Customer Reviews

Acoustic Shards

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm as much of a Buckethead fan as the next and though I found bimwa's review to be an extremely accurate review for people who are looking for another Colma/Electric Tears, the 1-star rating is a bit harsh for what the content is. Sure, you're certainly not getting Colma or anything nearly as polished, but that should be quite apparent to you before purchasing the album, so long as you don't just see the album and buy it without reading its description. This album screams "demo", so as long as you realize that, you're going to really dig what this album contains - noodling and all.

Again, if you're expecting some sort of greatness out of this album, you will be greatly disappointed but if you're a dedicated Buckethead fan who is familiar with most of his work (not just his mellow stuff), then this will be a neat CD for you to sit down with and compare what you know to where some of it started. Basically, I hear this CD and I think "Brian Carroll" instead of "Buckethead". For me, that's worth the experience. Having said that, though, I'm glad I bought it used. This isn't a CD you'll likely revisit too often, so unless you have $13 to blow, find it used or just hold off.

For what it is, the material is 5 stars and any Buckethead fan will dig it. This isn't a Buckethead masterpiece; it's Brian Carroll sitting around and playing acoustic much in the way I would want to see him play it if I was a fly on the wall.

One more point to note is that bimwa was exactly right in his review in regards to the guitar being noticably out of tune at certain times. It's either slightly out of tune or the intonation on the acoustic is horrible. Regardless, the recording quality is actually quite decent and even though the tapping stuff sounds better with the distortion, it comes through enough on this to let you know he doesn't need the distortion to do it.

****
If your into raw lo-fi recorded un-heard music such as Sal Hardesty, Patrik Fitzgerald and Daniel Johnston or if your simply just a fan of capturing progress in motion via audio/video then you'll find a special place in your collection for Bucketheads "Acoustic Shards". Track 14 "Longing" is worth the price of the ticket alone.

This was my first Buckethead cd that I bought (I've downloaded quite a few of his songs) and from what I read before I bought the cd it was pretty much what I was expecting (I don't think you ever fully know what to expect with Buckethead) like the review said it's Buckethead in his living room with an acoustic guitar. It was unpredictable which is normal for him although the sound quality issues were def. noticeable.

While its nice to hear more of Bucket's wild and wonderful music, this album is slapped together dithering without much in the way of thought put into its composition or emotional content. It doesn't come close to effecting the listener. There are a dozen better Bucket albums out there. This is indicative of the sort of stuff Bucket's begun releasing lately. Its thrown together. I don't know whether he think he can get away with tossing a few new scraps of junk to his adoring fans or what. But he needs to start sitting down, thinking, and putting real effort into an album. A Real Diamond in the Rough is a much better album, but it took about eight bad albums to get to it.

So I came to check this album out because I'm a big Buckethead fan, and was currently in a Colma phase so I figured I'd check out some of his other acoustic work. And judging by the rave reviews that that album has on Amazon, I imagine a few people may come to do the same at some stage.

But beware - I would recommend this album only for the most obsessive Buckethead completist. It was recorded back in 1991, and is just him and an acoustic guitar, playing the occasional tune, but more often than not just random and messy noodling. This recording is clearly pretty off-the-cuff and as a result the technique isn't always on the money. There's lots of fret noise, bum notes, missed notes, and it also sounds like he didn't even bother to tune the guitar before he started!

The album starts out ok, with an early version of 'For Mom' (a tune that would end up on Colma in an obviously more polished version). But from there it just goes downhill fast, with plenty of cheesy strumming, plus bouts of tapping, hammer-ons, sweep picking - it becomes apparent that he really needs his distortion pedal to make this stuff work.

So if you're into the acoustic side of Buckethead I say stick with Colma, or perhaps Electric Tears. If you happen to like solo guitar noodling stuff though I recommend bypassing Acoustic Shards and instead checking out some Marc Ribot, eg. his 'man and a guitar' album Don't Blame Me.

Actually, I suppose the best advice I can give really is: listen to the soundclips!