PIKE 315 - ARBORETUM

Another month of PIKE releases continues with BUCKETHEAD's usual mix of diverse genre shifts. After a couple avant-garde freak shows it's time for another one of those lullaby albums that features clean guitars, a lallygagging bass line and minimal percussion all wrapped up in a emotive tear jerking cloud of synthesized atmospheres.

This is features only two tracks which are parts one and two and both called "Arboretum." "Part 1" sprawls on for 19 1/2 minutes and is one of those sleepy atmospheric slow burners. Anyone who has been in the PIKE club for a while knows exactly what i'm talking about. While some seem to love these somnambulist soundtracks with their dreamy lazy processions, i'm not one of them and they pretty much all sound the same! With a post-rock style of cyclical loops they get boring fairly quickly and even though i force myself to sit through these i do not enjoy them one bit. Any musician could construct this music in one sitting. Yawn.

"Arboretum Part 2" is only 7 1/2 minutes long and picks up the steam a bit with slightly more energetic drumming and arpeggiated guitar chords. Still clean tones and dreamy atmospheres. Marginally more interesting with different breaks and deviations from the never-ending cyclical loop but one of those track styles that has been done countless times in the PIKE universe at this point and nothing to get excited about. A sprawling time length of anything over three minutes is unwarranted. How many times do these themes with almost no variations need to be revisited?

Apparently the pattern is that whenever BH releases one of those unhinged avant-garde metal albums or two that showcases his real talents as a musician / guitarist and freak show in general, he always follows up with one of these melatonin releasing PIKEs to prove that he hasn't lost his knack for also producing some of the most boring musical experiences there are to be heard. How many times can you simply slightly change albums like "Colma" around and call it new music? Apparently for over 30 years now and after the initial ones that actually were beautiful before the PIKEs ever hatched, it was a pleasant devotion from the norm but enough already.