BUCKETHEAD — Pike 63 - Grand Gallery (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 63 - Grand Gallery album cover

Album · 2014 · Non-Metal

3/5 · 2016-09-27
siLLy puPPy

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 63 - GRAND GALLERY 22nd album out of 60 in 2014 and 93rd overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has only 2 tracks that clock in at 29:43

“Omplat” (10:02) begins with deep electrified dungeon synth sounds. Kinda like an electrical current that repeats a note for a while and then bends a bit and percolates in strange rhythms. This one very much is a precursor to the countdown to Halloween series that would follow in 2015. There seems to be a melody struggling to emerge from the abyss but just when it starts to take flight some strange jagged irregular sonic interference clips its wings and weirdness ensues. A weird succession of noises sounds like a couple of electronic keyboards “talking” to each other develops with guitar slides added for freak out’s sake. Sometimes it sounds like a cat being stretched in a torture device. For the most part this is totally non-musical. This is about as impressionistic and random as it can get and therefore will please very few listeners with some expectation of anything remotely connected to rock, funk or even what most would deem electronica. This is nothing more than a parade of noises that are quite startling and freaky. Think Coil only in cahoots with Nurse With Wound and you’ll be approaching the alienating effect. While i mostly love BH’s most experimental works, this one is a hard pill to swallow but amazingly effective for evoking the most surreal and alienating response. I do appreciate that! He’s simply done it better especially on the Halloween countdown series that follow

“Monster Zero” (19:40) after the jarring ending of “Omplat” this track begins with smooth and calm notes that sorta slide in and out of key. Then an echoey distorted industrial noise bursts into the scene. A guitar goes through some surreal gymnastics as it slides up and down the scale in unintelligible ways. A cello then takes over as it plucks over silence but then the jarring dissonance of the guitar scale comes back. Wow. This is weird stuff that is something between Karlheinz Stockhausen and Merzbow. This can only be classified as noise. There is no musical structure. Sounds are random and little melodic snippets punctuate the chaos of outer sonic space but it is all extremely Musique concrète. Edgard Varèse, John Cage and even Lou Reed would approve if they were around to give this a listen. There is obviously some kind of hidden structure to this. It’s pointillistic as hell. There is most likely some sort of obvious melody that has been totally obfuscated and painted over with a scaffolding of sound in the name of art!

This one has the power to scare of burglars, intruders and terrorists alike. Just put this on and clear any room in less than 30 seconds. I’m sure it would also repel rodents and tenacious insects alike, yet somehow i’m a glutton for punishment and find beauty in this seeming chaos. There’s simply something about the flow of it all that i find somewhat attractive. While i’m digging this i’m not loving it as much as some of the other similar albums BH created in 2015. This one is cool in its weirdness and all but isn’t as perfected as some of the ones to come. I’m sure very few will dig this. Think of Dedalus’ “Materiale Per Tre Esecutori E Nastro Megnetico.” If you like that kind of stuff only amped up a few notches in the weirdness department then this one is for you. For everyone else who wants “musical structure” that being recognizable patterns, scales, melodies and the most common things humans associate with music then run to the hills. This one is like a fire breathing dragon discharging pyromancy on your Pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree collection.