Video Musica Landscape - Einstein a Go-Go

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 Lyrics Landscape - Einstein a Go-Go

Now this is something I'd like to see more often - a small label takes two classic, if rather obscure, albums from the early 80s and puts them together on a single CD. The result, the label can sell old product at full price, and I get something I've been after on CD for ages. I'd certainly like to see something similar done for New Musik at least.

Landscape were part of the first wave of synth pop bands (i.e. they were around before 1980) but somehow seem to have missed out on the success that most other acts fiddling around with synths from that period had in the new romantic/synth-pop boom of 1980-1982. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but it probably has something to do with the rather quirky nature of Landscape's musical output.

The group were a five piece, consisting of Richard James Burgess, Christopher Heaton, Andy Pask, Pete Thoms and John L Walters. At least three of these went on to other things (well, I presume all of them did, but I know about three :-)) with Burgess producing a number of other acts including Spandau Ballet and Adam Ant, Pask moving into TV theme tunes (he did the theme to the ITV police series "The Bill") and Pete Thoms making a living as a session musician.

This CD includes their first two albums, Landscape from 1979 and 1980's From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars...To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus. These are on the disc in reverse order for some reason, but I'll deal with them in chronological order, starting with Landscape.

It's here that we see the roots of Landscape's sound - jazz inflected instrumentals with plenty of synths and a strong brass section (Thoms and Walters). Very busy and very melodic generally, but my enthusiasm for this album is limited by my lack of enthusiasm for jazz in general. With all but a few exceptions ("Japan", "Kaptin Whorlix") the music is generally a little too laid-back and muzacky for me. It's only the tracks where the bass or synth work provides a break from the incessant trombone that things get interesting.

With the second album From The Tea-Rooms, Landscape found a more fruitful direction, shedding most of the jazz stylings, adopting a more synth-pop oriented sound and with Burgess adding vocals to his drumming. It has it's faults - some of the electronic and synth effects are rather cliched in their futurism, as are the lyrics, but that was a common fault at this time. It also has some real strengths though, with the unusual instrumental mix (not many synth-pop bands had a trombonist) giving them a distinctive sound and Burgess's very solid percussion being the real stand outs.

"European Man" is a very classy piece of synth pop, with Burgess's punchy percussion thudding along with a variety of synths and electronic effects and Thoms's trombone driving away over the top. Burgess's vocals work well too, being typical light electro-pop fare, a la Trevor Horn or Tony Mansfield.

"Shake The West Awake" presents some amusing observations on the success of the Japanese electronics industry, and seems to suggest the exact opposite of their contemporaries Ultravox - while Ure and co suggest in "Western Promise" that Japanese culture is being overwhelmed by the West, Landscape suggests that perhaps the opposite should be happening.

"Computer Person" is a rather cutesy tinkly-bonk affair, with no lyrics as such (just the title vocoded over the top) and a rhythm pattern that sounds like it came off one of these wee toy keyboards (which it probably did).