Throwback Thursday: "Population Override", by Buckethead

In 2004 the enigmatic creepy guitar black belt Buckethead teamed up with Pinchface, the drummer from his first band Deli Creeps as well as keyboardist Travis Dickerson to record some new music after the sessions for the album they were all a part of Brain Circus by their band Cornbugs. The result was Buckethead's 12th album, a rather interesting jazz fusion record by the name of Population Override.

Population Override like the vast majority of Buckethead's works is entirely instrumental. The songs while having recognizable segments that identify them as the songs they are for the most part are just long, drawn out jam sessions with only minimal overdubbing. For the most part this album sounds pretty organic and flows, which makes sense because the theme they had in mind was to pay tribute to the great jazz fusion vinyl albums of the 60's and 70's.

Earth Heals Herself features some rather tasty interplay between Buckethead and Dickerson. Even though this is labeled as a Buckethead album, Dickerson is not afraid to make himself a noticeable presence in the music. However, it's done in such a way to where the guitar and keys intertwine in all the best ways. Some times Big B will take center stage with hot licks and some nice key backing and some times he'll step back and let Dickerson lay down something really smooth and nice. This tune absolutely moves and grooves, but at the same time keeps a chill atmosphere.

Too Many Humans has to be one of if not THE absolute best songs on the entire album. It's laid back and chill, and has some incredibly powerful emotion pulsing the entire way through it. It perfectly reflects the feelings I understand all too well of there some times being moments where there are just too many people in proximity to you and it just gets to you. It has a rather cool and some times sad vibe to it, but as I said it perfectly reflects the intended emotion of the song.

Population Override is one of Buckethead's more unique albums in that while it isn't one of his soft more melodic albums, it isn't one of his hard driving ones either. He kind of lays off the fireworks on the fret board but shows that he has some dazzling blues/jazz chops that can keep up if not surpass any of the greats. The marriage between that and Dickerson's keyboard playing is an absolute treat for the ears. If you're looking for something that you can get lost in the groove of, this is the album for you.

Population Override, by Buckethead receives 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Unrestrained Growth
2. Too Many Humans
3. Population Override
4. Humans Vanish
5. Cruel Reality of Nature
6. A Day Will Come
7. Earth Heals Herself
8. Clones
9. Super Human
10. ...

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Population-Override-Buckethead/dp/B0001MZ836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506673678&sr=8-1&keywords=Population+Override