(Gajoob) Philip Gayle’s Sunrise Crazy is the kind of album that refuses to sit still long enough to be defined. It’s an unruly burst of creativity that bursts its seams with every eccentric idea it can muster—then calmly inserts a piano interlude or a mournful clarinet passage just when you think it’s only here to startle. And that tension—between the absurd and the beautiful—is what makes Sunrise Crazy so mesmerizing. The first thing that grabs you is the voice—not in a singer-songwriter sense, but as a wild, interjectory organism stitched into the instrumental fabric. Gayle’s own vocal contributions are a collage of manic giggles, growls, cat meows, mutters, and bursts that feel less like lyrics and more like sonic punctuation. Fuuchan (who appears posthumously on much of the album and to whom the record is partially dedicated) adds her own haunting and childlike vocalizations that feel both innocent and unhinged, like a lullaby sung through the static of a broken toy radio. These interjections don’t sit on top of the music—they are the music. Instrumentally, Gayle plays nearly everything: banjo, cello, acoustic guitar, mandolin, mouth harp, piano (in various states of disrepair, one assumes), recorder, toy piano, Taishogoto, and more. It feels like he’s ransacked a flea market and decided to compose with everything he found—at once. Each track is a carefully constructed chaos. One moment you’re caught in a looping free-jazz tantrum, the next you’re lulled into a cinematic soundscape with a sense of elegy. “Heartbeat Shakes The Flower – Setsunai Yuki,” for example, is a 10-minute closer drenched in sorrow, pairing piano and bass clarinet with a hushed gravity that stands in sharp contrast to the circus-like textures before it. It’s a staggering moment of release after the lunacy. Comparisons have been drawn to Klimperei and the lo-fi surrealism of the Butthole Surfers, and they’re not wrong. There’s a collage-art spirit here—audio Dada. You’ll hear looped samples, spliced nonsense, saxophones squealing like insects, and yes, actual cats. (At least twice I looked around the room thinking my own had something to say.) But under all the noise, Sunrise Crazy carries an unmistakable emotional pulse. This isn’t randomness for its own sake—there’s a through-line of grief, love, and the absurdity of existing. Public Eyesore remains a vital outlet for this kind of ungovernable experimentation, and Sunrise Crazy is a flagship of that ethos. It’s not easy listening, nor should it be. But it’s deeply human. Whether it’s processing loss through silliness or channeling joy through dissonance, Philip Gayle has crafted something that sticks—under your skin, in your head, and maybe in your dreams. Recommended if you like: Smegma, Christophe Petchanatz/Klimperei, Family Vineyard, outsider freak-jazz, haunted music boxes, the sound of your thoughts turning feral. - Bryan Baker

(STNT) Il y a quelque chose dans ce disque de naïf que j'aime et qui me rappelle le travail de Christophe Petchanatz dans KLIMPEREI. Les samples en boucle, les voix pitchées, les ambiances enfantines, Philip GAYLE est joueur et j'aime bien çà. Mais il n'y a pas que çà dans ce 'sunrise crazy', on entre dans un lieu étonnant où se côtoient autant des araignées qui jouent du free jazz que des enfants fous qui se prennent pour des freaks et qui tapent partout. Tod Browning aurait été jaloux. Le dénommé Fuuchan accompagne notre guitariste à la voix sur 12 morceaux. Les sons sont farfelus, tout est farfelu et la musique me fait rire. J'ai même été surpris de ce chouette agencement de samples et de ce gros travail de montage. Philip GAYLE est d'abord guitariste, de longue date, il vit au Japon et son premier disque est daté de 1997. D'après ce que je lis dans la bio, son acolyte au chant Fuuchan est apparemment décédé d'une maladie en 2024 et ce disque lui est dédié. Gloups. Philip GAYLE possède un esprit rieur et sa musique parlera autant aux fans des BUTTHOLE SURFERS qu'aux mordus des sonorités avant-gardistes façon Family Vineyard (un des nombreux labels qui l'hébergent.) Encore une bonne surprise chez Public Eyesore (San Francisco) pour tous les amateurs de collage et de guitare expérimentale. - Valery John Klebar

(Bad Alchemy) PHILIP GAYLE, zuvor schon auf Eyesore publik mit „Mam­moth Flower“, kehrt wieder mit Sunrise Crazy (pe162). Als ein an sich gelernter Gitarrist mit, schon seit den 90ern, guten Connections nach Japan. Hier schichtete er in den Beat Club Studios in Utsunomiya Banjo, Bass, Cello, Man­dolin, Acoustic Guitars, Mouth Harp, Percussion, Piano, Recorder, Taishogoto, Toy Piano und Voices, insbesondere die feline von Fuuchan. Ihrem Andenken und dem von Susan Alcorn und Steve Dalachinsky ist der Sonnenauf­gang gewidmet. Auch hier gibt es Miniaturen von unter 1, unter 2 Minuten, aber auch das elegisch geharfte 'Fuuchan Brocken Spectre' mit 07:23 und 'Heartbeat Shakes The Flower > Setsunai Yuki', 10:19 mit tristem Piano und Bass­klarinette als Totenklage für eine Katze. Gayle könnte durchwegs mit lyrischem Saitenspiel und rührendem Fee­ling bestechen. Doch genau das will er mit vulgären und animalischen Comic-Lauten sabotieren. Mit Sounds aus Looney Tunes und Animes, geloopter Exotica und freaki­schem 'Humor' entstehen Stripsodies aus lauter ordinären V-Effekten, aus nervigem 'Oh Wow' und Fuuchans Katz-Miau. Mit 'Fakkunko' als Jazzcore-Brainfuck mit wildem Klavier und kirrendem Saxophon oder mit Smegma-Spirit. Als seltsame Begegnung von US-Underground und Crazy Japan auf einem Furzkissen. Als könnte Gayle in seiner Trauer die Realität nur als Irrwitz spiegeln. - Rigo Dittmann

(Babysue) First up is Sunrise Crazy by Philip Gayle. Housed in a cool digipak sleeve, this nineteen (!) track album features Gayle playing banjo, bass, cello, acoustic guitars, mandolin, mouth harp, percussion, piano, recorder, Taishogoto, toy piano and voice. And the recordings also feature the talents of special guests Fuuchan, Hana Fujino, Okaka, Omusubisan and Shogo Oshima. This is the Gayle's 12th album, recorded and mixed in Utsunomiya, Japan. - Don Seven

(Downtown Music Gallery) Featuring Philip Gayle on guitars, vocal, toy instruments & sundries with Shogo Oshioma on alto sax or bass clarinet and Fuuchan (on most tracks), Hana Fujino, Okaka & Omusubian on voices. Former Downtown musician, Philip Gayle, has been living in Japan for a number of years and now works with Japanese musicians. Mr. Gayle is an odd and unique character who plays a variety of guitars, does strange vocal sounds and has invented his own sonic world. On this disc Mr. Gayle works with four Japanese vocalists plus Shogo Oshima on alto sax & bass clarinet, none of whom I've heard of before now. There are some 19 pieces here and all but three are under 4 minutes. "It Is an Animal" has layers of strange guitar sounds all swirling together with weird vocals sounds added as well. A few of the vocal sounds sound like those snorting sounds the Frank Zappa used to put on records like 'Uncle Meat'. Some of the voices are child-like and even sounds like animals. On "Oh Wow", Okaka repeats the title phrase over and over while Gayle adds an infectious repeating melody underneath. The positive vibe is most infectious here. At times, it sounds like Mr. Gayle is conducting a chorus of crazed vocalists with snippets of guitars and/or percussion added to the brew. Although it does sound like some (most?) of this was recorded on a funny farm, the overall free, explosive yet focused vibe is most engaging. This is like a breath of fresh air after some of the more serious sounds that I've listened to and reviewed today (7/3/25). Dedicated to Susan Alcorn, Steve Dalachinsky & Michael Evans, three of favorite Downtown heroes. - Bruce Lee Gallanter

(Foxy Digitalis) Philip Gayle builds a sonic fever dream that feels equal parts slapstick and elegy. Sunrise Crazy unspools in unpredictable directions, where sputtering toys and ghostly clarinets share space with meowing cats and broken lullabies. The voice isn’t ornamental; it’s feral and central, muttering and shrieking its way into the music’s nervous system. Beneath the chaos is a sense of ritual, grief braided into absurdity, like someone laughing through tears at a wake no one planned. It’s funny, unsettling, and strangely moving. A cracked mirror held up to the idea of composition, and a reminder that even nonsense can ache. - Brad Rose

(Vital Weekly) Back in Vital Weekly 1408, I reviewed a CD by Philip Gayle, after a long silence. These days, Gayle lives in Utsunomiya, Japan, and there is vocal help from local musicians, such as Fuuchan, Hana Fujino, Okaka, and Omusubisan. At the same time, Shogo Oshima plays the alto saxophone and bass clarinet separately on two pieces. Gayle plays banjo, bass, cello, acoustic guitars, mandolin, mouth harp, percussion, piano, recorder, Taishogoto, toy piano, and voice. This time, Gayle has mainly shortish tracks, even when towards the end of the release there’s a seven and ten-minute piece, which, by that, is a bit much as Gayle’s music is quite demanding, especially with all these voices, vocalisations and such, which sound funny but don’t always stay funny. There’s an aspect of chaos in Gayle’s music, which in 19 tracks, spanning 55 minutes, is quite a tour de force. Gayle loads up multiple tracks with the wildest playing of his instruments, but always the guitar being his first choice. Strumming and plucking, Gayle doesn’t seem to be using other, extended techniques to play his instruments, with delay, some chorus and reverb, and creating this rollercoaster music. The exception here is ‘Heartbeat Shakes The Flower – Setsunai Yuki’, a quiet and reflective piece of music, and the one Oshima’s alto saxophone is featured. It is placed at the end of the CD, maybe a moment for introspection? Maybe Gayle realised we could with a little break by now. All in all, this is not easy to digest, but in smaller doses, most enjoyable. - Frans De Waard