DISSECTING BUCKETHEAD
Part 6/50
Buckethead has a five album discography now. We last heard from him on his eclectic album
Monsters & Robots, which was a solid release and kept Buckethead’s reputation afloat.
KFC Skin Piles is to date the only EP Buckethead has ever released. It was supposedly made for DJs to be utilized as a scratching and mixing tool. It is also currently, to my knowledge, out of print.
It is probably a good thing that Buckethead decided not to repress
KFC Skin Piles either. Even for its short 20 minute runtime, the album manages to be a big mess. While the tracks feature a few interesting parts, the album is saturated in dumb samples, repetitive sections, and even a few recycled tidbits. The tracks aren’t even titled properly. They are simply called “A1”, “A2”, “B1”, and “B2”. I can’t really think of a better way to review this album other then prove my points by giving you a synopsis of what happens in the album.
The EP kicks off with “A1”. The track starts with a sample of something that one might hear on the Discovery Channel. In other words, it’s some dude talking about moles digging tunnels. It’s kind of funny the first few times but it eventually wears thin after repeated listens. The guy says “When he sees the sun, he is blinded” and then Buckethead inserts the instrumental beat from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” into the song randomly. Firstly, it’s nice that Buckethead payed homage to MJ here, but it is a really unnecessary inclusion of his track. Also, if DJs really wanted to use “Thriller” in their mixes, they could just use the actual song instead of this mess of an EP. The Michael Jackson beat ends up getting really repetitive after awhile. After about two and a half minutes Buckethead does a shred solo which is kind of cool, but feels really disjointed. The last four minutes of this track is just an ominous beat with tidbits of guitar playing in it. While the last four minutes are interesting, it just gets really repetitive as it doesn’t change at all.
The Beginning of “A2” seems like some YouTube Poop. If I wanted to watch YouTube Poop, I’d watch YouTube Poop. Basically the first minute of this song is a compilation of samples that seem like they were already lying around on Buckethead’s computer and Buckethead put no thought into mashing them together for one song. A guitar eventually comes in and plays some boring metal riffs. The song eventually does a complete 360 and turns into some Merzbow B-side. There are a few cool sounds Buckethead makes during his noise freak out. It ends with some guy saying “I’m not afraid to kill you, because there is no death”. It made me laugh.
“B1” starts with some sample that is too quiet to hear. A guitar solo plays that is layered under every effect known to man. It just sounds abrasive. Buckethead goes back to playing dumb sample after dumb sample in succession. The rest of the song is a lone drum beat with the occasional piano drifting in and out. It sounds like a
Day Of The Robot b-side which really isn’t a good thing. This is probably the worst song on the record.
“B2” kicks off with a redone version of “Pirate’s Life For Me”. I already didn’t like the track when it was on
Giant Robot, so it doesn’t really help my already negative opinion on this EP. However, his new rendition is slightly more interesting than his old track. There is another abrasive guitar solo that sounds almost exactly like the one from “B1”. After a mediocre sample, a funky beat ensues and probably shines as the best moment on this EP. However, even this cool beat manages to overstay its visit by being three minutes of the exact same thing. We then get a brief 10 seconds of a guy farting and more samples and noise. The EP closes with the continuous ringing of an abrasive guitar note.
That is basically all you need to know about
KFC Skin Piles. So far, it is the worst thing Buckethead has released. It has a few cool ideas, but it is marred by dumb samples and repetitive musical pieces. Even if you were to give him the benefit of the doubt, as this music was meant for DJs to use. I couldn’t really see why DJs would really want to use this for anything as the majority of it is just dumb or abrasive. Even if you are an avid fan of Big B, you'd be better off picking up a different Buckethead album. There is a
lot more material for you to choose from.
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
