Philip Gayle adds new meaning to the idea of “polyphony” on his Mammoth Flower (PUBLIC EYESORE 156) set; it’s not just that he plays one dozen instruments at once, but that he’s capable of setting up layers, cross-currents, and energy fields that intersect and overlap, while simultaneously giving the listener just a shade too much musical information to absorb at one time.
This is amply demonstrated on the opening title track, where Harry Partch meets free jazz in a percussion whirlwind along with fifteen flying geese and an automatic knitting machine, but there’s six other examples of his “reach for the sky” approach to generating music on this wild album, recorded in Beat Club Studios in Japan in 2022. I might clutch at the “sky” metaphor as if he were an architect rather than a musician, one hell-bent on bending the rules of physics and attempting to design and build a cantilevered tower that peers over the cityscape in ways that defy gravity. The label notes describe his overdub technique as “typical PG fashion”, indicating that label boss Bryan Day is more than familiar with the works of this butter-nut swan who has been active since the 1990s with a hammock load of releases for Yabyum Productions, Family Vineyard, and others, but his personal musical history extends even further back – “played in funk/rock/folk/blues/punk/country bands on and off for 30 years” is his calling card according to his website.
Also appearing here are Japanese friends Shogo Ohshima, Shizka Ueda, and Omusubi San and Fuuchan. Actually the ‘Mammoth Flower’ riot of explosive colour turns out to be untypical of the rest of the album, which showcases studio concoctions and experiments which are a bit more focussed, concentrating on one or two instruments at a time rather than the entire orchestral magoo. The other heavy-hitter, lengthwise at any rate, is the 15 mins of ‘Zone’, a three-parter mainly constructed on a guitar with steel strings that are so plangent that you can experience a taste of cold metal in your mouth, just by listening to it. Gayle overdubs his six-string homunculi with passion and force, propelling us into new areas of “freedom” – creating a manglement that borders on delicious chaos, yet clearly driven by the magnetic powers of human creation. If Derek Bailey and John Fahey had gotten into a punch-up over the relative merits of Billy Strange, the world might be a better place.
I say this by way of coming to the conclusion – light gradually dawning – that this is 80% a solo guitar album, and the firework sandwich of cellos, banjos, mandolin, piano, voices, toys and other action-painting moves to be found on Track 1 reflects but one aspect of this fellow’s musical philosophy. Plus – guess what, it’s pretty much all-acoustic. Did I also mention there are environmental recordings in here somewhere, including a creaky door, and anything he could persuade to come within speaking distance of his microphone in a public park in Japan. The splurgy paint cover artworks are very suitable to the music, but they’re not his – they were done by Kohei Akiba. Now I know what they mean by “Gayle” force! From 30 November 2023.