Pike 57 - Night Gallery Review

[jaerockets]

Pike 57 - Night Gallery - Released 2014 by Buckethead

★★★★★

Night Gallery is the 57th installment of Buckethead's never ending Pikes series. It features 4 tracks each titled "Painting" followed by the track number.

Painting 1 starts off with a little bit of spiraling guitar, which builds up into a slamdown breakdown skull crushing extravaganza. Super interesting start! After this, we get a little mellow section, with a hint of blues soloing, which transitions back into a more heavy feel, going up and down the guitar neck in various patterns and variations, as a sticky bass trots along in the background, carrying the song along. Throughout the song we get some shredding, bluesy funk, ambient, weird shit, and a healthy mix of the three. Part of what makes this so interesting is how each idea folds into the next, transitioning with ease between completely different sounds. Topped off with all sorts of unique embellishments and transitions, this is a fantastic example of Buckethead's improvisational side. This is the kind of stuff that I enjoy the most when listening to Buckethead. It's just completely unlike anything else.

Painting 2 strolls in with a wah turned up to 11 intro on guitar, followed up by some noises only Buckethead can make. We've got a mix of little digital scratches and wobbles, jazzy background drums, guitar amp hum, a surprisingly simple bass line, and some avant-garde soloing over the top of it all, which goes back and forth between long, drawn out notes and straight up shredding. This sounds like painting one on steroids and I'm in love with it.

Painting 3 is a sort of mix between the first two tracks. It feels a bit more contained and somewhat structural than track two, but way more chaotic and haphazard than painting 1. This is Buckethead's guitar gallery, and we are all witnesses of its many winding halls and passageways [side note - Buckethead makes some really cool paintings that he sells on his website, that would look absolutely awesome in an art gallery. I've bought a couple myself].

Painting 4 reins it in a bit with a more structured approach, utilizing a simple looping bassline as the main focus. The guitar fades in and out, making seemingly random noises that don't fully resemble any particular musical style. This sort of feels like the track that plays as you confusedly stumble out of the Bucketheadland art gallery as you fight off psychosis - the paintings lunging out at you, their various ligaments outstretched. funky

Night Gallery is, in the words of Rush, an exercise in self-indulgence. An all out 30 minute display of musical creativity and noise making. For fans of more experimental, improvisational music, this is right up your alley. Fans of more accessible music should probably steer clear.