When it comes to sound artists and musicians such as Bryan Day and Philip Gayle, one is simply not advised to bring any kind of desire for an evident display. Producers such as these use methods and strategies that they've developed well outside of established thinking orgs, either after having interfaced with said orgs or having been autodidactic from their earliest efforts. Their sounds are their own and the listener must take them as they are presented and expect no quarter given for whatever blockages their own tastes may present to the their perceptions while listening. So it very much is with braynphilp, a recording of Day and Gayle that was recorded over two days of early summer sessions in Japan, 2024. One of the most abiding mysteries of the thing for Disaster Amnesiac is that fact that there are individual pieces listed, six of them, but as I listen I hear only two continuous, cassette side long tracks. At one point it was actually wondering if this was some kind of gaslighting strategy but that was a fumbling kind of rumination, quickly abandoned as the tape's two sides unspooled. Successfully going a bit deeper into zones of actual listening, I heard a document of two sound artists, well matched and perceptively playing to each other's various sound sources and tactics for implementing them. Very important within an improvised setting as surely it's good to be reminded of from time to time. It's realized that there are people out there who'd consider these pieces as "noise" or Noise. It could be argued however that they are less that and more the sounds of players dealing with timbres and the surprise combinations of them that can be achieved by going very granular with their respective rigs. It can also be added that at times it's somewhat impossible to figure out which rig is making which sound, something that connoissers of this type of music often revel within. This listener is among that fold. Each side has its own unique sonic stamp. Side one features mostly pulsing, short form encounters throughout. When Day's distinctive instrumental sounds are identified, they have very pleasing, "wet" qualities. Strange voicings and a somewhat manic laugh at the very ending. On side two, more heat gets generated, and it's almost a junkyard Samba at times! Its melodic forms and overall colorings mark it as more traditionally Electronic Music. Gayle's guitar chops push a bit more to the fore in a very Downtown kind of way, and that's not a pejorative. He also vocalizes a bit in ways that are expressively non lyrical. The cavernous spaces all over side one eventually float back, and an astute listener can hear the deeply rooted call and response nature of Day and Gayles' dynamic. braynphilip has a dynamic defined by self designed nuances delivered with refined dignity, and in a world full of conforming loud mouths it hits in ways that are extremely satisfying.
