PIKE 83 - DREAMLESS SLUMBER

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 83 - Dreamless Slumber 42nd album out of 60 in 2014 and 112th overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This has only 9 tracks that clock in at 28:56 The tracks all blend seamless and have the same title

"Dreamless Slumber part one" (2:29) begins with a thundering percussive beat in the background and then a loose wire guitar lick and then it picks up into an industrial sounding grind sound only to yield to a clucking type guitar lick only to cede to a strange alternative riff and then off to something else like a ping pong ball with a guitar lick and then to a heavy rock riff and then tribal drums with squeaks and then funk then pure percussion free ambience where a guitar gently joins in and then it goes to creepsville just like the Halloween PIKES of 2015, but enough of that

"Dreamless Slumber part two" (4:39) picks up seamlessly and jumps into funk and then well, something else. The styles genre skip every few measures covering everything but the kitchen sink: hard rock, funk, strange electronica, funk rock. Mostly the beat stays the same but often that changes as well. This is unpredictable and cops a Mr Bungle attitude but is more spastic and adopts more bizarre sound effects. A certain style can stick around for a while or can make an appearance and then disappear never to be heard from again. Others can take over and come back in a few bars.

"Dreamless Slumber part three" drifts on to become "Dreamless Slumber part nine" for the rest of the PIKE but it continues the parade of disparate genre styles and has no shame wherever it goes. Funk seems to get played more than other styles as does one electronica induced rock sequence. Melodies come and go as well as there are circus themes and avant-garde noodlings. Even short Indian raga drumming. This is utterly aimless, meandering and has no goal other than to fill up every second with seemingly unrelated sounds to what preceded it.

While i do like these kinds of Frankenstein albums on occasion, this isn't one of the better ones in the PIKE series IMHO. This one tends to repeat certain genres a bit too much and there aren't any moments that really stand out. It's all just a blurry haze as if this album were symbolizing those insomnia induced states where SLUMBER is elusive and only scattered thoughts randomly come and go without no rhyme or reason. This one is a good decent listen but i prefer some of the other similar PIKES like "Pike 52 - Factory" which is outstanding