Julian Gaskell and His Ragged Trousered Philanthropists: Broadside Bangers
- sundayseasongs
- May 2
- 3 min read
If you've been around a minute, it'll be no news to you that I think Julian Gaskell is one of the best musicians on the folk scene.
He's completely unhinged and entirely brilliant and I can't get enough.
I'm listening to the new Broadside Bangers as I try to type anything even sort of coherent about it and I have to keep stopping to rip out my hair. I literally don't know where to start.
Every track is an album unto itself.
This is a masterpiece.
He's howling he's literally howling right now there's a cat I think and
I stumbled onto Gaskell a few years back when A Shandy Ballad showed up on the Folk London review list. I requested it because it sounded like it had the potential to be entirely bonkers and it remains one of the best casual decisions I've ever made in my life. That album rewired my brain. It was one of those moments that sort of confirms for you some of your core beliefs that you hadn't quite managed to scrape the dirt off yet during the excavation of your own soul. That album found me when I was ready for it and not a moment before, and may Julian Gaskell come for you all in your own time.
This wasn't what I was going to do today. I had a lot of things to do today. There are three other drafts in my folder that needed attention today.
But ASLEEP, ASLEEP, SLEEP AT HIS POST
I can't possibly do anything else until I've listened to this album in its entirety and exorcised the swarm of bees in my brain that it's kicked up.
When I say every track here is an album, well, for starters, there isn't a track here under 4 minutes, and most are 5+, and then there's "The Signalman" which is eleven twenty-five, but honestly, the runtime isn't even what I mean, it doesn't matter, the time is meaningless, you won't notice the time because nothing could matter less - every track is exactly as long as it needs to be and not a second goes spare.
I'll start with "The Signalman" because I've just finished listening to it with my head in my hands and I think I need to have another go or maybe seven because-
I HAD THINGS TO DO TODAY
It's stunning.
I don't even know what else to say. I can't possibly put the experience into words that matter, and you're probably better going in blind to get the full effect anyway. It's cinematic. It's beautiful. I don't know what you want from me, go listen to it, why are you still here
There are five more tracks after this. How am I supposed to-
Look, I know Gaskell's voice was made for raging and howling over an accordion, and he's damn good at it, but I love when he goes for a tender song. "Corner of a Photograph" remains one of my favorite songs on Shandy Ballad, and "False and Hollow Sea" is destined to-
WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT IS HAPPENING THE SHIP JUST WENT DOWN DIDN'T IT
Fucking hell. Fucking hell, that was- the piano at the end?? Stop. Just...stop. I can't.
He does this production himself JULIAN GASKELL IS THE PRODUCER TOO
(I lied to you. "Cut'n'shut Polka" is only a minute long. It's great because of course it is)
I really had planned to write a proper review and not just have a full breakdown on the blog, but here we are I guess. Eight tracks in and there's laugh tracks and cawing birds and the next one is called "King Death," and I'm not going to get through this in one piece, it isn't even noon yet, I-
Boogie woogie bass, alright, yeah, sure, of course, absolutely
God this is so good.
This is like if Squirrel Nut Zippers spent a couple hours with the kind of absinthe that got internationally banned for a century and had a really bad time but came out the other end remembering it fondly and I don't even know what words are anymore
Every track really is its own album. They're all gloriously self-contained, but they work well as whole by sheer force of Gaskell's mad vision.
"King Death" into "Guiding Light" shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. The harmonica feels like coming home after a wild night. It's a hug from a friend. It's a gentle place to land and I feel like I can maybe go be a person again now after all.
Huh.
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