siLLy puPPy PIKE 209 - ROOMS OF ILLUSIONS is the 108th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015 where once again the man puts out an entirely instrumental album performed exclusively in a solo fashion. This is yet again a PIKE that hovers around the half hour mark clocking in at 29:14 and has five tracks all titled “Rooms Of Illusions.” This is another one where all the tracks run together seamlessly so it is basically a half hour slow simmering rocker.

It seems he’s not in a hurry to jump back into the heavy rock or funk styles that were common before the Halloween countdown. This one starts off as a slow rocker with a slowed-down tempo, pleasant mellow guitar that slightly echoes, a congo type percussive beat and an ambient background. Not far removed from the other types of albums of this type but this one has a thicker atmospheric background.

I keep waiting for something to development but this is one of those endless loop PIKES where the echoey guitar riff repeats to infinity and the timbres, tempos and dynamics are locked into automatic pilot never deviating. There are scarce little segments where the guitar changes it up a bit but never enough for my liking. Once again this is decent background music but is pretty boring otherwise. For those who like BUCKETHEAD’s slower ambient rockers only, the kind i find are the least interesting. Next