LTM’S recent LUDUS compilation “The Damage” carved out the perfect back door for those (like me) who were only previously au fait with snippets of this legendary band’s specacular and unclassifiable back catalogue.
Now, for those of us keen to indulge further, we get intense, in-depth helpings with the re-issue of virtually the band’s entire career over 2 generous CDS.We’ll also shortly be featuring “Danger Came Smiling”/ “Pickpocket”, but for now let’s concentrate on “The Visit”/ “The Seduction.”
Comprising 14 tracks in all, this CD opens with LUDUS’ debut four-track EP, “The Visit”, recorded at Oldham’s Pennine Studios in late 1979 with Stuart James (producer of JOY DIVISION’S Piccadilly Radio session) at the controls. It’s a breathtaking statement of intent, with opening track “Lullabye Cheat” alone cramming in more ideas than most groups’ entire careers.
Recorded shortly after Linder teamed up with guitarist/ co-writer Ian Devine, these four tracks encapsulate the energy of punk, along with Linder’s tongue-twisting flights of lyrical fancy, plus forays into hard-edged funk and liquid jazz via a litany of dazzling time signatures. “Lullabye Cheat”, “Sightseeing” and “Unveil” are all great, but “I Can’t Swim, I Have Nightmares” remains one of their most ambitious and far-reaching efforts. Beginning angular, funky and impatient, it mutates thrillingly into free jazz (no, don’t run away), but Toby’s insistent drumming and a dub-like mentality keep it on the radar.
James Nice’s terrific sleevenotes inform us that both Martin Hannett and Peter Hammill expressed an interest in producing LUDUS, but this reviewer can only marvel at the end results, should even these legendary mavericks have been presented with the utterly mental, percussive orgasm that is “Mother’s Hour.” Probably one of the most uncompromising singles EVER, it’s so impenetrable, you’re relieved when it’s followed up by the relatively (this is LUDUS, remember) linear “Anatomy Is Not Destiny,” even though Linder’s singing stuff like “I don’t pull the wings off butterflies.” Erk!
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Personnel-wise, LUDUS were always a transient affair, but by the dawn of 1982, drummer Dids (later a NICO affiliate) was ensconced behind the kit and helped Linder and Devine record “The Seduction” at Revolution in Manchester during February of that year.
Beginning with the remarkable 8-minute journey that is “Unveiled (A Woman’s Travelogue)”, “The Seduction” is rather more poised than the band’s previous releases,and while it retains jerky, almost Beefheartian creations like “See The Keyhole,” it also features the three-minute “hormonal victory” single, “My Cherry Is In Sherry”, the gently dextrous sub-samba of “Mirror Mirror” and the deceptively sunny Houdini pop of “The Escape Artist,” all of which are eminently approachable and demonstrate that LUDUS were ready to (briefly) dive into more commercially-minded waters with their soon-come, short-lived 7-piece line up including ex-Mgagazine keyboards meister Dave Formula.
Rich, strange, exotic, playful and terrifying...these are some of the words that only scratch the surface of Linder and Ian Devine’s singular soundworld, even twenty years after the fact. Indeed, it’s fitting that LUDUS is a Latin term for game or play, as listening to “The Visit”/ “The Seduction” is akin to being lost, disconcerted, but strangely enthralled inside the most wonderful maze.
Maybe you’ll wanna get out, but not too quickly.
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