siLLy puPPy PIKE 33 - PUMPKIN is the 23rd album released in the PIKE series by BUCKETHEAD in 2013 and the 63rd overall solo studio album. This is yet another eclectic instrumental album that BH graces us with his instrumental prowess and production handled by Dan Monti and Albert once again. This is the first example of BUCKETHEAD’s fascination with the Halloween holiday and really a precursor to the 2015 thirty one day countdown to Halloween. This one is totally dark ambient and experimental. All Tracks are titled PUMPKIN PIKEs 1-18 and this was the very first PIKE to be available totally free of charge. This one clocks in at 31:10 and all tracks kinda run into each other sometimes but not always and is a fairly short creating a true album feel. Actually this totally brings a 70s Goblin soundtrack feel to mind, so if ya dig em, then you’ll dig this on a more wacked out level. This is the first evidence that BH is a gifted sound collage / ambience musician as well as all else

FIRST track starts out with spooky keys but becomes a very strange sound collage of a buzzer sound drone, thunderstorm sort of ambience with a strange series of mixed overlapping effects ranging from a sorta goat vomiting effect to a bang on the plumbing pipes with effects type of thang. Pretty cool for a weird freaky type of atmospheric development. 2 stops and 3 begins with a rather Japanese koto type of string sound and an avant-garde background but quickly turns into 4, a totally ambient track that has rhythm at times and at times not. Very Coil or Throbbing Gristle actually. Track 5 turns into more Japanese string traditionals with more industrial Nurse With Wound type action. Track 6 sorta continues the Japanese thing with industrial noise. It has only the slightest melodic development. A very strange collage effect at this point.

SEVENTH track is a less Japanese electro continuation of the album but track 8 but then becomes samisen-ish. Track 8 sounds like an electro-pig in its short duration but cedes to Japanese traditional while adding background electronic piggery. Track 9 continues this while track 10 emphasizes Japanese samisen strings and track 11 continues it. Lotsa background ambience while samisen string pluck in erratic manners continuing the overall theme.

The rest of the tracks are short and run together and create an eerie Japanese meets American horror soundtrack. This one is pretty cool as an ambient, freaky, scary, bizarre creation. I’ve always been a fan of BH’s most experimental and psychotic offerings and this one is definitely in the top tier of bizarre and wild offerings. There is nothing metal about this one. This is ambient and synthesized to the max. It is freaky and incorporates Japanese stringed instruments to the mix. I find it works well for me. Ends playing a banjo competing with dark ambience. Something i will be revisiting!