Forget 17’s opening track, ‘A Feeling So Sweet’: a great aching hook of a chorus that seems to give sound and a melody to those indescribable feelings of teenage longing; a feeling so sweet and then – as the song says – it goes away.
One of the things that makes Lontalius refreshing – and perhaps the essential reason why this is Johnson’s moment – is that in his music a number of previously held divisions seem to have collapsed. Despite their comparable roots there’s always been a gulf between the commercial pop of Coldplay and art pop of Radiohead, yet Johnson seems to take equal inspiration from both, delivering pop hooks and experimental music-scapes in the same song.
Even more significant is the way he seems to have collapsed the division between the strummy, introspective, bedsit songwriter, and the traditionally macho – and beats-driven - world of hip-hop. Of course hip-hop had already taken a step in an introspective direction with the more vulnerable and conflicted moments of artists like Drake (an apparent favourite of Johnson’s.) But in tracks like these, Lontalius really merges the two worlds, right down to using the hip-hop device of Auto-tune, to strike a mood that reminds me simultaneously of Drake and Nick Drake.
Teen angst – all those existential questions and internal conversations that inevitably centre on the self – has rarely been evoked more convincingly than Johnson achieves in songs like these. And the album’s title is beautifully ironic, consigning these ballads of heartache and angst to oblivion, while ensuring at the same time that they will be preserved forever. The whole thing may be a monument to adolescence, still you don’t have to be a teenager to enjoy or even relate to it.
Songs played: Kick In The Head, A Feeling So Sweet, Selfless, Light Shines Through Dust, I Was More Than, Glow.
I’ll Forget 17 is available on Partisan Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Lontalius, music, music review
Duration: 7'45"
19:30
Solo by Derek Lind
BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a reflective set from veteran Auckland folksinger Derek Lind.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a reflective set from veteran Auckland folksinger Derek Lind.
Derek Lind is a singer-songwriter, based in West Auckland, who has been performing and recording his own songs for more than thirty years, and the title of his latest album tells, in perhaps the plainest possible way, where he’s coming from. It’s called Solo; a word that reasonably describes these front-deck ruminations, but which has a deeper meaning - one that emerges gradually over the course of the double album.
In 2013, during the writing of the songs that make up Solo, Lind lost his wife of 35 years, and a sense of that loss underpins the album, though only occasionally does it address that loss head on.
“I’m walking down a street named Tragedy/on the outskirts of a town called Faith/My friends say you’re holding up, you’re doing well/But my friend, that’s simply not the case”, he sings in ‘Over You’, and what I find so powerful about the performance is its gentleness. Lind really does sing as though he is just talking to an old friend, though of course what he has to reveal is devastating.
But this same conversational style runs right through the record, even in songs where absence is something implied rather than described. There’s a tone that pervades this album, something deeper than melancholy. Yet Lind does far more than just hammer on the one emotional note, and if some of these songs find him in spiritual contemplation, others concern themselves with the material world. There’s a welcome burst of anger in ‘The Valley Of Dry Bones’, where he surveys the social landscape and sees a country being sold, the poor getting poorer, and politicians compromising themselves.
If the record has a resolution, it’s in the final song, ‘Come To Me’. It’s a song of faith and of forgiveness – even, it seems, for politicians.
Songs played: The Only Song I Got, There Are No Words, Over You, The Sad Tourist, In The Valley of Dry Bones, Come To Me.
Solo is available on Someone Up There Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Derek Lind, music, music review
Duration: 6'35"
19:30
Five Rhythm Works by From Scratch
BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a rhythmic reissue from percussive pioneers From Scratch.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a rhythmic reissue from percussive pioneers From Scratch.
In accounts of New Zealand music, the year 1979 tends to be remembered for its explosion of punk rock bands, as chronicled in the classic Kiwi punk album AK79. But that was by no means the only sound resonating that year. And you didn’t have to venture far from the venues where the punk bands were venting their spleens, to find something just as visceral, yet with an entirely different effect on the nervous system.
From Scratch was formed in the early 70s by Auckland artist Phil Dadson, and were at least as radical as punk rock ever was – both sonically and philosophically.
Dadson had begun to develop the idea while London in the 1960s, where he’d engaged in experimental music classes with the avant-garde and highly political English composer Cornelius Cardew. Cardew founded an ensemble he called the Scratch Orchestra, which set out to create a music in line with his egalitarian beliefs, using graphic scores rather than traditional notation, handmade instruments, and an element of improvisation. As the name From Scratch suggests, Dadson’s New Zealand-based group could be seen (and heard!) as an outgrowth of Cardew’s. But Dadson also had his own ideas, and a strong awareness of his South Pacific environment. And the dominant instruments are pitched pipes made out of lengths of PVC, which produce that wonderful sprung sound when struck with the common jandal. Dadson had first encountered a version of this instrument a few years earlier, in a group from the Solomon Islands who had visited New Zealand for the South Pacific Festival of the Arts. Developing his variation, Dadson created the basis of something that could be both musical and sculptural, and – for the musicians involved – almost balletic.
The title ‘Gung Ho!, 1,2,3D’ hints at the co-operative nature of the enterprise - the phrase ‘Gung Ho!’ being Chinese for ‘work together’, and a popular slogan of the Chinese Industrial Co-Operative movement. Beautifully recorded, it was initially excerpted on a 1983 EP, then a few years later as part of a full-length album on Flying Nun. But it has long been out of print, so it is a welcome thing that the ‘border-crossing’ Japanese label EM Records has included it in a beautiful reissue of some of From Scratch’s most significant recordings. Titled Five Rhythm Works, the album is effectively just that: five pieces by Dadson’s group, most of which have been long out of print and, in one case, never before released on disc.
Listening again to the music From Scratch were making in the 70s, I make connections now with music I’ve heard since. The repetition and superimposing of patterns reminds me of various kinds of electronica. And yet the acoustic, physical nature of the music seems to reach back to traditions before the advent of electronics, or even recording. Either way, these hypnotic pieces stand on their own, far less time-bound than the punk of the same period. And with assiduous remastering and excellent detailed liner notes by Andrew Clifford – in both English and Japanese! – From Scratch’s Five Rhythm Works stands as a model reissue, and an important one.
Songs played: 5,6,7 & 6,7,8 from Gung Ho 1,2,3D; Passage; Drumwheel Part 2.
Five Rhythm Works is available on EM Records, Japan.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: From Scratch, music, music review
Duration: 6'30"
7:30 The Sampler
music album reviews & music discussion with Nick Bollinger
8:12 Window on the World - Batman and Ethan
international public radio documentaries
8:43 Nights' Pundit - Kai-A-Miro
'eating the berry' with Shannon Haunui-Thompson from Radio New Zealand's Te Manu Korihi team; from the proverb 'Ko te Manu kai Ana I te Miro nona te Ao' (the Bird that eats the Berry owns the World), encapsulating the idea of a seed when eaten gives insight to the one who consumes it... a Hawke's Bay whanau that had 65 of its taonga stolen while they were supposedly safe in a bank vault held by the Crown, wants answers...
9:07 Tuesday Feature - Exchanges at the Frontier: The Search for Hunger Genes
10:17 Late Edition
a round up of today's RNZ News and feature interviews as well as Date Line Pacific from RNZ International
11:07 At the Eleventh Hour - Global Village
music from a myriad of cultures
... nights' time is the right time...
===7:35 PM. | The Sampler===
=DESCRIPTION=
A weekly review and analysis of new CD releases
=AUDIO=
19:30
The Sampler for 22 March 2016
BODY:
This week in the Sampler Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album of Wellington teenager Lontalius; a reflective double set from Auckland singer-singwriter Derek Lind; a reissue of rhythmic pioneers From Scratch; and the wide-canvas impressions of The Renderers.
EXTENDED BODY:
This week in the Sampler Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album of Wellington teenager Lontalius; a reflective double set from Auckland singer-singwriter Derek Lind; a reissue of rhythmic pioneers From Scratch; and the wide-canvas impressions of The Renderers.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Lontalius, Derek Lind, From Scratch, The Renderers
Duration: 29'57"
19:30
In The Sodium Light by The Renderers
BODY:
Nick Bollinger gazes over the wide-canvas impressions of Christchurch band The Renderers.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger gazes over the wide-canvas impressions of Christchurch band The Renderers.
It was the Christchurch quakes that persuaded this band that it was time to leave their native Canterbury and head for America. But this is a group that, in one sense, has always had its imagination, if not its feet, planted in some mythic American soil.
Though more than a dozen different players have now passed through the group’s many line-ups, the central figures remain the singing and guitar-playing couple of Brian and Maryrose Crook, who have helmed the group for twenty-five years. And through all the various personnel changes, the different sonic approaches and an extraordinary number of different labels – their nine albums being spread over seven different indies – there has been something incredibly consistent about the Renderers.
When their first album Trail Of Tears appeared on Flying Nun in 1991 it stood out from almost all other local alternative rock at the time, for its strong flavour of country music – something that was just starting to infiltrate the American indie scene but was still largely unfamiliar here. The songs were like signposts to the country of country: Texas, Arizona, Dakota, not to mention the Trail Of Tears itself. But with successive releases, it became clearer that the Renderers were not some wannabe Americana act. Like Nick Cave before them, America – and particularly the mythic West – just provided an irresistible metaphor, or at least a state of mind in which to couch their gothic visions. And it’s perhaps ironic that now they have actually recorded in America, the universal nature of their songs is more apparent than ever.
‘Seaworthy’ is an epic ballad in the tradition of ‘Buffalo Skinners’ or ‘Days Of 49’, that might equally apply to present day victims of history, whether from Syria or Christchurch. And if there’s still a mournful country melody at the heart of the song, the impressionistic weave of viola, electric guitars, electronica and percussion makes me think more of a 21st century Velvet Underground. It’s a more muted yet more sophisticated sound than I’ve heard from the Renderers before, and it’s a sound they dive into even deeper in the tracks that follow.
That old American mythos lives on in ‘Mr Pulse’, in images of crossroads and shacks, but again the action seems to be taking place more in some Mississippi of the mind. And the music, too, has become increasingly abstracted, with just Maryrose holding on to the ancient, folkish tune while the instruments play as though they have been released from their country moorings and are drifting in mad patterns around the melody.
Near-ambient passages fall in between some of the songs and certainly make the album feel like more than just a collection of songs. They are like the molecular clouds out of which the songs take shape, and they lend the whole thing an almost-cinematic structure.
You could even hear this album as the reverse image of its immediate predecessor, 2011’s A Rocket Into Nothing, where they took this splashy, painterly use of sound to wild, roaring extremes. Here it’s almost the opposite, as though the Crooks might be playing along to the echoes of that earlier album.
In The Sodium Light was made partly in Joshua Tree, California - itself a place of legend - with the Crooks joined by several American musicians including multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who mixed some of the tracks in his Brooklyn studio. Yet perhaps more than any record they have made, this is music that creates its own place.
Songs played: Seaworthy, Mr Pulse, Strange Love, Not Really Falling, You Raise Me.
In The Sodium Light is available on Ba Da Bing Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: The Renderers, music, music review
Duration: 9'20"
19:30
I'll Forget 17 by Lontalius
BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album from internationally acclaimed Wellington artist Lontalius.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews the debut album from internationally acclaimed Wellington artist Lontalius.
How often have you been reminded simultaneously of Drake – and Nick Drake?
Kick In The Head’, a tingling single from the album that was released as a teaser last December, has been kicking around online for a good three years, though in a more lo-fi version. And that’s just one of dozens of tracks that Eddie Johnson – the Wellington teenager who records as Lontalius - has posted since he started recording in his early teens. It’s an original, as are all ten songs on this official and much-heralded debut.
Johnson’s talents are on full display in I’ll Forget 17’s opening track, ‘A Feeling So Sweet’: a great aching hook of a chorus that seems to give sound and a melody to those indescribable feelings of teenage longing; a feeling so sweet and then – as the song says – it goes away.
One of the things that makes Lontalius refreshing – and perhaps the essential reason why this is Johnson’s moment – is that in his music a number of previously held divisions seem to have collapsed. Despite their comparable roots there’s always been a gulf between the commercial pop of Coldplay and art pop of Radiohead, yet Johnson seems to take equal inspiration from both, delivering pop hooks and experimental music-scapes in the same song.
Even more significant is the way he seems to have collapsed the division between the strummy, introspective, bedsit songwriter, and the traditionally macho – and beats-driven - world of hip-hop. Of course hip-hop had already taken a step in an introspective direction with the more vulnerable and conflicted moments of artists like Drake (an apparent favourite of Johnson’s.) But in tracks like these, Lontalius really merges the two worlds, right down to using the hip-hop device of Auto-tune, to strike a mood that reminds me simultaneously of Drake and Nick Drake.
Teen angst – all those existential questions and internal conversations that inevitably centre on the self – has rarely been evoked more convincingly than Johnson achieves in songs like these. And the album’s title is beautifully ironic, consigning these ballads of heartache and angst to oblivion, while ensuring at the same time that they will be preserved forever. The whole thing may be a monument to adolescence, still you don’t have to be a teenager to enjoy or even relate to it.
Songs played: Kick In The Head, A Feeling So Sweet, Selfless, Light Shines Through Dust, I Was More Than, Glow.
I’ll Forget 17 is available on Partisan Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Lontalius, music, music review
Duration: 7'45"
19:30
Solo by Derek Lind
BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a reflective set from veteran Auckland folksinger Derek Lind.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger reviews a reflective set from veteran Auckland folksinger Derek Lind.
Derek Lind is a singer-songwriter, based in West Auckland, who has been performing and recording his own songs for more than thirty years, and the title of his latest album tells, in perhaps the plainest possible way, where he’s coming from. It’s called Solo; a word that reasonably describes these front-deck ruminations, but which has a deeper meaning - one that emerges gradually over the course of the double album.
In 2013, during the writing of the songs that make up Solo, Lind lost his wife of 35 years, and a sense of that loss underpins the album, though only occasionally does it address that loss head on.
“I’m walking down a street named Tragedy/on the outskirts of a town called Faith/My friends say you’re holding up, you’re doing well/But my friend, that’s simply not the case”, he sings in ‘Over You’, and what I find so powerful about the performance is its gentleness. Lind really does sing as though he is just talking to an old friend, though of course what he has to reveal is devastating.
But this same conversational style runs right through the record, even in songs where absence is something implied rather than described. There’s a tone that pervades this album, something deeper than melancholy. Yet Lind does far more than just hammer on the one emotional note, and if some of these songs find him in spiritual contemplation, others concern themselves with the material world. There’s a welcome burst of anger in ‘The Valley Of Dry Bones’, where he surveys the social landscape and sees a country being sold, the poor getting poorer, and politicians compromising themselves.
If the record has a resolution, it’s in the final song, ‘Come To Me’. It’s a song of faith and of forgiveness – even, it seems, for politicians.
Songs played: The Only Song I Got, There Are No Words, Over You, The Sad Tourist, In The Valley of Dry Bones, Come To Me.
Solo is available on Someone Up There Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Derek Lind, music, music review
Duration: 6'35"
19:30
Five Rhythm Works by From Scratch
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Nick Bollinger reviews a rhythmic reissue from percussive pioneers From Scratch.
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Nick Bollinger reviews a rhythmic reissue from percussive pioneers From Scratch.
In accounts of New Zealand music, the year 1979 tends to be remembered for its explosion of punk rock bands, as chronicled in the classic Kiwi punk album AK79. But that was by no means the only sound resonating that year. And you didn’t have to venture far from the venues where the punk bands were venting their spleens, to find something just as visceral, yet with an entirely different effect on the nervous system.
From Scratch was formed in the early 70s by Auckland artist Phil Dadson, and were at least as radical as punk rock ever was – both sonically and philosophically.
Dadson had begun to develop the idea while London in the 1960s, where he’d engaged in experimental music classes with the avant-garde and highly political English composer Cornelius Cardew. Cardew founded an ensemble he called the Scratch Orchestra, which set out to create a music in line with his egalitarian beliefs, using graphic scores rather than traditional notation, handmade instruments, and an element of improvisation. As the name From Scratch suggests, Dadson’s New Zealand-based group could be seen (and heard!) as an outgrowth of Cardew’s. But Dadson also had his own ideas, and a strong awareness of his South Pacific environment. And the dominant instruments are pitched pipes made out of lengths of PVC, which produce that wonderful sprung sound when struck with the common jandal. Dadson had first encountered a version of this instrument a few years earlier, in a group from the Solomon Islands who had visited New Zealand for the South Pacific Festival of the Arts. Developing his variation, Dadson created the basis of something that could be both musical and sculptural, and – for the musicians involved – almost balletic.
The title ‘Gung Ho!, 1,2,3D’ hints at the co-operative nature of the enterprise - the phrase ‘Gung Ho!’ being Chinese for ‘work together’, and a popular slogan of the Chinese Industrial Co-Operative movement. Beautifully recorded, it was initially excerpted on a 1983 EP, then a few years later as part of a full-length album on Flying Nun. But it has long been out of print, so it is a welcome thing that the ‘border-crossing’ Japanese label EM Records has included it in a beautiful reissue of some of From Scratch’s most significant recordings. Titled Five Rhythm Works, the album is effectively just that: five pieces by Dadson’s group, most of which have been long out of print and, in one case, never before released on disc.
Listening again to the music From Scratch were making in the 70s, I make connections now with music I’ve heard since. The repetition and superimposing of patterns reminds me of various kinds of electronica. And yet the acoustic, physical nature of the music seems to reach back to traditions before the advent of electronics, or even recording. Either way, these hypnotic pieces stand on their own, far less time-bound than the punk of the same period. And with assiduous remastering and excellent detailed liner notes by Andrew Clifford – in both English and Japanese! – From Scratch’s Five Rhythm Works stands as a model reissue, and an important one.
Songs played: 5,6,7 & 6,7,8 from Gung Ho 1,2,3D; Passage; Drumwheel Part 2.
Five Rhythm Works is available on EM Records, Japan.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: From Scratch, music, music review
Duration: 6'30"
=SHOW NOTES=
===8:13 PM. | Windows On The World===
=DESCRIPTION=
International public radio features and documentaries
===9:06 PM. | None (National)===
=DESCRIPTION=
===10:00 PM. | Late Edition===
Late Edition for 22 March 2016
The Waikato fails a water quality test, the parliamentary commissioner for the environment ponders an electric car future and in Dateline Pacific, Vanuatu women plan a protest march against violence.
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ news, including Dateline Pacific and the day's best interviews from RNZ National
===11:06 PM. | None (National)===
=DESCRIPTION=
A selection world music, along with jazz, rock, folk and other styles, artists and songs with world and roots influences chosen and presented by Wichita radio host Chris Heim (1 of 12, KMUW)