BUCKETHEAD — Pike 189 - 18 Days Til Halloween: Blue Squared (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 189 - 18 Days Til Halloween: Blue Squared album cover

Album · 2015 · Non-Metal

4/5 · 2015-12-17
siLLy puPPy

PIKE 189 - 18 DAYS TIL HALLOWEEN: BLUE SQUARED is the 88th album released by BUCKIETHEAD in 2015 and the 14th installment in the countdown to HALLOWEEN. The chicken lover pumps out another dark ambient spooky soundtrack to commemorate his seemingly favorite holiday. All sounds brought to you by BUCKETHEAD himself and this PIKE clocks in at 29:02 with 4 tracks titled “Blue Squared.” Could this be a blues album by chance? Yeah right. This is a BUCKETHEAD album. Expect the unexpected. These tracks do not run together like previous PIKES that have the same titles.

“Part 1” (10:52) starts off showing a more musical album than the previous dark ambient ones. This has a Kraftwerk type of dark synth pop hook that leads things off. There is a treble part provides the melody with an accompanying bass that mostly provides a percussive beat with subordinate harmonic duties. In fact i would actually believe this was Kraftwerk if i didn’t know better. This is actually very well done with a repetitive beat that includes all kinds of variations around it.

“Part 2” (3:00) is completely different and a stark contrast to the previous. This is only an overlay progressive percussiveness. It sounds like a steel drum or something but echoed severely with another percussive sound over it then some weird electronic noises take turns reverberating. Enter the eerie and haunted church organ to accompany them. This is really cool and more down-to-Earth haunted HALLOWEEN music than some of those wickedly trippy and spaced out PIKES.

“Part 3” (8:29) begins with a cacophonous rumble of organ keys like all of them played at once. Then a spooky melodic organ scale is played over the din. This is another wickedly cool haunted house track and something i could totally imagination at the haunted house at Disneyland or other amusement parks. If there ever is a haunted house at a real BUCKETHEADLAND then this is just what the twisted demons ordered. The end is a repetitive swirl of ghostly sounds in the background with stuck-like-a-record organ groove that sustains the spookiness.

“Part 4” (6:41) starts with more reverberating percussion sounds that alternate. When the dungeon synth kicks in it sounds more like a stripped down Kraftwerk track again but then the mood changes entirely and enter the buzzing sustained hum of some electronic noise with some higher pitches that reverberate. Then it changes again. A new spooky dark ambient atmosphere erupts. It is bassier and has a living dead type of feel. Creepy entities emerging from the grave to do unthinkable things to the living. Heh heh. Another effective haunting.

This one is way cool. Yet another dark ambient HALLOWEEN PIKE that rubs me in all the right ways. Some of these really do deliver all the goods for one of the spookiest musical experiences i have ever encountered. On this one i really feel like i have entered the Twilight Zone where i have to look over my shoulders because the paranoia is killing me!