There are those albums that are based on vanity. Others are lifelines. The Agoraphobia Files by Paul Gill under the pseudonym Purbeck Temple is unquestionably the latter, a thirteen-track testament in defense of patience that emerged out of trauma and was moulded by years of loneliness, recovery and unassailable resolution.
The background is devastating: a severe assault that caused Gill with life-threatening conditions, all the bones in his face broken, MRSA, a two-fold pneumonia, and his family being told by the doctors that he was not going to live. He survived, however, the consequences included agoraphobia, hallucinations and children who did not know who their father was. It was during that darkness that “No Hard Feelings,” the second song of the album, was created, the song written with sardonic wit as the means of concentrating on something other than unbearable loss.
The Agoraphobia Files is remarkable not only in the story behind it but in how well the story sounds. The vocal of Gill is laden with true emotion, shifting between gravelly agony to the flying desperation as songs such as Emptiness in Paradise address the trauma with the brash truthfulness. The songs are raw and straightforward, and the profoundly personal lyrics are not overshadowed.
The lo-fi production is not a weakness because it was recorded in his home studio, and almost every instrument was performed by Gill. The drums and the guitar riffs are so gritty and rough, and they suit the emotional scenery perfectly. The bedroom style of recording adds to the intimacy of the style and each song becomes a confession and not an act.
The Agoraphobia Files is a wide emotional range of sadness, black humor, glimpses of intimacy in the middle of struggle. This is therapy music, this is documentation, this is evidence of survival. Paul Gill does not strive to become a rock star. He’s simply sharing what it took to stay alive, and that authenticity is powerful beyond measure.
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