Representing a celebration of 25 years in the business Landmarq have released a special edition live CD/DVD from their 2013 tour, recorded at De Boerderij in the Netherlands. This London based five piece have gone through a few line up changes over the years, however two of the founding and original members Uwe D’Rose and Steve Gee remain and accompanied by the talents of Mike Varty, Daniel Martin and Tracy Hitchings they form a melodic progressive sound which is extremely gentle on the ears. Having recorded five studio albums and four live up to and including ‘RoadSkill’ as well as DVDs and an anthology covering all eras of the bands work, it would be fair to say they are seasoned rockers who are exceedingly knowledgeable in their field.
This latest offering from Landmarq illustrates all that is good about their 2012 album “Entertaining Angels” in full live glory and there is nothing better than hearing the bare bones version.
“Turbulence” opens the show and in true prog style is just over ten minutes in length but there is never a dull moment with all the sounds reminiscent of early eighties memories. Marillionesque style keyboard coupled with Tracy’s dissonant vocal, comparable with Toyah’s style but with much more power, only emphasise the reflective ambience created.
There is a much calmer air surrounding “Personal Universe” with it’s gentle finger picking guitar intro easing into an eerie almost echoing keyboard and stimulating guitar solo thrown in for good measure whereas “Glowing” blasts at you in a power ballad style. These only further showcase Tracy’s impressive vocal range and diversity.
In many ways this album covers all the stereotypes that surround progressive rock including long meandering musical arrangements and complex time signatures but that is no criticism as each song has it’s own degree of uniqueness and in-depth sensitivity which allows the listener to slip effortlessly into another world all of their own.
It is a rare occurrence to find a band so comfortable with who they are and what they do but rightly so because they are experts at it.
