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Blurt
amSTARt und ausland präsentieren :
the LAST LAST TOUR !
Blurt
Ted Milton, Steave Eagles, Bob Leith
9 Euro
http://tedmilton.com
www.myspace.com/tedmiltonblurt
new track ! for free ! www.myspace.com/tedmiltonblurt
the show is happing at full moon !
aktuelle Mondphase
VOICES :
/Von Robert
Mießner/
Man möchte ja höflich sein. Aber all den hoffnungsfrohen jungen Bands,
die ihre Musik als eine Mischung aus Postpunk, Elektro und No Wave
beschreiben und dazu immer wieder zwei, drei gute Namen referieren, die
endlich einmal unerwähnt bleiben sollten, sei gesagt: Es gab noch mehr.
Ted Milton, und er ist ein höflicher Mensch, hat 1980 Blurt gegründet.
Jenes dadaistisch-humoristische und welterfahren-ernste Trio aus Stroud
in Gloucestershire, dessen erste Single den göttlichen Titel »My Mother
Was A Friend Of An Enemy Of The People« trug und dessen erstes Album
eine Liveaufnahme war. Die Platten von Blurt, es sollten unzählige
folgen, die mittlerweile zumeist vergriffen sind (es gibt zum Glück
zwei Best-Of-CDs), landeten gerne im Punk-Regal. Nicht völlig abwegig:
Ted Milton trug und trägt Iro zum Anzug. Blurt waren widerborstig und
knorrig, spielten Tanzmusik für ganz Mutige. Wenn Milton nicht seine
Texte voller Fallstricke ins Mikro schrie und knurrte, stieß er ins
Saxophon. Sein Bruder Jake, mit Psychedelic großgeworden, bearbeitete
das Schlagzeug, Peter Creese spielte eine kratzende Gitarre.
Verzweifelte Kritiker zimmerten Schubladen wie Afro-Punk oder
Dada-Punk.
Bevor er Musiker wurde, ist Milton als Puppenspieler aufgetreten. Sein
Gespür für dramatische Effekte rührt daher. In diesem Jahr nun ist
»Odes« erschienen, ein auf 250 Exemplare limitiertes Buch mit CD und
extra 7?? (das sind die Dinger, die nicht im iPod funktionieren). Es
versammelt Miltons nicht mit Blurt entstandene Arbeiten der letzten 20
Jahre. Skurrile und faszinierende Musik, eingespielt mit
Back-To-Normal, Paddy Steer, Andreas Gerth (Tied & Tickled Trio),
Herman Martin und Tam Tam, illustre Namen zwischen Jazz und Elektronik.
Milton nähert sich mittlerweile der Mitte seiner Sechziger.
Im Frühjahr werden Blurt ihre wohl tatsächlich letzte Tour antreten.
Miltons Musik klingt immer noch nach Unruhestand. Mit Sam Britton,
Gründer der Elektroniktruppe Icarus und auch auf Miltons Werkschau
vertreten, hat er 2004 eine CD nach Daniil Charms auf das Publikum
losgelassen. Jetzt werden die beiden das Material von »Odes« durch den
Computer jagen und in Dub tauchen. Das Saxophon hat Milton immer noch
dabei. Nach dem Konzert kann man zum Plattenhändler seines Vertrauens
gehen und einfach mal die Regalschilder für Jazz und Punk vertauschen.
Mal sehen, was dann so alles passiert.
more VOICES :
Age doesn't increase knowledge. I eat home-baked pizza and listen to
the same three records from the past, eternally stuck on repeat.
Essential Logic. This Heat. Blurt. I grew up believing a saxophone to
be more revolutionary (sonically) than a phalanx of guitars, that
within its capricious confines and slinky metallic curves it was
possible to blow up a storm of revolution, jarring, grating and lithe. - Everett True/PlanB 2006
When they first emerged amid the post-punk debris of the early-80s,
Blurt were cast as eccentric subversives .. Dissonant, abrasive and unsettling, Blurt make for uneasy but
rewarding listening .. an
uncompromisingly bohemian combo, who are still carving out their own
little corner of the cosmos.
- Grahame Bent/Record Collector 2006
Wenn Ted Milton singt, dann klingt das wie das Bellen eines
verwahrlosten Hundes. Wenn Ted Milton Saxofon spielt, wie das Klagen
eines dem Tode geweihten Wildschweins. - Ane Hebeisen/Der Bund 2006
I'M CONFUSED. Is this paranoid jazz or mutant disco?
Blurt are a three piece who delight in challenging their listener.
Their line up for a start : vocals, sax, guitar and drums is to
say, in the least, unorthodox. .. What Blurt play does indeed verge on the
realms of jazz (though don't get me wrong it doesn't ramble), though
they have taken it and thrown in into the 21st century. - Mark Total/Record Mirror 1981
even more VOICES !!
Blurt Night vs Wreck This Night
@ the OCCII / Amsterdam
"Practice letting go" 'o Down in the Argentine
Impossibly intense and yet flippant charm of Blurt carried the night.
Everyone I talked to was ignited, warmed over, thrilled, and glowing by
the end of the night. The trio of Ted Milton (sax, vocal, violin),
Steve Eagles (guitar), Paul Wigens (drums) reinvented old chestnuts in
a way few bands can: tunes sound simultaneously familiar and totally
new, simple and incredibly dense, chaotic meanderings within a very
tight pop song rhythms, extrapolatory jagged conniption sax solos that
had one jazz saxophonist rhapsodizing that Milton was touching on tones
never touched by jazz musicians except maybe Albert Ayler. Wigens was
perfectly subdued - no flashing bombast while Eagles played rhythm and
lead guitar that sometimes sounded somewhere between bagpipes, prepared
strings, and a joint strike fighter taking off from a wet runway.
"How does a dog die? / Roll over like Bartok / wag his legs in the
sky?" 'o Poppycock.
Milton's adlibbed extemporaneous poesie, the babblings, the jabbering
all have that wonderful quality of finding the muse in the rubble.
Brilliant jags of word-smithing in this context be it Mark E. Smith or
Lee "Scratch" Perry or Tom Waits or Lord Buckley or Shelley Hirsch has
always left me fascinated by the power of nurtured improv. I am someone
who carries a piece of limp damp paper on stage and then have trouble
reading my scribblings without stumbling into some state of utter
misremembering. (...)
With the rerelease and reappreciation of much No Wave material from New
York and Ze Records and the film "24 Hour Party People" focusing
attention on Factory Records and the recent "Wild Dub: Dread Meets Punk
Rocker Downtown" on Select cuts it is only a matter of time before
Blurt is rediscovered - for the first time and just in time.
Their set stuck somewhat to songs featured on their new "Best of Blurt
- Volume 1: The Fish Needs a Bike" on Salamander Records a nice and
noisy bouquet shoved into our impatient and attention-span stressed
faces.
© 2003 Bart Plantenga with permission
Blurt at Glastonbury Festival 2004 by Mike Flinn
Few trios, in 'jazz' terms, venture into the "bizarre yet
compelling" territory as Blurt. Formed in 1980 it's both heartening and
extraordinary that such a twisted trio have survived, and indeed,
thrived through twenty years of gigs and as many albums. Led by their
founder Ted Milton, this is no contrived attempt at being strange for
the sake of art, besides their punk-edged rawness always prevents
things turning indulgent - or locked in pastiche - the frazzled funky
beats rooting Milton's squalling sax and rabid poetic swipes, while
swaying, grinding guitar slices through the groove.
Thus Milton's crew this Glastonbury feature new member and ex-Cardiacs
drummer Bob Leith and proto-punk guitarist Steve Eagles whose been at
Ted's side for the best part of 15 years. Whether or not the crowd were
prepared for the sparse assault of Milton's Beefheart-inspired vocals,
with lyrics that invariably bite chunks out of daily life, is not
really the point, featuring Blurt honors the rebellious creativity that
fuels Glastonbury.
I'm afraid this reviewer is in the main unfamiliar with Blurt's
prolific past, but the dry thumping grooves, drive themselves home with
a freshness and simplicity sadly lacking in other `experimental' units.
Milton plays with such an instinctive will over his sax that he is
never less than fluid, yet his twisted version of Coltrane's sheets of
notes has a startlingly pungent sound, and to Milton's credit his
harmonic inventiveness actually marks him out alongside Evan Parker et
al, as a true innovator in his field.
As the gig took shape their punk edge began to spill through, Eagles'
guitar scraping and wailing by turns. `I Am An Empty Vessel (Making
Lots Of Noise)' found Milton's lyrical core, the ex-puppeteer's sense
of theatre found him writhing towards the floor, his exasperated
delivery exploding, then calming to a whisper. Walking from the stage
without looking back at the close, this seemed fitting exit for a band
that have never dwelt on the past and remain a vivid force today.
© 2004 Mike Flynn
TED MILTON performing "Odes" at ausland 2007 :