Tactics - Outdoors 7" Doublethink DTDT9, 1980

Tactics' second single tends to be somewhat overshadowed by the world class art punk of Standing By The Window, which is a shame as it's a good record in its own right. Both songs are spiky, brittle post-punk driven by clean guitars and staccato rhythms. Hole In My Life is the winner of the two, with David Studdert's distinctive vocals playing off particularly effectively against the eerie riffing, and some fine distorted guitar for those of us who prefer that sort of thing. Outdoors is no slouch either, it's crashing minor chords building to an energetic conclusion. As on the first EP, Steve Maughan of Kevin McLaughlin and the Murrumbidgee Orchestra (here aided by Ian Davies) provides perfectly simple and crisp production. Also like the first single, this was pressed in an edition of 500 copies, but seems to appear less frequently than that earlier record; oddly, it is also one of the more seldom sighted (but not that seldom sighted) of the Doublethink 45s, and is the only single on the label not to sport a picture sleeve.

Outdoors [Download]


Hole In My Life [Download]