The following songs should be viewed as a separate entity, since they’re a different cup of tea. Even though there are merely two true solos in there, these tracks remain melodic – a real achievement, judging by Pepper’s Ghost. A nice batch of six songs showcasing what the man is capable of, probably the best starting place for pending Bucketbots, and the leading conversion sampler where I live – the greatness of these pieces is definitely unquestionable.

One gets pretty much everything served up here on a platter with cutlery right next to it: there is the ‘royal’-sounding godson of “Nottingham Lace” by the name of “King James” with some really beautiful breakdowns “Hook and Pole Gang” revisited with a superb funky solo, rechristened as “Gory Head Stump 2006 – Pageant of Slunks” the too-emotional-to-be-real “Fairy and the Devil”, which always makes my eyes glaze a little the one-of-a-kind-until-March-2007 “Ballad of Buddy Berkman”, a tidbit setting the riff and structure pattern for Buckethead’s next album weirdness with its hair groomed and nails cut on “Mad Monster Party” – a rather psychotic combination, and the outcome is one of the eeriest songs I’ve ever heard plus the recent tour fave “Soothsayer”, slightly restrained on record, but still very impressive. The tracks are well thought-out, witty, melodic, heartfelt, just the perfect listening experience when one does not feel like dipping too deep into the murky lands of experimentation explored by Big B on his previous releases.

The first six songs are commonly considered to be perfection among Bucketbots, and I do not question that statement. Without further ado, on to the music itself. The remaining cuts are a different story, though.

That fact is easily justified – this is, by far, Buckethead’s best ‘mainstream’ outing till now, and even I, the ‘Big B mainstream outing hater’ tend to get a crack out of listening to the first six tracks, and that’s definitely saying something! The songs on here have a certain spark, they seem to have been really fun for Big B, who put a lot of heart and thought into them. This was originally a tour-only, but the demand for this album was so high that it ended up being made available to the public other tour-only records followed suit rather quickly. Extensive usage of the whammy pedal and killswitch throughout. Review Summary: A record that should be considered as two separate entities - the first half is a very listener-friendly collection of catchy tunes, and the remaining tracks are rather experimental.

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