Over the years our British friends Landmarq have
had their fair share of problems. First there was the problem with vocalist
Damion Wilson, then there was the difficulty with their Ducth recordcompany
SI which went bust just when their album “The vision pit” got released
making it almost impossible to get hold of a copy for years ! In the end
Damion was replaced by drummer Dave Wagstaffe’s ex-girlfriend and
ex-Quasar singer Tracy Hitchings and Landmarq started kind of a second life
holding the wish to one day re-release it’s entire output on their very
own label. Probably down to the many musical activities and solo sidesteps
the band has decided a band should produce music and other people should run
the management side of things which is why Cyclops have now re-issued the
Landmarq catalogue. Recently appreciated by American progfans whom
for years turned down anything stamped with the label ‘neo-progressive’,
of course this Karl Groom / Clive Nolan produced material clearly bears the
Thin Ice Studios stamp. Originally released in 1992 “Solitary witness”
holds some memorable moments not in the least between guitarist Uwe D’Rose
and keyboardplayer Steve Leigh as is illustrated during ‘Forever young’.
To nicely create a balance on this album, two instrumentals have been added
one being ‘April first’ which sounds like an ‘étude’ by Leigh and
‘Freefall’, a joint venture between Leigh and D’Rose. However
“Solitary witness” is mainly known for it’s inclusion of two Landmarq
classics. The first is ‘Terracotta army’ which, needless to say,
contains a fair amount of eastern influences. The other highlight has to be
‘Suite St. Helens’ which sports some great pianoplaying in the intro.
Once again it’s the interaction between guitar and keyboards which do the
trick for me. To regain interest a shorter version of ‘Suite St.
Helens’, here referred to as the ‘alternate version’, has been added
as a bonustrack. Surely no need for the Landmarq fans to go out and buy an
extra copy of the album even if it sports new artwork, but those who have
been looking in vain for any Landmarq material will be pleased to learn
their search is now luckilly over. “Solitary witness” certainly is a
must have if you want your collection to include a fine example of what the
‘neo-prog’ fuss is all about. Reviewed by John 'Bobo' Bollenberg |
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