| If you read Guitar Player, you've been noticing that bizarre "Psychobuddy"
column by one Buckethead. At first I wondered if it weas a joke, but I know
better now, this guy is real.
His name is Brian Carrol and he's from California (where else?). He performs
in that getup, KFC bucket on his head and a mask on his face. He also
reportedly has a fixation with Disneyland and goes a couple of times a
month???
Well, the important thing is what does he sound like and the answer is...about
how he looks. To date, I know of three recordings he's worked on, I own two of
them (the third is a Will Ackerman album on Windham Hill...can't imagine why
Buckethead is here).
-->Henry Kaiser "How Do You Like Our New Direction" (Reckless)
This Kaiser album has Hank doing one track in collaboration with our buddy. It
features the two trading licks over some really warped drum machine tracks.
Kaiser does his usual Garcia-meets-Beefheart-and-Pete-Cosey-on Uranus thing and
Buckethead blasts through some speed metal licks that should open a few eyes.
Not especially remarkable music overall, but from a chops standpoint, it shows
Buck to be both insanely fast and enamored of oddball scalar passages and
strange intervals.
-->Praxis "Transmutation" (Axiom)
Bill Laswell, who produced this, has a history of throwing together people who
ordinarily might seem to have nothing in common and making fascinating music
out of it. Who else would think of pairing jazz drummer Tony Williams with
Johnny Rotten? This time he brings our pal Buck into the studio with P-Funk
regulars Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell, drummer "Brain" from LimboManiacs
and a hip-hop turntable operator named N. Hall (going under the name Af
Next...mumble, mumble). ????
What does this mean? Well, remember those old Zappa records where everytime it
seemed like the band was going to start getting into something cool, there was
a tape splice and you flew into something altogether different? This is sort
of like that. There are elements of hip-hop (scratching, sampling), reggae
(heavy dub grooves), funk, metal and space jamming. The only vocal piece is
"Animal Behavior" where Bootsy gets down with some typical nonsense.
For the first few tunes, Buck is heard sparingly, some thrash chords here and
there, snippets of leads popping up in the mix, etc. At the end of "Animal
Behavior" he plays an extended coda which is quite pretty, and not really out
of the ordinary as metal ballad playing goes. However, it's just the guitar!
Sounds like the band was backing him up on the master tape, but was mixed out.
The next few tracks feature the guitar more prominently, and Buck starts to
show his prowess. For that matter, Bootsy and Brain, despite "funk" pedigrees,
dig in with some satisfying thumping and Worrell sprays B3 over the top while
scratches and samples pop in and out of the mix. Nice stuff. The last tune
starts nicely enough, but sort of spaces out after about six minutes and goes
on for another ten minutes of oddball noddles over a bed of eerie organ.
I got his CD from a friend who *hated* it and gave it to me for nothing, which
was nice, because I couldn't find a copy of this anywhere. Now I know why!
The first few spins for me were odd (I fell asleep the first time it was in the
CD player) but repeated listneings have drawn me further into it and it's
either starting to make sense or I'm going insane, take your pick.
So what's the story with ol' Buckethead? He seems to have serious metal chops
and his "image" is certainly well constructed, probably the biggest screwball
to come down the pike since Sun Ra and Beefheart. I think most noters here
will want to wait for a "solo" release from the guy. I seriously doubt he will
*ever* be anywhere near the mainstream, but if you like your music a bit "out
there", take a listen.
Barfbaghead
|
| Well, I have to admit I *actually own* a shred album that I *like*.
It's not a *great* album, in fact it has some serious flaws but it just
might be the mellowest shred album ever. Imagine Satch and Stu on stage
trading steamin' 32-second note quintuplets when the North Koreans drop
an H-bomb on the hub of the US power grid, causing the permanent loss
of all electricity...
That's kinda what "Octave of the Holy Innocents" sounds like. It's
credited jointly to Jonas Hellborg (you may remember he of the shaved
head playing with Mahavishnu II and completing his bass soli by
slamming his bass into the stage), Michael Shrieve (original Santana
drummer and co-conspirator in various whacked out fusion and new age
projects like Go and Automatic Man) and old KFC-kead hisself.
For some reason (perhaps the amps blew up; maybe they were simply
repossessed) Buck and Jonas stick to acoustic axes this time, but it
still has the usual shred/fusionoid trademarks we have all grown to
love over the years. Many of the tunes are set up by Shrieve's
polyrhythmic space funk for a few bars until Jonas and Buck come in
with some brain-frying unison passage and then it's "first one to the
bridge gets the solo" time. This may be due to the fact that Jonas now
has very long hair and a beard; perhaps this "jam-till-yer-fingers-fall-
off" format is his homage to Black Oak Arkansas?
It's kind of weird to hear typical shred licks coming out of a Martin
D-28, but that's what's going on here. Hellborg even manages to do
some wicked slapping on his acoustic bass guitar, something I have
never heard anyone else be able to pull off...he might actually be the
first person to make it a real instrument and not just a fashion
accessory for metal bands slumming on MTV's Undrugged show.
The weakest point is the mix. The drums tend to overpower the bass and
guitar, and since Hellborg is the producer, he tends to be audible
throughout, while Buckethead tends to get lost in the ether a lot. If
you were to put the CD on and walk into another room to clear the lint
out of your dryer, you might think you had cued up a Billy Cobham
instructional tape by accident. Maybe drummers will find this to be a
fitting revenge after years of having to play second fiddle to Marshall
stacks 8^)
This CD isn't for everybody, that's for sure. Rock-oriented shredders
may find this too fuzed out, jazz heads may object to the rock
overtones, country fans will miss the nasal vocals, etc.
By the way, the album is from Sweden, so it aint easy to find, but that
only adds to the Buckethead mystique 8^)
Mike Smarmy
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