INFINITY PARADE

This SI Music release from 1993 is Landmark at their best, I love this album because of its warm and inspired sound. Almost every track has its own special climate featuring strong and inspired vocals from Damian Wilson, great guitarplay from Uwe D'Rose (lost of splendid fiery soli) and tasteful and varied keyboards from Steve Leigh. The best songs are Ta'Jiang (very dynamic and alternating with wonderful howling electric guitar) and "The more you seek the more you lose", one of the most exciting compositions I've ever heard, what a strong vocals and what a killer-guitarwork, so propulsive and biting!

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Posted Thursday, September 1, 2005 | Review Permalink

A superb album, really. And no, I'm not just saying that because I love Damian Wilson so much. ^^ Though I admit I prefer this over the Hitchings-era Landmarq.

The band has a habit of putting the title track of the previous album on the next. And so, "Solitary Witness" finds its place on "Infinity Parade". "Infinity Parade" finds its place on "The Vision Pit", and both "The Vision Pit" and "Science of Coincidence" appears on "Science of Coincidence". Strange prog buggers, ya'all. :P

Anyway, "Solitary Witness" opens this album. Clear vocals on a nice soft song. It's not very complex, but it's easy to remember and sing along with, which is always nice. I prefer "Gaia's Waltz". You'll find more of the same on this album. I can't exactly pinpoint what's so appealing to me about this style, but it's a fact.

"Landslide" is a more rocky song with a faster tempo, reminding me of several other neoprog bands. I swear I've heard things like this before. Doesn't make it any less enjoyable, though. Not at all. This instrumental track goes over into "Ta'Jiang", a 16:32 minute (epic?) track. I especially love how the song starts and finishes, with that "Chi- sha-jiang...rivers of golden sand". For me, this song has an oriental feel to it, something with old China, yet blended into a progressive whole. The middle part is filled with a piano/vocal part, followed by a powerful instrumental piece with howling guitars and menacing keys.

"Tailspin (Let Go The Line)" is a much softer song which gives some room to breathe, though I could've done without that bass. It's a little too fast and dominating. Normally I love bass, but this sound I'm less fond of.

"The More You Seek The More You Lose" is a good rocky progsong, but it's a bit...I don't know. Silly, maybe. Landmarq has more songs like these up their sleeve. Like "Terracotta Army" and such. "Embrace" is a beauty of a song, and a nice closer of the album.

Conclusion? I would recommend this album over the latest Tracy Hitchings-era Landmarq albums any day. "Ta'Jiang" alone would be a good reason to buy it, I'd say. Definately not a bad one, but maybe more of the same. I swear I've heard some things before, in things like MERCY TRAIN and SHADOWLAND. 3 stars? Yeah, it's not half bad.

Not as good as their debut.

The opener "Solitary Witness" has I believe bagpipes in the intro. The highlight of this song and album are the vocals of Damian Wilson. "Gaia's Waltz" features some soaring guitar and some orchestration. As well there is this waltz-like melody throughout. "Landslide" is an instrumental that has some great guitar moments in it.

"Ta' Jiang" is by far the best song on the album. The main melody with vocals, drums, keys and guitars sound great, and I especially like the CAMEL sounding melody after 10 minutes. "Tailspin (let go the line)" is my second favourite. It's an interesting, reflective tune with some tasteful guitar. "The More You Seek The More You Lose" is a fun, uptempo song with a cool guitar melody throughout except on the chorus. The final tune "Embrace" opens with piano and is a mellow song.

As I stated in the beginning this doesn't measure up to their debut record "Solitary Witness" but it's still pretty good.

As I have mentioned in my review of their debut album, "Landmarq" displays a more complex neo-prog than many of his colleagues.

I particularly like the powerful and emotional vocals from Damian Wilson who is not trying to sound as so and so, but on the contrary deploys a quite personal and very catchy style.

Bizarrely, this album opens on "Solitary Witness" which was the title of their first album. But the band will repeat this in other studio albums. A kind of wink, I guess. Damian can use all the facets of his talent, and he is really shining here: the band is there to support his great vocal part, and needless to say that Uwe is, as usual, very effective in his closing guitar break.

This band has really a different sound than many other neo-prog bands. They sound much more original to my ears. A song as "Gaia's Waltz" is quite an achievement and has a deep personal touch. Do I need to say that Damian is moving?

Not all songs are great unfortunately. The short instrumental "Landslide" and the languishing "Tailspin" belong to rather average numbers. But what to say about "The More You Seek?". A catchy chorus, but hell! What a poor electro beat song. Press next as soon as you can. The mellow closing number is not the best piece of music I have heard either (it's only saved thanks to the melodic and skilled guitar closing section)?My feeling is quite mixed actually about this work.

But there is "Ta' Jiang". One of my fave from the band (if not their best song). The performance of Damian is again on par with his best; but each member is truly outperforming. This is a very good neo-prog epic.

Damian might sound a bit too theatrical but he is so convincing in his duties. Needless to tell that that the guitar parts are extremely crafted, but this is also the occasion for Steve Leigh to shine on the keys.

This song is really taking this album to higher territories. Not enough to reach the four star rating because it holds too many average tracks, but a solid three.

Oh yeah baby, bring it on, that's the kind of action I like, explosions, horror and blood, that's how this record is. Or is it not ? No, it's not, because this is album full of songs that are based either on slow building (first track pattern), or (second track) on solos. Did I say two types ? Sorry, I was lying, there's also third track pattern (Landslide of Landmarq's Landberg, oh I meant Iceberg, or something completely different? let's close this matter instead), that brings more "powerful" structure together with clearly distinctive guitar/synth solos. Album's epic is yet another epic ... fail, because, even it's not disaster. First five minutes are repeated structure, over and over again, to no avail. Then yet another five minutes and finally, again five minutes of something I'll rather not describe, even it's at least "alive".

Where's soul in this record, because I don't hear one. Talispin is both void, boring and unpleasant (this time, I hate "drums")

2(+), ugh, it's terrible.

The more you seek the more you lose?

Produced and engineered by Karl Groom and Clive Nolan, Infinity Parade was Landmarq's second studio album. The line-up from the first album remains intact here with the great Damian Wilson on lead vocals. Wilson also sang in Groom's Prog Metal band Threshold on their debut album that was released the same year as Infinity Parade as well as one further Threshold album, he later became a member of Rick Wakeman's band. Wilson would stay with Landmarq for one further studio album before being replaced by Tracy Hitchings. Uwe D'Rose, Steve Leigh and Dave Wagstaffe on guitars, keyboards and drums respectively were all, just like Hitchings, previous members of Quasar before they ended up in Landmarq. Clive Nolan is credited for orchestration on one track as well as for the sleeve design (it is however unclear which one, as my CD version has a different cover from the one shown here)!

On the first few listens, Infinity Parade was something of a disappointment for me after the band's excellent debut album from the previous year. After more listens, however, I began enjoying it more and more. It is not up to par with the first-rate Solitary Witness album, but this is still a worthy album in its own right. It was not easy to get my hands on a copy of this album and I had to pay a lot for it, but it was worth both the wait and the money.

The album opens with a song called Solitary Witness which was the title of the band's previous album. A track called Infinity Parade would later appear on the band's next album, The Vision Pit, and a song called The Vision Pit would appear on the band's fourth album, Science Of Coincidence! Since the latter album also has track with that title, this tradition will not continue on the band's in-progress fifth album. This opener begins with appealing (keyboard generated?) bagpipes and marching drums creating strong feel of the Scottish highlands. The rest of the song features a strong vocal, nice guitars and keyboards and is overall a very nice tune. It does however lack the power of the opener from the aforementioned album with the same name as this song.

Gaia's Waltz is a bit more dramatic and it somewhat better exploits the vocal talents of Wilson and the excellent guitar skills of D'Rose. The short up tempo instrumental Landslide is however the first real opportunity for D'Rose to shine and he sounds a bit like Brian May for a while. Apart from the excellent guitar work however, this number does little for me. The 16 and a half minute Ta'Jiang is the first track that recalls the darker mood of the debut album, and this track is also the album's centerpiece. I am reminded somewhat of Arena's epic Moviedrome track. Some of this album's best moments can be found within this epic song and there are some really excellent bits and pieces here. However, I would say that it is perhaps slightly too long for its own good and it does not hold together quite as well as I would have wanted.

Tailspin (Let Go The Line) lightens things up a bit and this slow song tends to get a little bit dull towards the end. Eight and a half minutes was surely overkill for this rather one dimensional song. The More You Seek The More You Lose is a more energetic and eccentric tune. The chorus is somewhat banal but there are also some great bits particularly during the verses and instrumental breaks. The album ends with Embrace which is a piano-based power ballad, again with a strong vocal embellished here with female backing vocals but sadly an overly bombastic and rather trite chorus. It is however saved towards the very end by a strong guitar solo.

While certainly not up to par with the excellent debut, I recommend this second Landmarq album to anyone who enjoyed their first album. Infinity Parade is thus a nice companion piece to Solitary Witness, but not the optimal place to start your off with Landmarq.

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.

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.

The 'difficult' second album was upon them, but with "Solitary Witness" opening 'Infinity Parade', it showed that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. This is a powerful rock song full of emotion, with delicately picked guitar and keyboards that build to a crescendo as Damian turns on the power and the edge. The highlight of this album is "Ta'ijing" where the band go all out with an epic, at over sixteen minutes long. While there are elements of Twelfth Night in sections of this, they manage to bring in some oriental influences and styles and make this very much their own with tension building and the music driving along. Another favourite of mine is "The More You Seek The More You Lose", which belts along much quicker and heavier than many prog numbers. There is also the bonus of "Borrowed Mind" which was originally only available on the Japanese version of the album

It has been far too long since these great albums were easily available in the UK, so if you enjoy your prog then get these now! Cyclops have also reissued 'The Vision Pit' (the last album with Damian), 'Science Of Coincidence' (their first album with Tracy) and the live 'Thunderstruck'. There will also soon be a new live album, 'Aftershock'.

Originally appeared in Feedback #69, Aug 02