Buckethead
Bermuda Triangle
Catalyst Entertainment
What we have here is another example of Buckethead’s guitar nomad working methods; it’s an audio sketchbook of metallic doodles. This has been a busy year for the Michael Meyers/Jimi Hendrix hybrid. Aside from a fascinating performance at the MTV Video Music Awards where he wowed the masses with his nunchuka skill, a brief comeback tour with Guns N’ Roses, freaking out a curious celebrity media and Chris Rock (why won’t he take his mask off?), he’s also been very busy with his own projects, this being one of many for 2002. Loosely, a concept album of instrumentals based around the lore of the Bermuda Triangle, Bermuda Triangle is more to the point an almost accessible industrial dance record. Weird.
Collaborating with programmer Extrakd, Buckethead swoops and grinds over a series of hard-edged mechanical grooves that, at times, does recall the sinister blue void of Der Triangle. “Mausoleum Door” has a backbeat that is damn heavy, calling to mind BDP or Wu Tang Clan, with Buckethead dropping in super-grungy riffs or gentle teardrop solo notes. “Bionic Fog” is like Massive Attack trapped in a bathysphere. “Beestro Fowler” sounds like a funk band that’s on the comedown after jamming for twelve hours straight. “Whatevas” is guided along by a fucking smoking guitar hero solo that manages a pretty high amount of intuition over technique. “Isle Of Dead” begins with a sample of a woman asking, “Don’t you ever take off that mask,” and segues into a pretty disturbing post-trip hop headfuck. Almost club- or dub-worthy! This record is way fucking more than just guitar pyrotechnics. The point is, guys who won’t take their masks off, obsess over the refuse of popular culture, and live in chicken coops can still drive shivs through the fingers of other guitarists effortlessly. It could be you.
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