siLLy puPPy
My longest review EVER!!! I deserve a puppy treat for this one ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔ !!!
Anyone familiar with BUCKETHEAD will already be fully aware of how prolific his output is. In the early days it may not have been as obvious because of the fact that many of his projects weren’t under his own name and instead fell under pseudonyms such as Death Cube K or as collaborative efforts with Brain, Travis Dickerson, Jonas Hellborg, Viggo Mortensen, Cobra Strike, Cornbugs, Deli Creeps, El Stew, Giant Robot, Praxis and many, many more! Throughout the early naughts, BUCKETHEAD had steadily been shifting to create more music under his own moniker and in 2007 he finally went for broke by releasing a huge boxed set which was only the first of many solo and collaborative releases of 2007.
IN SEARCH OF THE is a behemoth of a musical marathon with a staggering 13 albums in total and was placed into a new category called a “special release.” This was also an attempt to create some of the most direct artist to fan projects possible as every single edition consisted of hand burned CDs with spontaneous artistic doodles as album covers created by BUCKETHEAD himself therefore no two sets were alike. In hindsight this ambitious effort would prognosticate the never ending Pike series and could possible be deemed as a proto-Pike set of sort for it has a similar vastness in scope. On this one there are a total of 92 tracks with the shortest being only 33 seconds and the longest 45 minutes and 1 second.
The project is quite clever as each CD is titled a letter of the title IN SEARCH OF THE and collectively clocks in at a whopping 9 hours 27 minutes and 37 seconds however believe it or not it all actually began as a much more ambitious endeavor. It was supposed to be a massive undertaking consisting of 30 CDs that spelled out IN SEARCH OF THE DISEMBODIED SOUNDS…….. :OMG! As fate would have it, the project proved to be too taxing for even the indefatigable chicken lover as his popularity rose and even his robot dance moves couldn’t generate enough to please a rabidly hungry fan base. Luckily this was trimmed down but it’s still a super massive blackhole of attention sucking life energy to get through it :P
Only somewhere around 1000 copies were actually made so this is another case of YouTube being your best friend (unless you were lucky enough to find a set) if you even dare to tread on these grounds because admittedly this set is not for the feint of heart! All discs have untitled tracks with Volume 11 hosting the most (11) whereas Volume 13 (E) contains the least (1). The music varies as much as BUCKETHEAD’s vast musical arsenal in his special place in his own musical universe. There are no credits given so whether every instrument was played by BUCKETHEAD or if other artists contributed remains a mystery.
Although all tracks are officially untitled, some hardcore fans have decided that tracks without titles were unacceptable and needed some serious spicing up so they created their own project of naming every single one of the 92 compositions. Amazingly all of these titles fit the bill fairly well that presumably would even delight the chicken loving creator. Here is a list of all the volumes with all the tracks including the unofficial default names that have adopted by all chickens big and small. This means that both Jersey Giants and Belgian D’Anvers can effortlessly refer to their favorite chicken dances in perfect gallus gallus domesticus harmony!
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I: 44:19 (Volume 1)
Track 1 (0:54) “Sonic Slaughter” is a strange horrific ambient intro with screaming guitar
Track 2 (14:51) “Pollywogs Dancing On A Quilt Of Faces” is the longest track and begins with a funk bass line and clean guitar with wah-wah. The tones are clean, warm and friendly and it only sputters along at a mid-tempo pace. After three minutes the guitar gets brave and starts soloing. After several minutes the bass line remains the same but the guitar gets more jittery and erupts into bluesy solos that range from appropriately tasteful to full on dissonant space metal. Nice track but outstays its welcome.
Track 3 (2:58) “ Jengamoose” completely changes things up with a medieval guitar intro before jumping into a drumbeat with an electronic swirling haze like something off an early Hawkwind album. Then it gets weird. A guitar and different types of percussion battle it out as the ambience swirls on in the background. Halfway through it becomes a Joe Pass type of jazz guitar with lo-fi drumbeats and some sort of metal pan type of percussion. More happens in this short tracks than the over long second one.
Track 4 (2:31) “Appenzel Pointed Hood Hen” has a canned monotonous drum machine beat with an avant-garde guitar dissonantly (and out of tune) trying to create some sort of melody with a bop jazz bass. In the middle it just breaks down into a bunch of electronic sounds with a random guitar guitar plucked.
Track 5 (0:41) “Trail Of Misconception” begins with beautiful chimes and a symphonic sounding synthesizer melody which builds up even more counterpoints but is short and an intro for next track.
Track 6 (15:02) “Sourced Autonomy” is the longest track and starts hard and heavy with a heavily distorted grungy guitar with all kinds of freaky effects. The drums and bass are heavy while the guitar just goes nuts from the get go. The riff is super heavy and fast with a distorted wah-wah type of effect and the soloing is frenetic and crazed. Despite the length of this track the energy level remains on full flame with incessant whizzing up and down the guitar scales while down-tuned riffing chugs away beneath the high pitched sizzling solos. Close to the six minute mark some jittery electronica joins in as the guitar soloing gets absolutely crazier and even faster. After a while the electronica turns into a funky riff while the guitar remains on overdrive and after a while the soloing becomes stranger but never lets up for a second. Whew! This is probably the loooooooongest uninterrupted guitar solo i’ve ever heard and the energy level remains intense for the 15 minute duration. My fingers are bleeding just listening to this :o
Track 7 (1:44) “Transmission Miscommunication” is a freaky little electronica number with pulsating electro weirdness. Sounds more like some weird 50s electronic pioneer but strange processed guitar parts come bleeding through and they screeeeeeaaaaaammm!
Track 8 (5:33) “Angiobanjiplasti” sounds more like an 80s Legendary Pink Dots type of psychedelic track with electronic drums and strange freaky keyboard runs. Chimes join in so does weird electronic noises. It keeps a steady beat but then breaks down totally and avant-garde keyboard runs tinkle away while a buzzing thing hovers in the forefront and then a steady drumbeat and funky keyboard run joins in followed by a weird processed guitar. The funky keyboard starts “talking” and then everything cuts out and a wind chime type of sound sets in with an ambient background which goes on for a while and fades out. Www-eee-i-rrrrr-ddd ! ! !
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N: 44:49 (Volume 2)
Track 1 (1:26) “Pullets On Parade (Million Chicken March)” is a little synthesized keyboard anthemic march with weird timings and a cool guitar solo
Track 2 (10:49) “Flying Finger Fury (In The Coop)” is a bass-heavy funk rock extravaganza with some serious Hendrix finger channeling mojo wanking out in wild and woolly wah-wah mode. While the funk never ends and churns out over the ten minute mark, the guitar noodles around bit and conjures up some coolness in the mix however perhaps a bit too long of a track despite keepin’ a serious groove
Track 3 (2:58) “Hanged Man's Lament” begins with the peal of a bell and a slow creepy organ and then turns into a drum trade off that is sort of a military march only staccato style meaning a drum roll trades off with silence. Interesting but feels like an incomplete interlude
Track 4 (2:09) “Robot Foot Pursuit” is a bouncy and funkified number that starts off with lightning quick funk bass, drum machines and eventually adds some avant-guitar rhythms. Reminds me of some of the DJ electronica mixed with funk on “Somewhere Over The Slaughterhouse”
Track 5 (15:49) “Blue Marbles Moon” is a more relaxed number with mid-tempo groovy bass with a peppy keyboard riff and a clean guitar melody mixin’ it up. As the longest track swallowing up two thirds of the real estate, this one really takes its sweet time escalating any kind of tension. It is fairly repetitive with a monotonous funky vibe, recurring peppy keys and guitars adding some much needed flavor. Needless to say, despite being well produced and a pleasant listen still carries on a wee bit too long however it’s easy to hear a lot of future Pikes on this one, yep, my least favorite kinds that just loop to infinity
Track 6 (3:18) “Droid Factory Conveyor Belt Ambush” begins another “Somewhere Over The Slaughterhouse” type track with a DJ electronica beat with electronic weirdness but quickly adds a slower ambient counterpoint that sounds like a totally separate sort of epic soundtrack beneath. The DJ beat drops in and out and seems totally out of sync. Some tinkly pianos add another of weirdness. I love the juxtaposing forces on this one. It shouldn’t work but it does
Track 7 (6:04) “The Beheaded” is another funky number but a weirder one. It has funky guitar playing over a rather chaotic stream of noise churned out by frenetic drums. It then gets wild with the guitar being played backwards. There’s a pulse of rhythm that tries to keep it all cohesive but it really just gets freekin’ weird really. The funk guitar makes a reprise at the end while the noises hiss in the background but ultimately gets extremely experimental again before gaining control at the end
Track 8 (2:16) “Memories Of Forgotten Dreams” is a creepy dark ambient track with all kinds of mentally scarring noises going for the jugular for panic mode. Avant-garde and angular rhythms dual it out with jarring synthesized horror film soundtrack type ambience. Subdued screams and muffled electronic “pig oinks” add to the extremely bizarre effects which end this second volume in a very www-eee-i-rrrrr-ddd way
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S: 43:27 (Volume 3)
Track 1 (14:51) “Funkaslunk” is as funkadelic as the name suggests with a super slappin’ bass line that even George Clinton would approve of! This starts off as basically a bass line that slaps on in complexity with a rather hollow disco beat and while the beat remains steady, BH gets more weirded out on the bass lines doing all kinds of funky acrobatics. Around the six minute mark the bass is replaced by guitar (i assume, at least it sounds like it) does some freaky stuff and then back to the bass getting weirder and weirder. Around the eight minute mark the repetitive percussion picks up a few beats per minute. Around nine minutes it becomes distorted into weird effects and alternates with the slap bass. After swallowing up a third of this disc it just abruptly ends. Could’ve been trimmed down about five minutes but was actually pretty good!
Track 2 (2:16) “Down A Darkened Hallway” creates a stark contrast with strange dark ambient ethereal synthesized sounds, some sort of dark chime sounds and finally some jazzy drumming as it all fades out. Strange growls appear and echo and then weird electronica makes jarring percussive attacks along with other strange sounds
Track 3 (3:48) “Slow Shifting Highway / Memories Of Forgotten Dreams” is completely different again with super spacey echoed guitar parts that slowly turn into a rather funky rock type of track. Sounds very 70s with semi-distorted guitars providing a simple riff with a strong drum and bass behind them. It alternates with the echoey space intro. Nice melody and nice track all the way around
Track 4 (7:32) “A Dead Brains Pulse” has a super bass riff, the kind you hear in hip hop with all the subwoofers shaking their sheet. While the deep bass bounces on theres a bass guitar doing weird things and a guitar part in the background doing weird guitar things like strange scales, licks and slides. Gets a funky bass added at the end. Cool track but a little too long
Track 5 (4:24) “Listening Device” continues the deep bass effects but adds a dark ambient electronic effect around it. This one is much more surreal and then a sizzling guitar whizzes by at a million miles and hour not doing any type of musical scales but simply buzzing like an insect. A keyboard seems to be talking while the heartbeat type of bass rhythms blasts the subwoofers. As it all ends a strange rumbling occurs while the guitar and electronica just freak out totally. It gains in intensity, takes little breaks and then the boombox bass comes back. This is one strange number
Track 6 (10:31) “Wormhole Collapse” is not really a surprise when it starts off in funk mode! Funky synthesizers that sort of slide in and out of tune sounding like a funk concert on some sort of mind altering substance. The drums sound real and not electronic. There is an alternation between the synth funk and the guitar lines. A deep bass line also reverberates a funky riff. As the track progresses, the bass riffs get more daring and acrobatic. I don’t know how BH can get so much out of a simple funk riff but manages to do so on this one :o
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E: 42:30 (Volume 4)
Track 1 (3:20) “Raging Nugget” is actually a funky nugget with a funkified synth line playing with the bass and a nice cool cat drumbeat. It remains in funk mode and ends with a nice guitar solo.
Track 2 (7:07) “The Machines Shall Remain” is very strange. Kind of jingling chimes, a tinny “talking” synth riff, different percussion. This is utterly alien and sounds more like a soundtrack for a cartoon or something. The keys remain melodic for a while but then it turns into a kind of jungle tribe percussion call with the processed guitar slinking and sliding all over the fucking place! It ends with noise. Wow! This is perhaps one of the absolute coolest tracks i’ve ever heard from BH. Utterly bizarre, alienating and mind-blowing :o
Track 3 (9:02) “Milk Plus Synthemesc” has a “normal” drumbeat but the bass and guitar are playing totally weird counterpoints. The bass is lower than normal while the guitar sounds slightly out of tune. The bass line remains constant while the guitar gets to freak out in totally wild ways before becoming somewhat funkified. It’s actually pretty cool how the bass slowly ratchets up the funk-o-meter while the guitar just goes plain fucking nuts at times. It becomes a frenetic lightning bolt that whizzes by at a million miles per second. Whoah!
Track 4 (3:29) “1984 Beat-Bumpin' (Tribute To Darren Robinson)” is as the title suggests. A big fat boom box beat however it’s accompanied by an unlikely counterpart. Some sort of folky keyboard run. The beat drops out and it becomes chaotic but then it picks back up again only more subdued. This one is sort of randomly strewn together.
Track 5 (5:21) “Domo-Kun's Nightmare” is a dark ambient equivalent of an emotional breakdown with dark synths sloshing around with random buzzing sounds. It never really goes anywhere. It sounds like globs of liquid dripping and then someone hitting pipes with a wrench or something and then like an underwater adventure.
Track 6 (3:29) “Silkie Bantam” is normal music, uh, for BH that is! This actually has a guitar, bass and drum set playing together. There is a melody, a rhythm and a rather bluesy feel. Unfortunately after all those wickedly cool tracks, this one seems rather mediocre. Nothing more than a little bluesy rock jam and nothing more.
Track 7 (3:58) “Ectoplasm Circus” is drums and…… well, more drums. Oh wait! Here comes a synthesizer. It’s sort of melodic but sounds like someone learning how to play. The drums are energetic at least. Finally some weird guitars, oh my…. this is getting waaaay strange. The drums have changed. Wow, everything has changed. This started out pretty lame but has become very, very, very, very, very weird. It ends with funk. I LOVE IT!!!!
Track 8 (6:39) “Visiting Rights” has a heavy bass drum beat with tinkling chimes that alternate with some sort of staticky sounds. Electronica whizzes in and out of the scene. Kinda sounds like chicken clucks. The bass drum is mostly consistent, the chimes intermittent but when they both drop out the electronic synth goes whacko and creates some sort of “alien” soloing. Very bizarre track on a extremely bizarre Volume of this massive CD set ;P
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A: 42:27 (Volume 5)
Track 1 (10:35) “Fractal Shadows” is a rather mellow rock number that has a spacey clean guitar mixed with bass and drums and is an indicator of many Pike tracks to follow. It’s a rather non-offensive little light number that takes a simple melody and chord progression and repeats with a little guitar variations along the way. Not a bad track by any means but doesn’t warrant a length of over ten minutes.
Track 2 (1:14) “Red Eye Spider Cloud” is as weird as the title sounds. Strange erratic percussion with some electronica chirping away around it. Totally experimental and bizarre.
Track 3 (4:48) “Liquid Tungsten Robot Factory” is an industrial noise track and it sounds like it could be machines talking to each other via electronica and a guitar line. Another totally out there wild child. A funk line somehow emerges from the din. Basically sounds like Coil plus an avant-garde guitar riff and electronic noodling.
Track 4 (10:11) “Bucketbot’s Bass Binge Buddy” is a more normal track with a super funky bass line and drum both playing at a slow tempo. Basically drums stay slow and bass shows off once in a while but stays funky. Not too much going on and definitely not interesting for over ten minutes.
Track 5 (5:00) “Atomic Butterfly” is a strange little synthpop type of number with a floaty keyboard riff fluttering around like a, well pretty bug that flies! It has intermittent breaks where it becomes ambient and then techno drumming gets down and dirty. A funky guitar with effects eventually does a little funky dance with it all while ambient keys frost the horizon. The track ultimately falls back to the synthpop riff that it started with.
Track 6 (1:40) “Sander’s Retort” is another funky number only the bass is kind of tinny and in mono while a drumbeat that sounds like someone plays a can commences. It then all stops and weird randomness occurs and then it picks up again. Short and pointless really.
Track 7 (1:58) “Percolates Jazz… The Last Drop” is also short but more interesting as it has an industrial percussive sound mixed with a series of clicks and a jazzy guitar wailing away. The tension is thick as the counterpoints are stark and freaky. A classical keyboard sort of plays along even though it’s in its own world.
Track 8 (2:54) “A Moment I Can Give” is a mellow little rocker that sounds a lot like the opening track. A melodic clean echoey guitar is joined by a bass and drum and all proceed at a nonchalant pace down a bluesy placid path to nowhere.
Track 9 (4:03) “Funeral Parlor” is a strange electronic reverberation to infinity as notes slowly repeat and slowly fade away. Not much happens. It’s just a series of notes that repeat the electronic reverb dance but it’s effective.
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R: 45:00 (Volume 6)
Track 1 (19:45) “Eye Of The Storm” is the behemoth of this disc swallowing up over half of its real estate. It begins with a steady drumbeat and a frenetically strange guitar riff that can’t make up its mind if it wants to make psychedelic weirdness or shred like a muthafucka. Spacey Hawkwind-like synth sweeps raise their pitches behind the guitar shredding which begins to dominate as the sizzling solo gets ever faster and faster. At ten minutes in the frenetic soloing is still going on with only minor breaks popping up with the spacey electro-ambience flowing along in the background. The drumbeat pretty much stays the same tempo even as the guitar gets more furiously fast. At eleven minutes a background synth line does create a more calming layer as the guitar quickens. After nearly twenty minutes of this, all i can say is ENOUGH! This track is totally monotonous. It proves BH’s ability to sustain shredding for long periods of time but this is not a very interesting track. The drumbeat is boring. The electronic parts are boring and even the shredding is just the same riff played over and over and over and over and over again. I love intelligent shredding but this is super-meh :(
Track 2 (3:42) “Unhinged Paradox” begins with a funk bass but then quickly changes into a dungeon synth type of industrial track but wait a cheerful piano enters but then disappears. Oh, i see. It’s one of those tracks where several different unrelated instrumental parts are played and then layered over each other but then sometimes they all play together. This is weird i say! It becomes more of a dungeon synth track after all that chaos settles. Dark synth runs and strange higher register synth parts as well. I’m lovin’ this one. Could be a Coil or Throbbing Gristle track.
Track 3 (4:30) “Last Light” goes the complete opposite direction and has a fluffy happy vibe. It’s a clean guitar with bass and drums and is mid-tempo rock with a slightly spacey effect. Melodic and peppy without being too energetic. Nice guitar parts. Not too different from what BH would recycle on many of the mellower Pike albums and this one works very well by balancing all the elements quite well.
Track 4 (1:11) “Dig Up From Underneath” conjures up a trip hop type of beat accompanied by a deep bass line and a jazzy guitar riff
Track 5 (15:46) “Amputee Shuffle” is the second longest track but for sure the best fan given name of these untitled tracks! It starts off with a funky bass and guitar with jazzy drum rolls. While this one is very much similar to the opening lengthy track, there is one fundamental difference. THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING! The drum rolls may not vary greatly but they are interesting even upon sustained repetition. The jazz guitar is cool and the varied nuances are exquisitely brilliant. The bass gets more hard bop style as it progresses and even becomes much more audible. More than half way through the bass becomes more melodic and less jazzy. It harmonizes notes and almost sounds like it’s singing. Despite the length this one is really cool as it morphs from jazz to blues towards the end. Love the bass as it becomes a chuggin’ force to be reckoned with.
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C: 41:13 (Volume 7)
Track 1 (2:58) “Grease On My New Shoes” starts out as a mid-tempo alternative rock type of track with jangly guitars, a prominent bass line and steady drumbeat. The guitars eventually add a more energetic riff and then turn into a more subdued sustained note bend type of lick. When the riff returns it’s more metal sounding with the distortion turned up.
Track 2 (16:40) “Solitary Psychosis” is the lengthy beast on this volume and swallows up a good third of the album. It begins with an erratic keyboard sound and is followed by a guitar that riffs and solos around the off-kilter time signature. After a while all stops and a solo freaks out but then turns back into the groovy rock. The synth line becomes more aggressive and weird and takes over the guitar. Some synthpop type riffs emerge as well. As it continues it gets stranger with the guitar performing bizarre acrobatics with a strange synth run bubbling away in the background. It sorta alternates with a more “normal” bluesy riff on speed but goes back to weird. The beat is fairly nonchalant and consistent as all the craziness unfolds over it but sometimes it’s left to just do it’s thing without any other instrumentation over it. This one goes on for a while but is actually quite cool. After a while i realize that the overall melodic underpinning is very much of carnival music with all the crazy stuff layered over it. It doesn’t become apparent until a keyboard part solos towards the end. This is a primo example of a lengthy track that is well worth existing!
Track 3 (4:14) “Flaming Pinãtas / Burnt Candy” is a synth funk track with electronic drums. Maybe something Herbie Hancock would have done on “Future Shock” even. Becomes more trip hoppy as it goes on with some backdrop guitar antics emerging.
Track 4 (4:20) “Tower Of Insanity” begins with bluesy rock guitar and somewhat antsy drums that really want to jam hard but the guitar wants to go no wave, dude! The drums say, your mama. I wanna jam MF! Guitars say in yer dreams farkface. Drums say i’ll do it my way thank you much. Guitars say i will hypnotize you into submission. Drums say bite me. Guitars say ok let me get the hot sauce. Drums say don’t mess with me bitch. Guitars say hmmm lemme think bout dat. Drums go ballistic and can’t hear guitar but guitar make meditation chord go vroooooom. No one lived happily ever after and everybody died.
Track 5 (1:52) “Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys” is woefully tuned down so low in volume that i can’t hear it! OK, this is obviously some sort of demo turned into a track. Basically jazz guitar that is on practice mode. It begins and stops. Quite boring and pointless to add this.
Track 6 (11:03) “Easter In The Batcave” begins with an ambience in the background that sounds like a storm brewing and some chimes tinkling along. Electronica whizzes in and out of the scene as well as guitar riffs. Very musique concrète as it rolls along. The different roles of instruments just sort of fade in and fade out. There is no percussive groove nor any melodic development, just sound collages that sort of gel together and then fall apart. Eventually the guitar gains enough steam to perform some totally weird string gymnastics that words cannot convey. Sort of has a funk groove but in an alternative universe. It almost sounds like the guitar is emulating R2D2’s robot language patterns from Star Wars in its sonic peaks and troughs but also goes through other totally strange acrobatics including normal riffing like Hendrix type blues rock that sort of spontaneously emerges and then turns weird again. It becomes more dramatic towards the end with symphonic classical additions popping in and the guitar getting more jittery and unpredictable. This track is fucking brilliant!
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H: 41:37 (Volume 8)
Track 1 (10:20) “Oishii” starts things off with a steady bass, choppy drum pattern and echoey clean guitar riff that creates a recurring melody. As it carries on the bass and drums gain a little speed and the riff changes things up a little every so often but basically this is a repetitive looped melody that carries on for way too long. Nice but not OMG
Track 2 (2:26) “The Orpington” starts things with an irregular house drumbeat and is followed by a blues guitar line that has some funk in it. The percussion goes haywire at a million miles an hour while the guitar remains unfazed in its nonchalant playing style. This is basically a little improv number that has no real purpose but gets really weird as it ends.
Track 3 (5:27) “A Day In The Park With Herbie” is completely different with a heavy bigbeat type drumming session with a drone type synth line in the background. It all changes and a funky bass enters the equation while the drums tame down a bit but still sound like something off of a hip hop album. It changes again and becomes some sort of nursery rhyme melody based in classical music with an obsequious drum behind it. This one is just weird really as it changes into a series of weird electronic noises, avant-garde guitar work and tinny percussion twangs but turns up to the same bigbeat mix that started it.
Track 4 (9:55) “Switch Way” is the second longest track and begins with a steady drumbeat and a synth funk reminiscent of “Head Hunter” era Herbie Hancock only a bit sped up. It deviates a bit from the funk by breaking into solos but pretty much continues the synth funk thang for the entire near ten minutes which is a bit too long.
Track 5 (2:30) “Treasure Section” has a strong trip hop type of groove but also has a jazzy horn (probably synthesized) along with quickly played staccato keys. Has a real catchy groove and is slightly hypnotic as it allows the jerky keys to relax so atmospheric ambience can flow in
Track 6 (0:33) “Wire Bop Pumpkin” is a super short drumbeat with jazz guitar
Track 7 (3:32) “Captain Kangaroo's Ether Hypnosis” is finally a track without percussion and is a weird electronic piece that has different sounds a sorta spooky riff that reverbs. It sounds like it’s in a trippy sound chamber where sound is bended. Sounds like a blueprint for the countdown to Halloween series of 2015.
Track 8 (4:36) “In Search Of The Bigeminy Junction” is another funk track although with a very lo-fi production. Percussion is rather tinny with a guitar that is trying to be jazzy with a funky beat to it. It becomes more avant-garde. The percussion is looped and remains the same while the guitar gets wild and woolly. Basically sounds like BH is practicing next a metronome really.
Track 9 (2:14) “Cybernetic Chickenheads & The Scavenger Slunk Run” is an avant-garde noisy little bugger. Strange guitar is subdued and sounds like an angry cat with an unrelated series of drum rolls. There is also hyperactive keyboards that just go crazy and drown everything else out. It devolves into noise and musical gibberish. Great way to end it all.
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O: 42:39 (Volume 9)
Track 1 (9:23) “Bullfrog” begins with an energetic drumroll and then is joined by a fuzzy funky bass line and a fuzzy distorted bluesy guitar riff. It repeats in a repetitive loop and over four minutes in the guitar starts soloing more recklessly while the bass and drums continue to robotically carry on in the same manner. This is basically a nine minute plus jam type of track and although it’s okay, it isn’t anything terribly exciting either not to mention too friggin’ long.
Track 2 (4:23) “Escher Relativity” has a very strange vibe as the given title implies. It is basically an energetic drumming pattern with a guitar intermittently cranking out some somewhat atonal riffs. The drumming sounds like a warmup to a further solo but continues the same and then suddenly it stops and everything changes. The drums become more subdued and a clean echoey guitar strums away for a while. While the guitar is very atmospheric and dreamy, the drums continue to crank it out as if existing in a different genre altogether although they are subdued as not to overtake the mellower aspects of the track.
Track 3 (5:18) “The Poison Hand” begins with “singing” synth notes that sound like a choral chant while electronic percussive sound bloop and bleep away. It abruptly changes into a steady mid-tempo drumbeat or sample maybe with improvised electronic keys tinkling away. Sounds like a rough draft of some initial idea. It then changes up the electronic drumbeat and key sounds again and keeps doing so every so often for the rest of the track. It’s eventually joined in by the guitar and becomes more “rock” like albeit experimental rock. Nothing lasts long on this one and it gets even weirder and more outlandish. I like this one. It’s highly dramatic and freaky.
Track 4 (16:52) “Robot Chicken” swallows up nearly half of this disc and sort of sounds like it continues where the last track left off. On this compilation BUCKETHEAD seems to love to engage in avant-funk rock tracks that last for a long period of time. This is yet another one of those with a steady drumbeat and what sounds like a keyboard that is distorted but it could be a processed guitar as well. Basically the drums stay steady while the melody carries on through variations. Actually it might be a guitar and keyboard alternating. Sometimes the melody changes into a familiar pop song like “Push It” by Salt N Pepa :o Overall this one is pretty cool in it’s experimental improvisational way but the running time certainly seems excessive. Actually it sounds a lot like the electronica vs metal experiments on “Somewhere Over The Slaughterhouse” except without the metal. That meaning the riffs sound recycled somewhat.
Track 5 (6:37) “Tunnel To The Light” thankfully changes things up. A distorted downtuned guitar riff crunchily creates a staccato riff while a keyboard performs acrobatics around it but nothing too wild at first but definitely in syncopation but then the floodgates open and it thinks it has joined Cirque du Soleil. The crunchy guitar only changes up occasionally while the high notes of the keys (or processed guitar) slink around like a downed power line in a mud puddle. This one has a strange impractical tension to it but becomes nice and “normal” at the end with the instruments playing nicely together. Pretty weird!
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F: 42:31 (Volume 10)
Track 1 (5:13) “Aldebaran Strikes Back” begins with a heavy trip hop type beat with epic horns backing it up and stuttering ghostly keyboards. Simulating the Star Wars experience a little as the background interacts with an epic melodic keyboard line. The drum remains steady and unchanging. After a couple minute a guitar solo erupts in a robotic way and fades in and out changing its dynamics.
Track 2 (9:35) “Down In It” is the longest track and follows in the footsteps of other monstrously long tunes on this massive release by gettin’ all funky on us again. While a funk bass prances around, the guitar is bluesy and distorted. After the proper introduction, the bass gets super fast as does the guitar and gets all aggressive on us. It backs off and goes back to the mid-tempo into style. There are also some of those cool Hendrix styled “the sky is crying” type of wah-wah guitar licks and some great feedback moments. Overall this one outstays its welcome as it doesn’t have enough variation to warrant its running time.
Track 3 (6:45) “The Ludovico Technique” is a very strange progressive electronic track with different synthesized sounds “talking” to each other. There is a deep bass drone and higher register riffs erratically tinkling away. A steady drumbeat joins in while a violin sound fills the spaces behind the other noises. It changes again to a pure ambient sound with no percussion at all and becomes some sort of chamber classical piece. Sounds sorta like something Mozart would have written. This carries on as it fades in and out for a quick millisecond and continues until the end of the track.
Track 4 (1:13) “Hole In The Feeding Tube” is a short jazzy track that sounds like glass jars being struck for percussion very rapidly while a jazz guitar strums along at a more relaxed pace.
Track 5 (6:45) “Aces Of Galaga” sounds like a Baroque piano run (a la Bach) with some other electronic noises competing for attention as they totally bloop and bleep out of sync with the music. The classical music gets overwhelmed by the electronica and a bass comes in and starts a funk riff. The electronica begin to sound more like a video game being played with some of the squeals fairly startling. Guitar solos even manage to find their way into the whole cacophonous din. It just gets weirder and weirder as the guitar solo sounds processed and the tempo is sped up and slowed down while the clunky electronic video game simulations unfold around them. Strange indeed. Game Over.
Track 6 (3:36) “Bot's Lament” sounds like another video game but less frenetic with only a single series of processed notes creating a bizarre avant-garde riff at a slow speed with some notes bending. Turns more into a dark ambient synth sound. Maybe a theme track for Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark? Nah, too weird for her. Would definitely go well on one of those dark ambient Halloween albums.
Track 7 (7:13) “Strange Visitation” starts off with a classic record scratching noise that then turns into a strange riff that sounds like a harpsichord. Rather X-Files feeling only much weirder. It’s definitely a weird piano sound on a synthesizer but the scale is so exotic. After the piano tinkles on for a while it stops and a drone synth note sustains for a while, like for minutes actually up to the end of the track. Weird :o
Track 8 (2:07) “Evil Lurks Within” begins rather like the previous track did, that meaning an avant-garde atonal piano riff with a scary edge. It’s accompanied by intermittent ambience and bangs. Short but sweet. A true contender for scariest track that BH has conjured up :/
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T: 42:29 (Volume 11)
Track 1 (2:56) “Binge Buddy Lounge” begins as a funky rocker with steady drums and a funk bass line. The guitar takes its time joining in but when it does it’s a clean echoey series of chord plucking but eventually turns into a funk guitar counterpoint for the bass. It also engages in some light soloing while the bass line changes it up a bit. The guitar gets more bluesy.
Track 2 (4:21) “I Never Made It Without Biting (AKA Bloodblister Popcorn)” begins with a very slow drumbeat that slowly picks up speed and then a guitar strums a distorted chord over it while the drums remain energetic. As the drums continue, it does indeed start to sound like a popcorn popper as the same guitar chord strums and arpeggiates but remains the same notes.
Track 3 (1:10) “Electronic Zookeeper's Revenge” is a short electronic frenzy of bloops and bleeps with a steady hip hop type drumbeat. The electronic sounds start to dance to the beat.
Track 4 (4:04) “Delirium Chamber” begins with atonal tinkling on the piano and remains that way for a while but suddenly turns into crazy electronic noises bending their pitches as a thematic bass riff creates a soundtrack vibe. It changes it up again and sounds like underwater music of some sort. The bass returns with clicking sounds.
Track 5 (6:10) “Animatronics Séance” is as strange as the name suggests. It has a sort of tribal electro-beat while a squealing electronic note slides. They dance together and when they pause a bubble pops sometimes. Of course, it totally changes into random electronica sputtering away but the drumbeat retains that tribal jungle call. It just gets weirder and weirder as it goes on.
Track 6 (3:14) “Slunk Funk” is, well waddaya think it is?!!! A freakin’ funk track of course. Funk bass, funk guitar and drums! March on! I think we’ve heard this before rather recently in fact. Bluesy guitar with wah-wah and feedback. Too soon for this reprise. Next.
Track 7 (3:24) “Funeral For A Fiend” is an interesting synchronized riffing process. Sorta flamenco / Spanish guitar runs but very avant-prog as well. Strangely tuned guitars that do strange things. The tone is clean and the runs are rapid. A guitar(s) only track, this one. Cool. Almost sounds like the fast intro part to Rush’s “La Villa Strangiato” only out of tune.
Track 8 (3:50) “Chicken Cleaver Duty” a drumbeat and ambience turns into a techno beat that gets attacked by another drumbeat and then both fade away while the ambience returns but a chaotic drumbeat comes back and recomposes itself into the techno beat with faint ambience in the background. An explosion occurs and all stops. Now we hear what sounds like chickens clucking only on instruments. The techno beat gets faster and then gets slower. A weird guitar solo takes over at the end with only some cymbal action.
Track 9 (4:05) “Sugar Booger Auditory Wax Candy” is a spooky Halloween sounding melody on synthesizer but not dark ambience like some of these. This one is more playful Adam’s Family type of stuff. The guitar joins in and does fancy little licks with pauses in between. It remains a guitar only affair for most of its endurance.
Track 10 (4:25) “Random Order” is a pop dance number with heavy hip hop bass drumbeats and tinkly chimes providing a cute little melody. Well until it turns into a dark ambient drone with a smooth guitar but wait! It changes again into a keyboard riff and then a toy drum with jazz guitar and then……oh what’s the point in going through the list. The given name of the track is just as it suggests. It’s like a sampler of different styles totally unrelated but all existing in the weird BH universe. I love these kind of wild rides. It’s like a musical kaleidoscope.
Track 11 (4:46) “Scabscratcher Shuffle (They Buried Him Alive)” continues the avant-jazz guitar with an intermittent tinny clang both punctuated by silence. The jazz guitar becomes more recognizable as a jazz riff and electronic percussion intermittently keeps a beat. The guitar builds up a cool swing and syncopation as if this is a real track only slightly muddied under the tone. It develops into a more bluesy form of jazz. A nice ending and a reminder that BH is a serious musician and not just an avant-weirdo who conjures up some of the strangest experimental sound collages ever. Great track.
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H: 49:44 (Volume 12)
Track 1 (3:12) “Animatronics Workshop” kicks off with funk bass, unenergetic drumbeat and a guitar that only wants to play half the time meaning it just supplements a few notes here and there. It’s rather a half-funk number. The guitar becomes more agitated and adds more notes but it’s like a the blues with only certain notes emphasized. The bass remains nonchalant but has a nice tone. The guitar turns into a jazzy blues lick by the end. Way cool!
Track 2 (10:48) “The Organ Grinder's Mishap..” takes us in a different direction with an energetic tom-tom drum and cymbals cranking out while a clean echoey guitar slowly strums away. After a couple minutes it completely changes gear and turns into a synthesizer plunking away like a popcorn popper with a single guitar chord repetitively strummed. After the plunking ceases, the guitar plays on alone but actually sounds like it might be a harp actually. But it stops and weird electronic noises come in and then it goes into a rather experimental ambient mode with occasional drum crashes. The layers of electronic effects increase and everything utilized to create tension. After a while it changes up and shrill notes start to blast away and then begin to sound like the theme track to the “Jaws” movie (or maybe “Psycho”) and then it freaks out totally. It then becomes lullaby guitar music.
Track 3 (2:15) “The Last Tooth To Be Pulled” begins with upbeat drum driven synth funk with weird note slides on processed guitar that seem to be talking to each other. It stays weird and funky till the end.
Track 4 (10:16) “Alektorophobia” is a tripped out ghoulish electronic haunting that has a startling dramatic electronic bass crash that comes and goes. Perfect for Halloween! A steady drumbeat kicks in after a while. It abruptly changes into a weird galloping electronic sound with other synthesized notes adding a strange melody but after a while changes back into a sort of bigbeat type sound with heavy drumbeat and melodic synth line. It continues to get freakier with reverbing notes and then atonal polyphonic touches. It stays weird and freaky. This one is horrifying but i love it anyway.
Track 5 (2:57) “Electromagnetic Interference” begins with a bunch of clicking sounds and a talking “something” while jazz guitar is played in the background. Extra percussive things included. Track 6 (3:33) “The Sticker On Endorphins” is a strange series of electronic notes that sound like a 70s primitive video game. Melodic patterns do emerge briefly at times but mostly a drone type of note that comes and goes.
Track 7 (1:19) “One Last Breath” has tinkling guitars with note bends which simulate breathing i guess.
Track 8 (15:19) “Monsta Kreep-A-Thon Mk. II / The Revenge Of Mutant Slunkzilla” turns out to be another lengthy funk-a-thon with wickedly wild bass slapping away with a killa processed guitar tone that makes the monstas come out. Monsta funk is where it’s at after all. Yet another lengthy funk attack on this endless multi-disc release. This one stays funky as the bass remains a constant perpetual loop with different segments but always recurring. The guitar has permission to go for broke and creates some wild ass acrobatics within the confinements of the funk riff. It goes on far too long but the guitar manages to keep things interesting despite the length. A nice background track but not OMG or anything of the sort.
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E: 45:01 (Volume 13)
Track 1 (45:01) “The Butcher’s Last Dance”
is the grand finale of the 13 volume monster release with one ginormous one track lasting 3/4 of an hour. It begins with a rather unexciting electro-drumbeat and a few guitar slides but then it changes into a military march drum style with the guitar doing bluesy lick acrobatics around it. The guitar lick is replaced by either a keyboard or a totally processed guitar but basically doing the same thing. OK, it’s clear now that the guitar is simply changing tones and timbres and effects but basically juggling the same duties over the military percussive march. Sounds like “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” actually. The guitar parts get weirder and wilder.
Ten minutes in and the military march percussion continues as well as the guitar doing it’s antics around it. There is no bass to be heard or any other instruments. This is BH jamming on guitar around a monotonous metronome type of percussive style. Very impressive stuff as he gets funky, he gets down and dirty in the soloing department and dishes out all kinds of feedback and bluesy fury often in the Jimi Hendrix tradition. Around the 15 minute mark, this is all going strong as the march never ends and neither do the guitar gymnastics which get quite wickedly freaky at times.
Twenty minutes in, same military march but the guitar effects are getting more bizarre and bordering on electronica bloops and beeps but enough guitar twang keeps it grounded in the guitar world but it makes me wonder sometimes as everything becomes more atonal and video game sounding. There is even a very warped solo around “It’s A Small World After All,” you know, the Disneyland attraction. The guitar stops soloing and starts arpeggiating chords instead in a squeaky clean tone. The drum march continues unabated.
Thirty minutes in and it seems the military march is here for the entirety of this last disc finale but the guitar parts are getting more adventurous in not only unconventional soloing techniques but more reckless in distortion, tempo, timbre and are now aiming for the most bold and daring freakiness allowable by law. At this point i’m diggin’ the guitar parts but the percussive parts are becoming quite annoying and monotonous. The dichotomy has never been more clear at this point! Perhaps this is a lesson in how humankind has cut itself off from the nature rhythms of the universe. I dunno. Just sayin’!
Forty minutes in and guess what? The military march remains unchanged. The guitar parts have become unrecognizable as guitars as they not only ratchet up extreme speeds but create a surreal counterpoint to the monotonous percussive march. Never before have i heard two musical parts drift so far apart but i guess a half hour of pounding in a marching rhythm gives liberty to do such? By the time we get close to the end, the guitar sounds like a motor engine revving up at great speeds.
This is actually a brilliant strategy for a huge behemoth of a track but not exactly something that invites a repeated listen very often. However given the circumstances it does make this 13 CD release go out with an extraordinary bang.
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Total Time: 9 hours 27 minutes 37 seconds! Whew!!!!
What can i say about IN SEARCH OF THE, the ultimate multi-disc release? There is more than enough OMG outstanding material to be discovered here. There is also a lot of mediocrity as well, however, i think the joy of the treasures certainly outweighs the tracks that may not constitute greatness yet certainly don’t qualify as unlistenable. After sitting through this in its entirety it is quite clear that many of the eggs that would later hatch and constitute the never-ending Pike series were first laid here on this expansive set of experimentalism. In the end this behemoth of a release is just too bloated for an essential label but certainly is a notch above merely good. 3.5 sounds fair and each of the 12 volumes can easily be heard on YouTube but personally i love this one enough to actually seek out the physical copy. No clucking kidding, folks! And DO remember to give me a puppy treat for this one ;)