Though undoubtedly respected in wider contemporary artistic circles and notable for her photo montages adorning sleeves by influential bands like MAGAZINE and BUZZCOCKS, LINDER STERLING’S musical heritage with her uncompromising Manchester troupe LUDUS is surely due a critical rediscovery.
Enter LTM Records, then, with a timely and far-reaching compilation of LUDUS’ best work (1979-1983) in “The Damage”: picking the (sometimes strange) fruits of LINDER’S musical collaborations with guitarist/ sax player/ co-conspirator IAN DEVINE.
Actually, LUDUS briefly worked the local Manc circuit in 1978 with a line-up including guitarist ARTHUR KADMON (future DISTRACTION and brief FALL collaborator), but didn’t make their recorded debut until DEVINE arrived the following year from his native Cardiff.
LUDUS’ first record was a 12” (December 1979) called “The Visit.” The track “I Can’t Swim, I Have Nightmares” is plucked from that and still sounds light years ahead, combining bitten-off funk energy, impatient John Maher-style drumming and a genuinely unsettling free-form middle section. Frenetic punk energy aside, it’s totally alien to virtually anything else to emanate from Manchester.
Actually, most of “The Damage” makes this fact abundantly clear. Indeed, LINDER and DEVINE’S jazzy aspirations were taken even further out when they recruited drummer DIDS by early 1981 (he’ll be familiar to anyone who’s read JAMES YOUNG’s NICO biog). His strange, rolling percussion gave LUDUS a disturbing, yet ethereal edge on tracks like the deceptively balmy “Hugo Blanco.”
Another thing that sets LUDUS’ legacy apart is they (accidentally or otherwise) stumbled on a very sophisticated European pop sound that has only been picked up in more recent years by people like STEREOLAB. Indeed, LAETITIA SADIER would no doubt have drowned in critical plaudits for the version of BRIGITTE BARDOT’S “Nue Au Soleil” LINDER pulls off here. Elsewhere, songs like the brief “How High Does The Sky Go?” and the relentless disco pulse of “Little Girls” recalls the (very) early EURYTHMICS phase when CONNY PLANCK briefly moulded them. A compliment by the way.
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During 1982/83 LUDUS cemented their danceability by expanding to a seven-piece, including former MAGAZINE keyboard sorcerer DAVE FORMULA, who makes his presence felt here on strident songs like “My Mirror” and the louche swagger of “Wrapped In Silence” where he inserts some skittering late-night electric piano.
Having said that, LUDUS’ relentless experimentation could sometimes dive into impenetrable waters and spontaneity alone cannot save such as “Howling Cornique” and “What A Falling Off There Was”, which are purely indulgent exercises in free jazz drivel. At their best, LUDUS could rein in these excesses with LINDER’S persuasive (verging on downright suggestive) vocals or DEVINE’S ability to fire riffs from the hip to take up the slack coming into play, but these tracks severely try the patience.
Nevertheless, “The Damage” – along with the spate of STOCKHOLM MONSTERS re-issues and the recent BLUE ORCHIDS compilation – proves conclusively that Manchester’s musical heritage has remained fertile and productive, even when skulking in the shadows away from the trumpeted “24 Hour Party People” scene currently being cherished on celluloid.
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