Criminals' Doublethink label (July 1980) – "suffered from poor sound quality and really only hinted at the band's potential." In September 1979 they played a return gig in Canberra; Studdert reflected, "The crowd's reaction was tepid. In Sydney if an audience likes you, they won't hold back. People here are incredibly shy. Saturday was like a school social. I was surprised when people actually got up and danced." The Canberra Times reviewer opined that "They play with energy, and power, but their interesting, poppy songs come across with a lightness that eludes most other new-wave bands. Their appearance at the Ainslie Rex, despite a few mix problems, was a demonstration of praiseworthy songwriting and sound musicianship." Before the end of 1979 Ingrid Spielman had joined the line-up on piano and keyboards. 1980: My Houdini album In December 1980 Tactics released their first album, My Houdini, via Green Records label, which McFarlane felt was "full of frantic energy, scratchy guitars, uneasy melodies, challenging songs and astute lyrical observations." It was co-produced by the group with Martin Bishop. Australian writer, Clinton Walker, recognised it as a definitive recording of that period:My Houdini was a landmark Australian indy. It may hardly be remembered today, but that's probably because the sheer originality of Dave Studdert’s vision – and the shrillness of his voice – still asks too much of an audience. My Houdini featured a wider range of instrumentation than the band’s live sound, with Spielman playing piano on the recording; additionally saxophones and flutes by Danny Field were used for some tracks. The album included a re-worked version "Buried Country" from Long Weekend, as well as some slower, more reflective songs "The Usual", "Frozen Park" and "A Settler's Complaint", which were not usually played in the band's live set. Patrick Emery of I-94 Bar interviewed Studdert in October 2006 and asked about working on the album with Bishop, the vocalist recalled, "We were a pretty full-on and intense band. I was incredibly focused, and so were the other guys. He [Bishop] put us in a situation where we had to watch what he was doing, every five minutes, otherwise he'd do something we didn't want him to do ... we recorded during the day, played gigs at night and there was a lot of intensity and grinding poverty. So it was a pretty intense process. And he was a pretty intense guy too,