HIGH TIDE

This British quartet was one of Heavy Prog's more interesting and pioneering bands. Please note that it's a genre I'm not very much friends with. But despite I didn't enjoy this album much, there were special things that help HIGH TIDE to stand out from the masses of Zeppelin/Purple followers. Most notably it's the electric violin of Simon House, who later appeared in the ever-changing line-up of HAWKWIND (e.g. the excellent Hall of the Mountain Grill). Also the compositions are relatively progressive within the sub-genre's early years, I suppose. Here there are only three of them. The front man is Tony Hill who reminds me of Jimi Hendrix, both as a guitarist (not that virtuoso, of course) and as a vocalist with a stiff and stuffy expression. Luckily the vocals are not very dominant. The dark-toned music is based on the guitar/violin interplay with folkish psychedelic flavour.

'Blankman Cries Again' (8:28) is rather boring to me even if it has a lot of heavy power. It feels too long. Also the final track 'Saneonimous' (14:30) left me cold. I enjoyed 'The Joke' (9:29) the best; especially on that track House's violin gets more space, and there are stronger contrasts whereas the two other tracks feel quite monotonous in their heaviness. The debut Sea Shanties (1969) didn't have keyboards at all as far as I know; here they enrich the sound but I wish there were more organ and piano (even if three members play organ, they don't get very notable status). Not my cup of tea exactly, but definitely worth checking out for all Heavy prog fans.