siLLy puPPy BUCKETHEAD (as Bucketheadland) / Pike 266 - Far / 23rd release of 2017 / All instrumental / Contains 5 tracks all titled “Far” / Clocks in at 27minutes 33seconds / everything played by Buck-buck-buckethead. It’s another lullaby album :O

“Far 1” (3:57) begins with a snail’s paced tempo. Echoey spacey clean guitar tones, intermittent bass notes and lazy dreamy percussion. A melody develops and a few distorted electrical guitar parts join in but this track is very much on cloud nine. It picks up again towards the end with power chords but never picks up tempo and reverts back to the space rock that it began as.

“Far 2” (4:34) picks up a similar melody with clean guitar and sounds like the track 1 with a few more guitar parts but picks up more distortion and creates a similar melody. Not too much different on this track but has a few guitar squeals here and there. Similarly alternates between the quiet passages and the more energetic segments.

“Far 3” (4:48) picks up imperceptibly and continues pretty much the same tempo, same riffing and very similar melody. It is a little more energetic as it immediately picks up steam and eventually a little tempo but remains fairly chilled out space rock.

“Far 4” (3:54) sounds like a record getting stuck on the same track. It begins with the same slow tempo clean guitar riffs but does pick up a bit with heavier riffing but the melody sounds almost identical to pretty much all the other tracks.

“Far 5” (10:40) the longest track begins similarly but more atmospheric ambience and begins immediately with heavier guitar riffs along with the space rock sounds. A guitar solo is finally allowed to erupt into a sped up bluesy frenzy. Although this one has more of rockin’ feel, it still is nothing more than a repetitive loop of a few chords that continue on with soloing over the main rhythm.

This one goes on FAR too long. It’s repetitive, it’s predictable and for me it’s quite boring. It’s one of those PIKEs that’s decent background music if you’re focusing on something else but as an active listening experience it just lacks enough variety. After my favorite PIKE of 2017, this one ranks amongst my least liked. Ah, BUCKETHEAD. You really know how to keep changing things up!