CHICKEN NOODLES (WITH TRAVIS DICKERSON)

CHICKEN NOODLES is the first of several albums that form a collaborative effort of BUCKETHEAD and TRAVIS DICKERSON. Both are given credit on the album cover and are the only two musicians on the album. As with most BH albums, this one is all instrumental and was inspired by the track "Cruel Reality Of Nature" for the "Population Override" album. It started out as a stripped down version of that track but became a full album's worth of ideas where the duo got carried away and manage to hit the 51 minute mark.

Musically this is a very subdued and mellow form of jazz-fusion with BUCKETHEAD playing guitars and DICKERSON handling the keyboards. The guitar is mainly composed of an echoey clean spacey series of licks and riffing while the keys are somewhat electro- funky and sound somewhere between the mellow jazz-rock of the Weather Report and the funk-jazz of Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters." The mood is very much a playful jam session and nothing gets too heavy or complex. The album cruises on slow to mid tempo rhythms with a lot of vibraphone type sounds emerging from the keys.

This one is basically a pre-Pike specialty that is the fundamental basis of many of the lullaby albums that punctuate BUCKETHEAD's avant-garde universe. It is beautifully melodic with pleasant melodies that slink along for extended periods of time like lazy loops of lethargic love prancing about like pinwheels in the wind. Personally i find this type of music much more interesting with two musicians than the solo efforts of BH on future release because the counterpoints of the two musicians create a more dynamic effect than BH simply unleashing overblown repetitive riffs that wear out their welcome.

Overall a fairly catchy combo effect of ambient atmospheres and jazz-fusion jamming in sensual sessions that are easy to get lost in as they are totally dreamy and capture not only a subdued jazz-funk vibe but a nice placid lounge lizard aura like a stress-free vacation at Rancho Relaxo. Another early triumph of the chicken lover and one of his partners in crime and a nice respite between the heavy headed avant-garde metal albums that surround it. There would also be a "Chicken Noodles II" and a couple more albums shared by these two.