Second Language - 1981 - -
Coat-tails live @ The Annandale Hotel 05/04/08
Know it all live @ The Annandale Hotel 05/04/08
Sounds Like
"Herve" from France explains it best:
Tactics is a trance-like, nerve-wreaking, attempt at casting off some obscure burden buried deep under black sands, a grab for freedom rooted in sudden experimentation : heartbeat, vocal cords, spasmophilia. Each song like a chiseled architecture flaming forth and blurring pulse and scream and scalding beat together. Each song a self-contained ensemble that stretches beyond its own limits—a network of intertwining rhythms that uses sound as locomotion.
Rejection of formal structure and linearity, lyrics that resonate with the band’s intricate bundle of sound: creation consecrated again as unbridled force. David Studdert’s words combine control and convulsion, mind and voice braced up and contorted. They are mental pictures, limpid descriptions, magnified visions of an instant seized in time and roused to life again : "the moon comes up / pale moon behind pale trees […] I’m dreaming of green fields / I’m dreaming of green" ("Settlers complaint").
My Line, specifically, brings to mind the aboriginal belief that the world was sung into existence following songlines across the Australian land[1] "I walk around the pavement and I look up at the sky / […] something’s gonna happen I can feel it all the time / Oh just around the corner through the corner of my mind / […] I can see it’s my line / I know it’s my line / I can see it". The urban scenery has acquired the density and vastness of uncharted landscapes. The occasional sense of alienation or depersonalization that surfaces in the lyrics, when the flesh itself has become unfamiliar territory, once put into words procure a sense of revelation : "window left open on the street […] I see my life stretching out […] It’s just the usual life I see." ("The usual")
In My Houdini and Glebe, there is no straying aside, no getting lost. A similar sense of direction is sensible in the live performances on which each album closes. Yet, there lies somewhere the possibility that anything might get sacked any second—wrenching cruelty of song and instant, of experience and communion, at last united through David Studdert’s wild whistle of a voice.
[1] "wherever men have trodden they have left a trail of song […] singing out the name of everything that crossed their path", Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines
FROM THE DESERT OF WIND AND WHITE STONE TO THE YELLOW - TOP - HAT - CENTREPOINT IN THE CORPORATE BLUE; SONGS FROM THE THROAT OF THE HERE AND NOW, WHAT HAS BEEN AND WHAT WILL BE AGAIN SONGS FLOATING BY LIKE POETS FALLING OUT OF WINDOWS, PICKED UP IN THICK ASBESTOS GLOVES.
TACTICS
Formed in the late 1970's in Canberra by David Studdert (guitar, vocals, songwriting), Angus Douglas (guitar), Robert Whittle (drums), and Geoff Marsh (bass), Tactics soon moved to Sydney and quickly became known for going against the grain musically, lyrically, and stylistically. Mixing music that someone once described as "sped up [...] frenetic, discordant, full of unusual rhythms..." (but definitely not punk or New Wave), with lyrics that were Australian but never lost sight of the rest of the world, they became legendary in the inner-city Sydney music scene they themselves never quite fitted in to. The lineup changed a bit over the years (Ingrid Spielman on keyboards, Garry Manley on bass, etc.) before Tactics finally called it a day in the mid-1980's, but the overall effect remained the same: music and lyrics that have aged a lot better than most of the stuff from that time and place, and a set of releases that decades later still grab and surprise listeners who may never have heard of Tactics before.
Tactics first album, "My Houdini", was recorded and released in 1980; "Glebe", their second, followed it in 1981. These two were followed over the next few years by "The Bones Of Barry Harrison" (a live album), "Holden Interview", and "Blue and White Future Whale".
Twenty five years later, Memorandum Recordings in conjunction with Reverberation has released a new archival compilation from Tactics, entitled The Sound of the Sound Volume 1.
This double CD package features the band's first two albums, "My Houdini" and "Glebe" plus a good helping of unreleased songs from the era and a few from "Bones of Barry Harrison". All tracks have been re-mastered specifically for this release, with the "Glebe" album also having been remixed from the original multi-track masters.
In conjunction with this release, Tactics played a couple of well-received reunion concerts in Sydney (September 2006), and plans are afoot to continue the reissue of more Tactics material.
TACTICS
MY HOUDINI TIED IN PADLOCKS WALKS THE LINE BETWEEN MORALITY AND LAUGHTER. AN ENEMY OF ART AND ETHICS, OF EVERYTHING FIXED; RECONCILING OPPOSITES IN A WHIRL OF LEAVES, OF DANCING AND DRUMS. MEN IN CHAINS MOVING LIKE MARIONETTES, STINGING SALT GUITARS SO LOUD, DANCING VOICES MALE AND FEMALE CROSSING AND CHANTING, HIGH EVERYDAY NOISES OF BUSES AND TRAINS. WE ARE THE TAPE RECORDING LIVER OF THE HERE AND NOW IN 2200 THEYLL DIG UP OUR CONTAINER, THEYLL HEAR THE STORY, THEYLL KNOW WE WERE, WHAT WE ARE AND WHAT WE WILL BE
Hey! There are so many great songs on that Vol 2 you sent, it's hard to just pick a few... Coalface, Cleaning a Gun, Future Whale, Summertime, Edge Of My Seat, Know It All, Only When I Breathe, and more I can't remember the names of... See I told ya, it was hard.
Excellent vid! You guys have that great Pere Ubu-ish quality in your music. Maybe that's why Cleveland loves you so much, besides just being bloody good!
David! Thanks so much for sending TSOTS: Vol 2 to WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland. I'll be spinning it regularly for the next couple of months! Cheers, demonica
I was just pondering..do u remember that Mount Druitt gig? Such a strange place to see you but I travelled far and wide for my joy...
God, I used to see you play live a lot...the jolly good old days (and now I sound like my parents)...oh, but to rewind that clock! More venues, better venues, lots of bands, better bands...and the Trade Union Club...oh, and don't forget to hand your studded belt in at the door....oh and oh...try not to have too much trouble finding the one that is YOURS at the end of the gig...my studded belt is THAT one, lost in a sea of studded belts...
Perhaps we really were sheep afterall! I suppose the band were allowed to keep theirs though.
Hey beautiful people! The Annandale gig was an absolute bloody ripper. Wholly different from, but as good as, any gig I've seen Tactics (in whatever form that be) play.
Listening to volume 2 (the Blue and White era songs especially) on the drive from dear old Canberra brought back so many memories. A three and a half penny stamp on the ground at a VC winner memorial rest stop on the highway brought past and present together. The evening's gig united all that has gone before, with what now is, and gave it a glorious, radiant future. Thanks for helping me appreciate what was, what is and what will be in a way I haven't quite managed before.
I've got to make special mention, Dave, of your touching and sincere acknowledgement of our mate Snajik - spoken like a true musical gentleman.
a giant shout out to all of you who came along on saturday - it was as brilliant on stage as off - the energy, positivity and big beaming grins were everywhere!
we'd love to find some of those photographers who were snapping away all night so if you're out there, get in touch, please!
Let us know too if you've got a review of the gig we can put up on the www
Tactics at the Annandale. What a blast. Ragged you said David…but no way…the band rocked …Thanks for breathing new life into the old songs… but now you’ve gone and left a whole in my life…again.
Hey Tactics, Me and my keys player ventured out to see you guys at the 'dale last night, we know Cloud control and stuck around to see you play.....we have had no previous knowledge of whom you were apart from you guys messaging us on myspace. We were BLOWN AWAY! We really liked your music man! Your drummer is king, and your lead guitarist is really a gem, and can wail. Very , very cool.
