MARCH OF THE SLUNKS

PIKE 9 - MARCH OF THE SLUNKS is the 5th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2012 and his 39th studio solo album overall. It was released on 20 Sept with "Rackss" and "The Silent Picture Book" and is yet another all instrumental album exclusively played by BH although Dan Monti and Albert are still on board for mixing, programming and producing. This one has 11 tracks and it clocks in at 30 minutes & 36 seconds. Tracks are clearly differentiated

"Magellan's Maze" (2:59) starts out as an aggressive alternative metal rocker with guitar riffage and heavy bass and drums but then turns into a mellow passageway and then turns into a staccato passage and then another busy riff. Whew! This one moves fast but is basically variations on the same metal melodic development

"Burying Toys" (2:13) has an electronic drumbeat, starts out with heavy chords and then reverts into a spacey guitar sequence that alternates with the heavy thrashy guitar. It basically sounds like space rock meets thrash metal where the two are battling it out. There are other weird sound effects in the space rock parts

"Malbert's Strut" (3:19) is a mellow funky rocker at mid-tempo sounding like a theme to some jive turkey show from the 70s. Funky bass meets jazzy blues guitar with some serious wah-wah action and attitude that oozes from the cauldrons of Soul Train

"Happy Landing" (2:22) sounds like an IDM track (Intelligent Dance Music) such as Boards Of Canada, Autechre etc at first but becomes a seriously hyper-funky bass line with electronic percussion and then turns into a totally freaked out guitar sequence with bizarre effects and then a solo that turns into metal riffage and then into a very mellow section and then into something else etc. It's A Small World After All ya know

"The Robot Who Lost Its Head" (3:59) is an acoustic or acoustic sounding ballad rather that has a nice chord progression sequence. Similar to the "Colma" type of sound but pleasantly unfurls with cool cymbal action at the end and has an extremely long fade out

"Thud" (1:42) is a dirty old school thrash frenzy. It starts out somewhat mid-tempo and then goes for the gusto

"Satellite Invaders" (3:11) is as evidenced by the title a little spacey but ultimately is a bit of a spaced out mid-tempo bluesy rocker that has a pleasant blues riff and a steady bass and drums. Something about this one makes it my favorite track. It's just so well done. I think the bass line and overall song structure reminds me of early 80s bands like Red Rider

"The Other Side of the Island" (2:44) reverts us back to alternative metal. Crunchy guitar riffage with slight off time sigs that then give way to a percussionless ambient section and then back to metal riffage creates a nice contradiction that repeats the dynamics and then at the end adds some seriously funky bass and drums to the mix

"Ghost Coop" (3:27) is a laid back and very slowed down guitar and ambient number that has a very subdued rock aspect. Has a unique swag about it. Actually like it "The Raid" (3:06) is very strange. I'm not even sure how to describe this. It's weird. A very fast-paced guitar riff with some strange accompaniments. The synths and the guitars are living on different musical planes but somehow work together. This is some of the spaciest and weirdest music i've ever heard. This is officially my favorite track on the album. Wild and woolly all the way. Has a slight surf rock rhythm going on, but very metallic at the same time

"Vault" (1:51) is a strange little number as well. It is a guitar that slides all around with an electronic drumbeat. It seems like it's constructed to keep a rhythm while the avant-garde melody slides up and down scales. Very weird

I like this one actually. It's not the best but it is certainly original and entertaining. I will give this 3.5 stars because it's one that i will definitely want to hear again but not the cream of the crop

3.5 rounded down