LUDUS: THE DAMAGE
LTM ltmcd2328 2002
http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/luduscat.html
Ludus was begun in 1978, founded by visual artist Linder Sterling as a guitar/vox
two-piece, eventually settling down as a trio (Ian Devine on guitar, Dids
on drums) filled out for live sets by Barry Adamson (b) and Dave Formula (k)
of Magazine.
The Magazine connection was of course no coincidence, as Linder's lover at
the time was Howard Devoto, and Linder had been responsible for the cover
art for Real Life and Secondhand Daylight, as well as the Buzzcock's Orgasm
Addict single. The band's music was an ideal analog to her visual work, an
aural assault on the male-dominated worlds of the gallery, the club, and the
bedroom..
Snake-like guitars enmeshed jazzily with loping basslines and skittering drums,
torsion-barred into pop-like and genuine poptunes - not really so far from
what Weekend, the French Impressionists and Pale Fountains were doing at the
time, but with freejazz teeth a la The Popgroup, Slits and their Bristol ilk
(but with none of their dready dub pretensions - not that Ludus were without
pretensions.) Linder's singing, always knowing, was alternately sweet (though
not terrible tender) or cool, not too too far from Nico or Dagmar Krauss -
in fact the whole Brecht/Weill cabaret bit is absorbed (save it's misogyny)
into the agit-pop. And occasionally, especially live, Linder would cut loose
with some Reichian primal screams that were scary as fuck, but completely
in tune with the intent of the music. About the closest thing today would
be Azita Youssefi's singing with Chicago's Bride of No No, but a little less
histrionic than Az and none of B.O.N.N.'s Bush Tetras no-wave crunch.
As an introduction to the Ludus, this compilation is almost ideal, concentrating
mostly on the early poppy singles and choice bits from The Visit 12"(1980),
The Seduction double 12" (1981) and the Pickpocket cassete (1981). Also
included is the beautiful cover of Brigette Bardot's "Neu au Soliel"
(originally released on Les Disques du Crepescule's 1987 Ludus compilation)
and three tracks from Ludus infamous 5 November 1982 show at the Hacienda.
Let's just say the '24 hr. party people" didn't know what to expect with
this one: the clubs tables were decorated with paper plates presenting red-stained
tampons and a stubbed-out cigarette, Linder herself came out garbed in a dress
made of raw meat (years before Jana Sterbak's 'Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an
Albino Anorectic).
I'm listening to Linder deadpanning "Wrapped in Silence" as I write,
imagining this event and smiling...........
-William Mohline