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Ted Milton and Blurt

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.

Mike Flynn on Blurt the gig at the Glastonbury Festival

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Tudósok a MySpace-en

Tudósok is a major representative of underground and progressive music on the Hungarian scene, who mix poetry, music and performance into a very special, typically East-Eurpean artistic language with a lot of humour and (self)irony.

During the last years they have performed from New York through London, Paris and Berlin to Roumania and Sicily, from festivals of contemporary music through avantgarde jazz-clubs to pubs.

In 2005 theit CD titled I Live Science was published by the leading Russian undeground label, the Bad Taste Records  in Moscow.

Their latest album, recorded on the A38 and published by the Playground Records titled The secret life of Ibolya Dávid is a uniquely strong material mixing the well-known traditions of theirs with pure jazz-funk energy, drifting acoustic and programmed drums, pushing electronica and dadaistic socio-horror lyrics into an excellent both absolutely up-to-date and typically weird East-European stuff.

Line up
drMáriás: vocals, narration, alto saxophone, trumpet
Endrei Dávid: bass guitar
Jeli Gergely: drums
Párizs: elektronica

Discography
tisztAtiszt, 1997
Öntudomány, 1998
The Nice Plain, 1999
Szupergyár, 2001
Mentés másként, 2003
I Live Science, 2005
The Best of Disco, 2006