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Landmarq - The Science Of Coincidence

Artist:	Landmarq
Title:	The Science Of Coincidence
Label:	Synergy 002
Length(s):	63 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	11/1998

Line up

Tracy Hitchings - vocals
Uwe D'Rose - guitars
Steve Leigh - keyboards, backing vocals
Dave Wagstaffe - drums, backing vocals
Steve Gee - bass, backing vocals

Tracks

1)	Science Of Coincidence	5.14
2)	The Vision Pit	12.15
3)	Heritage	5.43
4)	Summer Madness	7.43
5)	Lighthouse	10.57
6)	Between Sleeping And Dreaming	4.33
7)	More Flames For The Dancer	6.38
8)	The Overlook	10.11

There are four samples. It remains to decide the tracks.

Summary

Well, you should know Damian Wilson has left the band again, thus leaving a gap, that was filled with Tracy Hitchings, who was meant to sing with Landmarq to begin with.

The music

Consisting of three long and five shorter pieces, the keyboards opening the album on the title track belie the accessible tune that it turns out to be. This is actually the first time that the title track as such is featured on an album of Landmarq. The nice opening keyboards return in a dark instrumental part, followed by an Arabic sounding guitar solo. Like Damian Wilson, Tracy has a powerful voice, although I do feel Damians singing is more emotionally charged. The following track is the title track of the previous album and if you listen close it is actually build on the "title track" of The Vision Pit ON The Vision Pit, which was Hanblechia. This was also the first Landmarq song to feature the voice of Tracy. The song opens in the way of Shine On You Crazy Diamond and then slowly still the motive of Hanblechia is reintroduced. The song is sung very well by Tracy: both in a slightly mysterious manner, but also out loud, showing body. One of the best and complete songs the band has ever trusted to plastic, yet the guitar solo reminds me of the one of the previous song. This small epic is followed by the mid-tempo Heritage. Dominated by the vocal melody, this is a pop song, but not a bad one, with a good vocal melody and a nice guitar solo to round it all off. Summer Madness is also a rather poppy track, quite up-beat and the song I like least on this album. The melody is not particularly enticing and it's just a little too happy for me. Lighthouse is the second epic, slightly under eleven minutes. Again, this is a great song with various strong melodies and all having a salty air to them. On the whole a rather dark track, ponderous, but also majestic and captivating. After the sweet but beautiful ballad Between Sleeping And Dreaming More Flames For The Dancer opens rather neurotically, jumpy as the music of Landmarq sometimes is, or in fact as it used to be. I like the chorus, but I would rather have not had that children choir there. the last song is also an epic, The Overlook. Opening with children voices, this one of those Steve Leigh tracks. It is striking that that other Steve, Gee, has had so little to do with the music this time. And like the two other epics it is good. The song is quite dramatic and melancholic, but becomes more pumping towards the end combined with the classical tendencies that Leigh often shows in his solo efforts.

Conclusion

Landmarq still is Landmarq, or, after their rather hardedged Vision Pit, more Landmarq, dealing out their own brand of accessible, melodic progressive rock. The voice has changed, some of the songs are more accessible than ever, but in my opinion the three epics constitute some of the best things the band has ever done, in league with a song such as Ta' Jiang. Song I was least satisfied with is Summer Madness and the pleasant surprise of the album is the softspoken Between Sleeping And Dreaming. The other short songs are nice in a way, but do not approach the longer tracks. The album easily surpasses the first and third Landmarq and ranks up close with Infinity Parade, although I think that songwise the new album is the strongest yet.