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Julian Gaskell and his Ragged Trousered Philanthropists are a four-piece progressive-punk-klezmer band from Cornwall, led by the extravagant songwriter, accordionist and silent piano player Julian Gaskell (who also plays balalaika, guitar and fiddle at gigs) and also featuring surf guitarist Dan Pye, upright skiffle terrorist Thomas Sharpe and jazz dustbin Rory Pugh. Full details and tunes are on www.raggedtrouseredphilanthropists.co.uk and here are some of their reviews in the press:
What's there not to like about this great little quintet? Scurrying out of Falmouth in Cornwall, their bustling, belting, lopsided accordeon-led sound branches somewhere off the same musical family tree that gave us top Belgian faves Jaune Toujours and the long-lost La Cucina, with the rural literary flair of Blyth Power, XTC and Dancing Did chucked in the mix.
Bits of hyper-Balkanisation bloody their noses on some crunchy Roma-jazz, and waves of speedy punkfolk ska crash in the mix on cheesy surf organ and the ghost of Cap'n Beefheart and a whole lot more exhausting (in a good way).
Exhilarating playing, fab lyrics, energy to spare: if I was running The Modern Day Festival - deservedly excoriated in the song of the same name - I'd be straight on the phone to book these guys for next year. If they're this exciting on record then the live experience is going to be truly extraordinary.
fRoots Magazine NOV/DEC 2009
‘Driven by the sound of drunken sailors, irate country folk and some occasional outright punk rock, Great stuff indeed..’
Album of the week, Manchester Music
‘Here The Brute Harpies Make Their Nests’ finds Gaskell and Co stepping up a gear and self-releasing an album that oozes confidence, irreverence, independence and brilliance; cementing their reputation as Tom Waits and Gogol Bordello’s defiantly Cornish bastard offspring. Taking us into a tumbledown world of squeezeboxes, fiddles, percussive waywardness and intellectual drinking, these 14 songs will make you swell with underclass pride even if you’re a bourgeois bum, with a lyric booklet that is worth the admission fee alone. Magnificent.
24-7 October 2009
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
‘very smart, very droll lyrics, very theatrical, very philanthropic. Lots of accordian and background shouting and robust rhythms. Bit of klezmer. Bit of that banjo playing toad of bagpuss. Bit of a lark.’
Everett True, ET Reccomends
“The utmost finest band to appear in Cornwall for a long time… reminiscent of the soul of a rabid Captain Beefheart, if he'd had Eastern European roots and grown up in the deep south of America” West Briton
“the kind of gnarly, radical folk-punk championed by Gogol Bordello and Devotchka … foot-stomping, accordion led show tunes with a great line in poetic socialism: songs that keep the class war alive and kicking. Awesome” 24-7
“a punk-style shindig that is heavily influenced by the traditional folk music of Eastern Europe... songs about yuppies, pubs, romantic novels, or sung in an unfathomable Eastern European language – a balance between funny and heavy” Western Morning News
“Bourbon-soaked vaudeville gypsy hoedown punk.” Time Out
“a band rootless, wandering and skint but with a keen ear for whatever interesting tune might come their way, and an eye on the nearest charity shop or flea market for an instrument to play it on... this is the genuine ‘skiffle’ of the modern age.”
BBC Radio Cornwall
“a pioneer of new wave skiffle and the use of acoustic instruments as weapons of new punk, Julian Gaskell is one of Britain’s few truly original folk masters... new British twisted folk literally light years ahead of Gogol Bordello” Manchester Music
“one of the finest bands in Cornwall nay the world...”
The Cornishman |
