LANDMARQ

It has been some 13 years since the last Landmarq album, due in no small part to Tracy's battle with cancer. This got me thinking, as the keyboard player is Mike Varty who is also in Credo ? whose singer Mark Colton also suffered a life-threatening illness which long delayed an album. If I was in DeeExpus, Shadowland, or anything else Mike is involved with I might be concerned?.Anyway, I first came across Tracy's singing a million years ago when she was in Quasar with Dave Wagstaffe and Steve Leigh, and after they all left that band they formed Landmarq, although with Damian Wilson on vocals while Tracy worked with Clive Nolan and also followed a solo career. It was only towards the end of the Nineties that Tracy became the singer on a full-time basis (after Damian, then Moon, and then Damian again if my memory serves me right) and she appeared on their last studio album 'Science of Coincidence', but this is the first to feature Mike as he has only been there seven years. The rest of the guys are those who have been there since the beginning, namely Uwe D'Rose (guitars), Steve Gee (bass) and Dave Wagstaffe (drums). Although since the release of this album Dave has had to announce his sad departure as he is no longer able to commit to touring, as he also plays with Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash.

So, what about it then? Production is top class, as one would expect from Mike, and although Tracy has been through a lot on the last ten years it doesn't show in her voice at all. I have always felt that Tracy is one of the most under-rated singers from these shores (go and find her solo album if you don't believe me), and is easily on a par with Lana Lane, and here she sings with a passion and strength that totally belies what has been going on in her personal life. In many ways this is easy listening prog, in the sense that the music is here as an accompaniment to the vocals and although there is a lot of complexity in the arrangements it is all about the singing. There are Floydian moments ("Mountains of Anglia" features some great slide guitar as well as sax) and others that are more in your face, but at all times it is about mood.

My favourite Landmarq album is always probably going to be 'Solitary Witness', but in many ways this is a rebirth and to my ears is a totally different band who produced that album 20 years ago, not just in personnel but in approach. 2012 has been a wonderful year for bands that first came to prominence in the 90's to produce great albums, and Landmarq are no exception.

Turbulence?

If you happen to know the live concert DVD Turbulence released in 2006 (or, if you have seen the band live recently?), several of the tracks on this new studio album will be familiar to you. The title track, Mountains Of Anglia, Prayer, and the 16 minute plus Calm Before The Storm were all included on the Turbulence DVD (but ironically not the track called Turbulence itself). As such, more than half of the music on this album is at least six years old. But during this time little or nothing has happened to these songs or to the sound of the band in general. Like on the previous Science Of Coincidence from 1998, the songs are lush and melodic and filled with modern keyboard and clean, soaring lead guitar. I again find this music very pleasant and enjoyable, but somewhat lightweight.

Even if I think that Tracy Hitchings is a fantastic vocalist, I much prefer the Damian Wilson-era of Landmarq. The excellent debut album Solitary Witness remains my favourite Landmarq album and nothing they did after that has impressed me. There is no denying that these people are very talented musicians, and this is certainly another good Landmarq album, but again I fail to be impressed. As I said in my review of Science Of Coincidence, anyone looking for something dark or heavy should definitely look elsewhere.

Long overdue, Entertaining Angels will please fans of the band and many fans of the lighter side of Prog

It's been quite some time since Landmarq released a studio album, the last being Science Of Coincidence way back in 1998. There have been a number of live releases since then including the band's first DVD - Turbulence, Live In Poland in 2006. The delay has in part unfortunately been down to vocalist Tracy Hitchings diagnosis with cancer a few years ago. Thankfully she has now been given the all clear and made a full recovery and is back in fine form.

Entertaining Angels is a great comeback for Landmarq and whilst I don't have all their albums in my collection it's the strongest set of songs I've heard from them. It's a consistently enjoyable collection of neo prog verging on crossover with strong and memorable melodies throughout. Lush keyboard work prevails alongside some fantastic and very tasteful guitar work from Uwe D'Rose including some searing Gilmour style soloing. Icing on the cake though has to be Tracy Hitchings gorgeous vocals whose theatrical delivery soars over this excellent collection and proves that she's one of the finest female vocalists working in prog, or any other genre today.

Most of the songs exceed the eight minute barrier with album closer Calm Before The Storm reaching sixteen minutes. Landmarq go for strong hooks over complex instrumental workouts and it works in their favour. Whilst unlike many prog bands we don't get a myriad of changes on most the tracks but they never appear overly long and laboured. This in part has to be down to the way Tracy expertly builds her vocal parts keeping the listener captivated, Part 2 of Glowing being a shining example. There's still room for some strong instrumental passages though with sax making a guest appearance on a couple of occasions for added colour.

The album is also available in a limited edition which includes a bonus disc with a further four tracks making up an extra thirty minutes of listening. Whilst these make a welcome addition there's nothing on here as strong as the main album but nevertheless worth the extra few quid. Overall then Entertaining Angels is a great return for Landmarq and sure to keep fans of the band happy and hopefully get them a few new ones along the way.

No time for rest for the five-piece Neo Prog veterans from London, as Landmarq will enter the studio, preparing for a sophomore comeback after the questionable result of ''Solitary witness''.The new album would be named ''Infinity parade'', starting a tradition by the band including always a track named after the previous album's title, eventually released on the Dutch label SI Music in 1993.

What the listener was aware of in ''Solitary witness'' now takes some flesh in ''Infinity parade'': following a band that was always capable of more than what was taped.With the new album Landmarq finally deliver some great performances, memorable tunes and , above all, take advantage of Damian Wilson's voice at a higher degree.Especially the first and last couple of tracks breeze this fantastic British Neo Prog air at its best. Compositions with fantastic lyrical moments, dramatic atmospheres, clear production, mindblowing solos and emotional moments.The band seems more tight and the tracks are more adventurous and conveincing.There is also a 16-min. grand epic produced by the band, entitled ''Ta'Jiang'', which is also pretty solid and contains all of the above characteristics.''Landslide'' and ''Tailspin'' suffer a bit from the flaws of the previous release.Tracks that have something to offer but never take off to the level of the rest of the material, sounding a bit flat and mechanical.

To this point of their career Landmarq managed finally to shake things a bit and return with an album equal to the names of their experienced line-up.But there is always a sense that they could have done it even better.Still ''Infinity parade'' contains two or three killer tracks, enough to label the album as ''strongly recommended'', especially to fans of Classic British Neo Prog...3.5 stars.

I decided to write few words The Vision Pit in a defense of this underrated record. Despite the low reception I consider this album certainly as a band's finest achievement, having all positive trademarks of previous albums. I see it as one of key neo-prog albums in 90s. The Vision Pit is darker and I would say slightly more sophisticated, memorable and consistent than previous two, and is probably harder to get into.

Compositionally it goes more adventurous path and for some reason it has quite strong impact on me. Great for purgatorial journey through the coldness, broodiness and despair, it nicely elevates the emotions. Its freezy atmosphere includes variety of moods, from uplifting, to sad and mournful, from furious to dreamy, evil and grotesque. Synthesizers' patterns are wisely chosen (although some of them may sound a bit 'outdated' today) to intertwine with the sharp chorus lead guitar and interesting rhythm structures, melodic basslines. There is no exhibition, instruments nicely complement each other.

Above all, Damian Wilson shows his distinctively impressive voice at his finest. Soulful melancholy and vocal acrobacy create unique experience along with the instrumentation. Ideas and chord progressions are inventive, but still melodic, and dynamic shifts are done very well, so it holds my attention over the entire album. I really like every single song on it, despite the first side being slightly stronger.

I'd say it is a fine prog album even in 'objective terms' (odd tepmos, mood shifts...), but also it has kind of extra magic and certain chemistry which moves it into quite special place in my music collection. Especially if you are fan of rich and melodic neo-prog moments, from the bands like Arena, IQ, Credo, Pendragon or prog-projects involving Damian Wilson - give it a chance! You might be pleasantly surprised. Good 4 stars.

Though new vocalist Tracy Hitchings brings some impressive talent to bear on The Science of Coincidence, it's not quite enough to sell me on Landmarq's rather generic Pendragon/early Marillion-derived brand of neo-prog. Part of the issue is that the production on this album seems rather average - Tracy's vocals have plenty of room to breathe, but the rest of the instruments seem to be tripping over each other, and are often a little too quiet compared to the vocals to really stand out. After the belter of a title track, the album rapidly loses momentum, and whilst I think it is a shade better than previous efforts by the band it's not enough to propel them into the upper tier of neo acts.

actualy 3.5

Landmarq only DVD released so far from 2006 , Turbulence Live in Poland is a good example of how this band manage to be great on stage aswell not only in studio. Featuring now on voice the great Tracy Hitchings who was already a member since 1997 on Science of Coincidence, sine Damian Wilson left Landmarq to join Threshold. The keyboard player is on this DVD is from Janison Edge and Shadowland and done a simply great job here. The rest of the musicians are the same as on previous albums. The pieces choosen for this DVd are totaly excellent, the highlights are the instrumental track from Solitary witness Landslide and some couple of other pieces like Spiderman or Lighthous. Is easy to see thet the band plays here very confident, with pleasure, each member is in good mood on stage and in sound is all transmited with a positive vibe. While I prefer my miles Wilson voice, Tracy Hitchings performing here is no less then great, he is more the king of technical female vocalist, but a great one, specially on higher register is brilliant. I also know her from Quasar, her solo album and Strangers on a train and in each album where she is involved she dne agreat job, here aswell. I like alot the instrumental passages from this DVD, specially the guitarist Uwe D'Rose is excellent, he dome some gret amnouvres and some intrsting chops, I also like the bass player , he is a hard working musician who complete very well the sound of Lanmarq. All in all a good DVD taht worth purchase, I don't know if is really essential or one of the best I've seen, but defintlly caught Landmarq in good form. 3.5 stars. Lots of bonus material aswell that worth to be seen or heared, because are from both sides here.

Thir album by this discret band with moderate succes in the '90's, Vision pit released in 1995 and issued by same SI music who will colapsses a year or so later, but definetly a great label that issued some great albums and bands across the years from the year they formed in 1987 untill 1997. So, Landmarq third album is little not so excellent then predecesor and aswell the last album featuring the unique voice of Damian Wilson, later on he wil join Threshold on Extinct Instinct from 1997 and he is now a permanent member in Threshold since 2007. Compose and played is same manner with Infinity parade but less intrsting in arrangenets, but still having some great moments like opening track the up tempo and powerful Cutting room, Narovlya with some moving lyrics, far as I know are about the nuclear desaster that was made in 1986 in Cernobl, btw the lyrics are in fact the the letter that one of the teacher from a kindergarden wrote on how this desaster had the impact on peoples life, specialy childrens, is transladed word by word in english from russian and is damn moving song. Another worthy track is Hanblechia (the Vision Quest), practlicaly to me no weak moments here, but the overall arrangements are little less intrsting then on previous albums, but still pleasent for sure. One of the neo prog bands that still are active today, they are for more then 20 years in the shadow of the other more well nown bands from neo zone. It's a pitty that they didn't hit big time yet after so many years. 3.5 stars and no way to be a bad album as other mentioning, really is to low rated.

Landmarq is one of my fav bands from neo zone since first time I've heared then more then 10 years ago. Formed from the ashes of another neo prog band from the '80's Quasar with 2 albums released but remaining totaly unkown untill disbanded in 1990. From Quasar came the drumer Dave Wagstaffe, the guitarist Uwe D'Rose and keybordist Steve Leigh having a helping hand by one of the most briliant voices I've ever heared, but only from their second album Infinity parade no one then Damian Wilson. Their second album from 1993 issue by SI music is a total winner in my book, is my fav Landmarq album and one of my fav albums in general. No weak moments here, all 7 pieces are damn great with the cherry on the cake the top norch Damian's powerfull voice. The music , at least for me is chalenging, great arrangements, excellent guitar meets keyboards and some very intristing vocal parts. The opening track Solitary witness is absolutly killer pieces, Wilson voice cuts deep in my heart every time I hear this tune, what a great lyrics aswell, one of my fav pieces ever. The instrumental Landslide is another worthy track with some inventive and very fun guitar parts, keyboards added gives a great atmosphere. The longest piece Ta'Jiang neaarly 17 min long is a killer one in every aspect, mid tempo with quite a melodic line but constructed with some spectacular guitars and keyboards not to mention that Damina Wilson is again briliant. The More You Seek The More You Lose is a up tempo tune with great chorus and very positive vibe, great I love it, the album ending by a slow one Embrace with intrsting chorus and great again and again top notch voice. In the end I don't really know why is so low rated this allbum aswell like the next one, this is great neo prog, better then most of their country fellow that are praised all the time. 4 stars easy, I simply love this album from start to finish, no less. Excellent.

It's no surprise to me that this debut album by Landmarq was recorded with the aid of Clive Nolan and Karl Groom of Shadowland, because the two bands play in what sounds to me like a very similar style - chirpy, upbeat neo-prog which downplays the "prog" end of things and regularly traipses towards simply becoming melodic rock. Vocalist Damien Wilson clearly has a good voice on him but to my ears he never does anything interesting or unexpected with it, and the same is true of the band members and their instruments. On the whole, a competently done album, but a little cheesy and AOR-ish for my tastes.