Review in "this is not tv"
by Craig Scott
2003

The Best of Blurt Volume 1 : The Fish Needs a Bike


Salamander Records


In the current climate of post-punk reborn, someone has decided to seize the chance to expose Blurt, an undersung group who were contemporaries of The Pop Group and ACR. This fine compilation covers the years 80-86, from the sonic anarchy of their early singles to more restrained later years, and as good as it is, it's hard to imagine that the proposed Volume 2 will offer much more of interest.
The basic premise of Blurt boils down to angry guitars, garbled vocals, clattering drums and general abrasiveness. Natural tunefulness wasn't a big selling point, but songs like 'The Fish Needs A Bike' and 'Get' possess chainsaw melodies and, thanks to Ted Milton's alto sax and twisted vocal style, their own unique character. A comparison is drawn in the sleeve notes to New York No Wave act The Contortions, and though the early tracks share the same vitriolic rawness and tight dance grooves as that group, there's something of the Magic Band lurch to Blurt that separates them. That there are grooves at all here is impressive, given the lack of bass, which places all the emphasis on piston-like drums which on 'Some Come', for example, slug it out with the jagged, untutored sax playing. The top drawer material is all on the first side - most notably the early single 'My mother was a friend of an enemy of the people' and scratchy funk of 'The Fish...', which also appears on Rough Trade's Post-Punk Vol.1 compilation. The chaotic abandon is tempered a little as the decade wore on, with the recordings sounding a bit more polished but the likes of 'Enemy Ears' and 'Poppycock' suggest any transformation into Sting sound-a-likes was unlikely. This compilation is likely to be of interest to fans of the braver, more inventive post-punk sounds but also to anyone who has a taste for idiosyncratic rock music whatever form it takes.

This review was first published in this is not tv zine in 2003
© 2003 Craig Scott/this is not tv   taken with permission


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