BUCKETHEAD — Pike 57 - Night Gallery (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 57 - Night Gallery album cover

Album · 2014 · Non-Metal

4.5/5 · 2016-09-13
siLLy puPPy

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 57 - NIGHT GALLERY 16th album out of 60 in 2014 and 87th overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has 4 tracks that clock in at 30:11 All tracks are titled “Painting” with numbers: 1 thru 4 The only PIKE where BUCKETHEADLAND is translated into Japanese on the cover

“Painting 1” (12:35) starts off with weird slide electronic noises accompanied by bass and drums kinda serving as freaky substitute for the guitar. It then slows down and becomes very psychedelic with a clean guitar and bass line off in its own world. The drums also slow down but then it picks up into a doom metal type of riffage with lead guitars slowly oozing around the bass laden riff. The mix offers a foreboding and surreal soundscape. The time sigs of the instruments syncing in and out of each other’s space is quite wild. As it progressively progresses it becomes even more weird. The instruments slow down a lot like their almost ready to faint and the tension becomes unbearable but then they break into a doomy kind of funk. It basically continues to go through these periods of musical cooperation of the instruments and then lapse into total breakdown which is the BUCKETHEAD version of no wave i presume. This is highly experimental and only for the most seasoned progheads who crave unrelenting progressive workouts laced with only unorthodox nightmares come to life. Personally i’m diggin’ this one. Not as OMG as some of the other experimental ones but totally bizarre and takes me to Creepopolis. The bass generally chucks along like a drunk cow stumbling about in a hilly pasture but the guitar does freak out toward the end creating weird and wild “solos”?

“Painting 2” (4:30) continues the hyper low bass line but has a more funk riff although very slow. A strange guitar riff accompanies but so do wild electronic bleeps and buzzes. Like the last track, this one starts off with a riff and then totally breaks down into some strange no wave type action where the instruments become totally independent and create a terrifying collage of horrificness. They get back together and create a jarring and actual scary type of freaky effect. I’m not really sure what is going on much less describe it all. It’s like the guitar has the sound of ghost haunting a house, while another bluesy guitar sorta keeps a melody going on all the while keyboards add weird layers of effects. The bass and drums continue to keep the rhythm as to keep the whole thing from spiraling out of control, but whoa! This is really trippy music!

“Painting 3” (7:44) begins just as trippy as the previous track. It has a very strange processed bass line, a strange guitar lick over it and a steady drum beat in the mid-tempo range. Keyboards add weird effects as well. This one at least keeps a fairly rhythmic march without any total break downs in rhythmic continuity however the collusion of the melody making instruments does fly all over the place and there are moments when the percussion drops out briefly but the rhythm seems to keep a steady pace. The bass actually is starting to remind me of a purring lion or something. It is truly unique sounding. The guitar licks are sort of angular but maintain a very twisted melody at the same time. Also very unique

“Painting 4” (5:22) is the most normal sounding of all. The bass begins like spy movie soundtrack with a repetitive and catchy riff with the guitar slowly weaving in and out with distorted chords. The bass line seems to continue its hypnotic charm while the guitars get ever more echoey and distorted and psychedelic and they sound like they’re burrowing into another dimension. All the while the drums are rather subdued just keeping a slight counterpoint to the frenetic bass line upon which this whole track is structured around. This type of track reminds me of the song structures of psychedelic rock bands like The Legendary Pink Dots although a tad more hyperactive.

This is a very unique and cool PIKE. Love it!