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Tactics

Tactics: The Sound of the Sound 1 & 2

About Me

TACTICS: THE SOUND OF THE SOUND

"An enemy of art and ethics he reconciles the rational and irrational in TACTICS..."
News!: "My Houdini" and "Glebe" have been re-released (on October 7th 2006) as " The Sound Of The Sound Vol 1 " on Reverberation .
TACTICS
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.
TACTICSFormed 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
TACTICS: THE SOUND OF THE SOUND

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/10/2006
Band Members:



Influences: Second Language - 1981 - -Coat-tails live @ The Annandale Hotel 05/04/08Know 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
Record Label: Memorandum Recordings
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

todays rave with dave 12

I had a good look at the duck map in Regents Park.   Far as I can make out there's a duck in Africa and two in Australia.   The other thing I'm picking up is that ducks love a fight. They ...
Posted by Tactics on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:12:00 PST

todays rave with Dave 11

  Read 'drive' by James Sallis in one sitting.... .. .. with a style and narrative like richard stark; bit more colour, bit more psychology, nothing too intrusive; fantastic sentences; fanta...
Posted by Tactics on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:16:00 PST

Check out this video: Know it all - live @ the Annandale 05-04-08

Check out this video: Know it all - live @ the Annandale 05-04-08 ..Add to My Profile | More Videos...
Posted by Tactics on Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:52:00 PST

Check out this video: Coat-tails Live 05/04/08 Annandale

Check out this video: Coat-tails Live 05/04/08 Annandale ..Add to My Profile | More Videos...
Posted by Tactics on Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:45:00 PST

today’s rave with Dave 10

I've got thirteen clocks by my bed. Every morning I check 'em all just to make sure I woke up at the right time. If one's out, even a little bit, I fall back on my pillow and go straight back to sle...
Posted by Tactics on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:55:00 PST

todays rave with dave 9

Basically, like everybody else I'm just a big fight  an endless lifetime of three minute rounds; rounds and rounds over a life time  intervals of uneasy peace.   The older I get the more peopl...
Posted by Tactics on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:33:00 PST

today’s rave with Dave 8

He sits outside, facing the road, a foot from the endless flowing people up and down the street; three yards from the traffic. He feels the driver's eyes pass across him as they pick their nails and c...
Posted by Tactics on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:00:00 PST

Todays Rave with Dave 7

I saw today in a dream I dreamt months ago. Now I lived it and nothing happened.
Posted by Tactics on Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:07:00 PST

todays rave with dave 6

I've noticed people always want answers, want to get to the bottom of things or want something done....but when it doesn't happen, they don't seem to care.    
Posted by Tactics on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:19:00 PST

tadays rave with dave 5

I once owned a quarter of a grey hound. I can remember most things about it but why I brought into it I've got no idea. The main man in the operation happened to be a certain cat named Billy, the sta...
Posted by Tactics on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:19:00 PST