Read the review of Landscape A Go-Go in Juno Daily, published 21 July 2023.

Full text below.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Landscape – Landscape A Go-Go (Cooking Vinyl)

Diving into the story behind Landscape, more than 40 years on, fires up a few trains of thought. Looking at in from one way, the London electronic experimenters offer a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to genuinely push against the grain and not concede to the demands of a music industry which is arguably more fickle today than it was in 1975. From another angle, the narrative reinforces the importance of sticking to guns, no matter how adverse the results may look, and eventually reaping the rewards. Ultimately, though, it’s probably mostly about the importance of technology in the evolution of music itself.

Speaking on behalf of the common conscious, Landscape may not be the first word in synth pop on your lips. Nevertheless, their transition into a then-nascent genre produced two iconic tracks of the early 1980s scene, ‘Einstein A Go-Go’ and ‘Norman Bates’. Taken from their critically acclaimed second album, From The Tea-Rooms of Mars… to the Hell-Holes of Uranus, both songs, and the full album, appear on this huge retrospective box set — the LP in expanded form. Both tunes will be recognisable, even if you didn’t know you knew the group, but despite that each could be described as utterly, incomparably eccentric. Which gives some clue as to where they really came from.

Cooking Vinyl’s ode to this glorious and largely overlooked history spans a whopping 84 remastered tracks, including 52 available on CD for the very first time, 22 of which have never been released before. It begins roughly at the beginning, with the self-titled debut album dominating disc one. Opening on ‘Japan’, while there’s definitely an argument for labels like jazz-funk, the tune is cast in a kind of video game futurist sheen. Throughout the first chapter similar ideas come to mind, notes either want to seduce us in the bathtub or play directly into prevailing winds of the future.

The latter grows more pronounced from the outset of the second section, essentially album two with added bits. A transformation driven by Landscape’s passion for music tech, not least synths, which had already been apparent but now takes centre stage. Neon hues in the mind’s eye the moment ‘European Man’ begins. Robot voices and clattering, industrial-edged samples making things about machines almost as much as the men using them. A bold step in a direction that would mean labels and managers stopped completely ignoring them for being a bit too weird.

Of course, none of this was the plan. Aesthetically, and sonically, even at the peak of commercial recognition, Landscape could never be described as going for pop — with a look that was kind of like science fiction crossed with the shadow play of F.W. Murnau, and songs that didn’t really fit the mould, but hit at a time when moulds were being broken in electronic sounds. Their third full length, Manhattan Boogie-Woogie, also appears here, as do a ton of rarities, b sides, instrumentals, remixes, and bits by Landscape III, the outfit they became after cutting things back to a trio. Ultimately, what stands out across all this is just how strikingly original everything sounds — an often surreal, strangely uplifting and rousing, truly innovative collection of noises worth every second of the marathon listening session.

MH