Landmarq - Infinity Parade

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Landmarq - Infinity Parade

Artist:	Landmarq
Title:	Infinity Parade
Label:	Cyclops CYCL 117
Length(s):	60 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1993/2002
Month of review:	[09/2002]

Line up

Dave Wagstaffe - drums
Uwe D'Rose - guitars
Steve Gee - bass
Steve Leigh - keyboards
Damian Wilson - vocals

Tracks

1)	Solitary Witness	6.50
2)	Gaia's Waltz	6.05
3)	Landslide	3.55
4)	Ta'Jiang	16.31
5)	Tailspin ( Let Go The Line)	8.37
6)	The More You Seek The More You Lose	5.41
7)	Embrace	6.30
8)	Borrowed Mind	5.27

Summary

Of the albums released by SI Music, this is probably the one I have played most often. This has a lot to do with the fact that Landmarq is one of those bands whom my wife also happens to like a lot. There is a shorter review of the album written when it came out right here, but I chose to do a new one since this is a rather short review and I am interested to see how my views changed. Also the album features a bons track, Borrowed mind, taken from the second SI Compilation disc. The artwork is new, but in my opinion not an improvement (although the bio with the album states that the band was not happy with the old artwork, in view of the music I can understand that: it is a bit gloomy). The other Landmarq discs are also out on Cyclops, by the way.

The music

Solitary Witness is the title track of the previous, a gimmick the band repeated a few times (see the reviews of their later albums on the website). The song opens with bagpipish keyboards and thrumming military drums, after which the real song starts, sung by Damian Wilson in his typical somewhat dramatic voice. The song is a melancholic and melodic one very relaxed, almost dreamy. The acoustic guitar tingles along, softly repetitive, the synths have a somewhat cheesy sound. The focal points are the vocals which get louder towards the end. In their time the band was often compared to Camel, but I guess this mainly for the rather relaxed, song oriented approach to symphonic rock. The up-beat intermezzo might also be said to be Camel like.

Striking about Gaia's Waltz is that lyrics and music go hand in hand: the impression of a train in the beginning, the waltzy feel of the song, the pagan feel that pervades the song as well. D'Rose's guitar wails in high pitched fashion, later lower and somewhat rougher, the even more waltzy dancing part which could be interpreted as a chorus. What strikes me most about the music now, is that the band goes as it so carefully. Like they want to say: song and melody first, energy later. Although you might get the impression that the music of Landmarq is very simple, when you listen close you hear how many different passages make up a song, because of their relatedness you do not easily seem them as different. Especially Wagstaffe often goes against the grain on this one.

Landslide is a jazzy instrumental, with a typical sensuous Landmarq intermezzo, and in my opinion the weakest track on the entire album. Something to play live, but not to put on an album. It's total opposite is the imposing Ta'Jiang with its over sixteen minutes of melodic diversity tells the story of a boattrip on the river of the same name. It is especially striking how well Leigh made the story connect to the music, especially the part where the music really sounds as if you are going up a river in a speed boat. The momentous delivery of Wilson rounds out this track. In somewhat more detail, the song contains a big load of piano, melodic and repetitive, Wagstaffe and Leigh's low piano playing are responsible for picturing the waves cresting against the boat, Damian's delivery adds the goosebumps. Then the music moves under water with intermittent piano, burbly keyboards. Then the main the of the song comes in with Gee supporting the theme on bass. Wilson comes in then with a heartfelt, understated vocal part that again makes the goosebumps come on. It is not just his vocals, but the moody melancholy of the whole band, with the percolating guitar playing of D'Rose being very distinctive. Half the ninth minute the pace gets back in the song and we are in for a ride. The church organ, the furious guitar playing, the driving rhythmic force, the watery waltzy interludes (with the dancing piano). At the end the urgent vocal part (the boat racing) returns and we continue to fade, with the tear in Wilson's voice doing good work.

On Tailspin (Let Go The Line) we open with the sound of a motor boat, so in that way we stay in the line of the previous song. This however is extremely dreamy, almost New Agey. In view of its length, one might be tempted to think that this song does not hold up. This was in fact my first opinion of the track, but one does get used to it. The bass is very prominent yielding a current on which the rest of the song finds its place: the simple flutish keyboards, the soft washes of drums, the varied vocals, intertwining, restful later plaintive. For some probably a bit too mellow.

The More You Seek The More You Lose is something else entirely. A short up-beat piece of work, which really works well. Like on some of the tracks, the synth sounds come over a bit cheesy. Especially the trumpety ones. Melodically there is something Arabic about it all.

You will probably not be interested in hearing that Embrace was the song that my wife and I used to open the dances at our wedding. We can not dance ourselves so we simply stood still when this song was playing. Embrace is a sensuous ballad, and shows why Landmarq is a band which also has a large female following, much larger than of other contemporary progressive bands (this is something I have seen at concerts at least, although admittedly, the effect was less apparent since Tracy joined the club). Behind Damian Wilson's emotive vocals, the clear high vocals of Eileen Ruthford are added to good effect. A love ballad, yes, cheesy, maybe, but it works for me.

Borrowed Mind is the bonus track from the SI Compilation Disc Too and its lyrics are also included. The track does not strike me as very different from the other tracks, although it does sound a bit newer. Maybe the transition to the harder edged follow-up was being made.

Conclusion

The flashiness, the complexity and bombast that characterizes much of progressive rock (not always all of them), seems strangely absent on this album which is filled with rather sensuous progressive rock, in which the complexity is well-hidden within the music. As such, the band also manages to turn non-proggers into fans, helped of course by the personality of Damian Wilson. On the other hand, it is also very easy for people who think they are into pure progressive rock, to simply dismiss the band as being too melodic, too songoriented, too cheesy, or what have you. They, I think, sell the band short, because they showsn themselves to be one of the most unique bands to come from the SI Music label and from England in the last decades. Although people have named Camel to be an influence on the band I actually can not think of any band with whom I can compare Landmarq and that in itself might be called a...ehm...you know. The only flaw I detect in the music on this album, is that Steve Leigh quite often goes for the, in my view, cheesy keyboard sounds. Maybe that also helps to establish the typical Landmarq sound, but it is something that continues to nag. Nonetheless a effort very much worthy of getting.