BUCKETHEAD — Pike 248 - Adrift In Sleepwakefulness (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 248 - Adrift In Sleepwakefulness album cover

Album · 2017 · Alternative Metal

2/5 · 2017-02-01
siLLy puPPy

BUCKETHEAD (as Bucketheadland) / Pike 247 - Adrift In Sleepwakefulness / 5th release of 2017 / All instrumental / Contains 6 tracks / Clocks in at 28minutes 15seconds / everything played by Buck-buck-buckethead

“Half See” (6:14) begins with a bluesy guitar strut that stays in a mid tempo range along with a subdued bass and drums but picks up steam after a minute into more rock territory. Melodically this sounds fairly similar to previous PIKE offerings with an alternation between softer and more upbeat segments and that famous semi-grungy guitar distortion however some parts have a different type of twang sound goin’ on which kinda sounds like a sitar but not quite. Very repetitive with some breakdowns. OK but nothing OMG

“Dreaming Frequencies” (3:33) begins with an ambient fog and clean tinkly guitar tones with a few percussive beats punctuating the hazy brume of sound. It drifts into a sleepy hazy melodic clean guitar riff with some cheesy program drumbeats. It remains slow for the most part but picks up a bit in the middle especially in the drum department and then a safe guitar solo erupts. It’s bluesy and frosted over with fluffy ambient padding. The drum machines ruin this one for me

“Empty Scroll” (4:17) picks up steam a bit with electric guitar riffs accompanied by bass and drums and a dirty grungy chord progression ensuing and alternating with the less distorted higher register riffs. Bass and drums obsequiously fall in line to what the guitar initiates. It’s rather repetitive as well. Too safe and uninspiring. Yawn

“Salvage The Fragments” (5:44) sounds a lot different than the other tracks. It begins with a beefy bass type of electronic percussion with a bluesy guitar riff that turns into a “clucking” type of chicken sounding guitar antic and then back to blues. The drums start sounding like they’re programmed somewhere down the line and turns me off. The bluesy guitars are fairly uninspiring and repetitive although i like the little clucking bits. OK but nothing outstanding

“Stare Into Trance” (3:41) is as predicted slow and trancy. However i didn’t expect a somewhat hyper percussive accompaniment. A clean guitar jumps in and all remains on just slightly faster than slow tempo. Sounds like an intro theme for a promotional video for a sales meeting or something. Just needs narration. “You can get RICH selling this crap if ONLY you buy 20 of these NOW!” Nah, fairly mediocre

“Adrift In Sleepwakefulness” (4:46) begins with strummed guitar chords and then a second clean guitar noodles around them. Ambience comes from nowhere as do cheesy drumbeats. A familiar sounding melodic development takes form. It picks up steam, it slows down and the drums sound like ping pong balls hitting the floor. It gains steam and sounds like a cheesy anthem for some island nation in a colonized land or maybe even a Disney hotel segment at the resort. I dunno. While i like the invention of new words as seen in the title, i prefer innovative music instead. This one unfortunately falls more on the “sleep” side of the spectrum for me

This PIKE is fairly boring for my ears. There are moments of interest but really too scant and the programmed drums on this one really sound out of place and rub me the wrong way