Mud

Mud

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Born in Hungary, Eszter grew up in a Manhattan household immersed in the arts. She studied violin from a young age and as a member of her father's groundbreaking Squat Theater performed in plays and mingled with the elite of New York's downtown arts community. As a young girl, Eszter made her recording debut playing violin on an early rap track produced by artist Jean Michel Basquiat thar featured rapper Rammellzee. She also appeared in the film Downtown ’81, a chronicle of New York’s downtown music scene. Throughout her teens, the Squat theater space where Eszter lived would be transformed into a night club and she would DJ, spinning an eclectic mix of No Wave, funk and blues for the musicians, actors and artists who frequented the venue. At age 15, Eszter was spotted there by director Jim Jarmusch who asked her to star in his film Stranger Than Paradise. The film garnered her international acclaim and led to subsequent starring and featured roles alongside the likes of David Bowie (The Linguini Incident), Woody Allen (Shadows and Fog) and Steve Buscemi [Trees Lounge]. For Trees Lounge, Buscemi’s directorial debut, Eszter co-wrote and performed "Color Of Your Eyes’ with guitarist Smokey Hormel (Tom Waits/Johnny Cash/Beck). Eszter also contributed "Almost Gone" to the soundtrack of the 2002 indie hit Lovely And Amazing.

Aside from Flicker, Eszter's recorded history to date includes performing vocals on Marc Ribot e los Cubanos Postizos’ Muy Divertido!, Marvin Pontiac’s Greatest Hits by John Lurie and Michael DuClos' Lustro, which also featured Kristin Hersh, Deborah Harry, David Lowery and Robert Quine. She recorded duets with Ribot for Great Jewish Music: A Tribute To Serge Gainsbourg and Great Jewish Music: Tribute to Marc Bolan, both on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. She’s also played violin on Dayna Kurtz’s Postcards From Downtown and Michael Gira/Angels Of Light’s Everything Is Good Here, Please Come Home.

Product Description
On Mud, Eszter Balint displays a singular vision that filters elements of country and blues through a jagged-edge urban sensibility. If you had turned a corner in Lower Manhattan and discovered the flickering lights of a wood-frame juke joint shimmering from the far end of some shadowy alley, the sound floating towards you in the darkness might be something like this. From the first snarl of the slide guitar in opening track "Pebbles & Stones," you’ll hear the mystery and menace that distinguish most of these starkly arranged tunes. But once Eszter starts to sing in her hypnotic, unsentimental voice, you’ll discover there’s a lot more to Mud than atmosphere. Eszter is a terrific storyteller, terse but evocative. "You’ll come out of this alive," she assures someone – maybe the listener? -- over the stripped-down blues-funk of "Good Luck." "You’re just stuck in a bad dream tonight."

On Mud, bad dreams have never sounded so good. An accomplished musician who has contributed both violin and vocals to recordings by cutting-edge talents like Marc Ribot and Michael Gira, Eszter has long been a notable figure on the downtown Manhattan music and movie scene. The players she’s assembled here – Michael DuClos, Chris Cochrane, and Nic Brown – have backgrounds in rock-jazz-noise combos like Curlew and Skeleton Key. Co-producer and guitarist J.D. Foster has worked with artists ranging from Dwight Yoakam to Ribot. With Eszter, he manages to keep these songs musically and emotionally direct, while allowing enough unpredictable touches to give each one of them a unique, not-quite linear shape. The arrangements may generate a lot of tension, but, in the end, Eszter and Foster let the listener off sweetly, with a piano-and-voice balled called "Who Are You Now" that serves as a gentle denouement to these backwoods urban dramas.

Who are you now? You might just be asking yourself that after you experience the persepective-altering sound of Mud.

Mud,Eszter Balint,Bar None Records,Alternative Pop/Rock,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

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Mud

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