Landscape are a band who must be seen and heard to be believed. If the thought of the instrumental band playing at the Music Machine conjures up a picture of 'a musicians band struggling to communicate in cavernous environment' then you're way off track. Just before they took the stand at midnight, the club seemed to start filling up. By the time Landscape started playing the punks were bopping at the front of the stage, journalists and the odd record producer or two were catching an enjoyable earful of music from the bar overlooking the stage and the main area of the club was full. The band's own lighting man fully utilised the club's stage lighting, enhancing the performance. The one hour show hardly drained the groups compositional resources as they must have getting on for four hours worth of material now. Interestingly they seem to play their early material with as much enthusiasm as they put into their more recently composed tunes. They opened with TTS which they wrote soon after the band formed its present line-up. The 16-bar tune built on a 12-tone row allows them the combination of impact and room to improvise. The place is not the best gig around for audience/band communication (very high stage) so the band concentrated on cutting down chat and squeezing as much music as possible into their allotted hour on stage.

Landscape's originality strikes again on another uptempo number Lost In The Small Adds. The idea for the title came from the group's Thursday morning rehearsals when nothing gets done for the first couple of hours while everyone scans the Exchange And Mart for hot buys! The number has a passage featuring Pete Thoms playing electric (bugged) trombone in unison with bass guitarist Andy Pask. If you work on the London music scene you've probably heard about Andy's playing and I'm pleased to report that his new Roger Griffin Honduras mahogany bass is inspiring him on to even greater heights. He still uses his Fender Precision fretless but that also is soon to be replaced by a Griffin. He has a great stagesound and rates in the top half dozen bass guitarists in the world today.

I'm trying not to think like a fan and trying hard to think up negative points but when it comes to Landscape I find both hard. It was put to me that they don't have a soloist in their frontline who is of world class in terms of technique. That may be true but in his electric trombone playing Pete Thoms displays stunning originality and tonal variety not heard from the instrument in the past. Many people wondered who played the electric guitar solo on the groups U2XME1X2MUCH EP. It was in fact Pete's trombone. Also while I'm talking about originality I must say Chris Heaton extracts a far greater variety of sounds from his Fender Rhodes than I would have believed possible. The group's gradual move toward electric instruments continues with John Walters coming to terms with his Lyricon quite well. Richard Burgess continues to construct the band's solid & precise rhythm patterns with his drumming complementing Andy's bass work.