BUCKETHEAD — Pike 169 - The Windowsill (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 169 - The Windowsill album cover

Album · 2015 · Alternative Metal

3/5 · 2015-12-08
siLLy puPPy

PIKE 169 - THE WINDOWSILL is the 68th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015. This PIKE is a three tracker with all instrumentals. Once again BUCKETHEAD is the exclusive handler of all the instruments heard and like most of the PIKES this one clocks in around the 30 minute mark going 22 seconds over.

Track 1 “The Moors” (14:34) starts out with a funkified bass line and a bizarre tinny sort of guitar that adds a strange counterpoint to the bass. Drums are a little canned sounding but in the background. There are also some electronic noises that add ambience at the right moments. Guitars turns into a more fuzzed out distortion but when drops becomes a funky bass line again. The trade off continues and the segments vary in time signatures and tempo. The bass line has a kind of dominant aggressive swag to it. It is clearly in control of the musical direction and uses its gravitational force to dominate the other instruments. This one is pretty cool actually. Leave it to BUCKETHEAD to create a new kind of funk sound. While the track length seems excessive for a funky type of bass song, this one has lots of variations with riffs, beats and distortion tones changing it up just when it needs to. Time sig changes are abound and the overall feel is electrifying. Even the obvious drum machine doesn’t sound out of place on this one. There are also guitar and synth guitar solos. I’m loving it. Good start.

Track 2 “The Dunes” (4:27) starts out with another bass line that sounds tuned down and even slightly off with a unique type of slap reverb effect. This one is the shortest and only comprises a bass line with accompanying drums. BUCKETHEAD shows off his virtuoso bass skill as well as some of these slaps and runs are seriously fast with runs on the higher and lower strings doing all kinds of weird stuff. This one has a moderately funky feel which is it’s base sound but it is really much more of a progressive funk where all kinds of liberties are executed at any given moment without distracting from the main rhythmic flow. Another very good song. 2 in a row! Woo hoo!

Track 3 “The Windowsill” (11:21) starts out differently than the previous two. This one starts with a bluesy guitar accompanied by a counter bass line with the tempo slowed down to a simmer. The tones of the guitar and bass remain the same as the other two tracks only the style has changed. The bass is style slightly funky but more of an accompaniment for the dominant blues rock guitar soloing that meanders on into the distance. There are also some echo effects and other embellishments but overall this is the least impressive track as it is a little out of sync with the other two and doesn’t exhibit the same bold and playful variations. Also this blues rock soloing with a repetitive bass riff is pretty stale at this point. OK but i’m bored by this one.

I like the first two tracks which are about 2/3 of the album but find the last track to be well played but fairly mediocre. So i guess this one gets 3 stars.