PHILIP SAYCE, the world-renowned blues & rock guitarist, handles his guitar like a carpenter wielding a power-plane on timber; shaving, adjusting, chip-breaking, and shouldering his notes into neatly spiralling coils of sound.
The artist, born in Aberystwyth Wales but raised in Toronto, Canada, has been playing his alchemical style of blues for over thirty years, influenced by B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. He joined Melissa Etheridge’s band in 2004 and performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in New York City, 2013.
The musician signed with Warner Music Canada in 2015 and released a fresh single “Oh! That Bitches Brew” taken from the new album “The Wolves Are Coming” this year. We think the new material is bolder, more potent, and more individual than anything he’s written & produced before.
We were fortunate to witness the audiospatial guitar transmutationist performing live in Bristol on a rainy Sunday opening night, the first of a rare homeland run of dates (supported by the accolade-winning Troy Redfern.)
he revealed a veil of pure light […] as though he were removing a mourning shroud to reveal a beacon of promise that hung across the darker blues…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
Up high on stage and performing to a sell-out crowd at the Fleece (and Firkin,) Brizzle, the music-crafter was conspicuous and exalted above us ordinary mortals, yet didn’t seem at all pretentious or overconfident, but actually quite modest in achievement. His blue patterned hippie-shirt and wide-brimmed hat sparkled in the heat and light.
With pro-bassist Sam Bolle pounding out under-rhythms on a firm body, the commencement of the early bars of Warning Shot, which skillfully and quickly intertwined into Out Of My Mind, soared at us like a constellation of squalling eagle-hawks, with drummer Bryan Head waiting for the guitar-bandoleering to settle before he struck his skins with style and flourish.
The guitar-spellcaster’s graveltone voice and intense pounding on his strings, a type of pummelling flamenco-style rhythmicity on Strat, superbly complemented Out Of My Mind’s exuberance and intensity.
Standin’ Round Crying (Muddy Waters) was one of the essential covers and in line with this song’s deeper meaning, came delivered with an exuberant release of anguish, suffering, and manifest regret. Philip’s guitar notes were high and rhapsodic, and when the voice emerged, the musician raised his brim to express throaty heartsickness to an applauding crowd. The performer revealed a veil of pure light (on a guitar solo of dizzying proportions) halfway through this remarkable song, as though he were removing a mourning shroud to reveal a beacon of promise that hung across the darker blues. This was an absolutely amazing execution!
Oh! That Bitches Brew (the first time the artist had played this live) taken from the new album, featured a taut, muscular spatter-riff, along with raw drums and unspoilt bass. The song had spirited vocals, set amongst a ravishment of guitar overflows. The song’s softer passages were sliced through the arrangement like tart rinds through caramel, turning the song into a flavorful concoction of beauty and intensity.
It’s clear Philip gave the audience at Bristol everything he had because by the end of the show he was drenched in sweat and seemed exhausted by emotion. His sonic wizardry was hard to believe, creating whooshes and shapes so extraordinarily contoured and nuanced that it seemed (to us and others) that the only comparison we could sensibly bring was Hendrix.
At heart, and like Hendrix, Philip Sayce is a bold blues player who creates atmospheres with sonic textures. When the mood takes him, and it frequently does, Sayce extends his fingers into the heavens and takes fire from the sun. Oh my!
Words: Neil Mach ©
Images: David Pickles ©
Link: https://www.philipsayce.com/
RAW RAMP 