High Tide - HIGH TIDE***

Blankman Cries Again/The Joke/Saneonymous

Eponymous second and final 1970s album from the British hard rock band High Tide, who were noted for the prominence they gave to the violin in creating their dark and heavy sound.

“High Tide's second album feels a bit of a step down from Sea Shanties. With the flowering of the progressive rock movement, the band seem to deliberately tone down the heavier side of their music in order to present a more sensitive and artistic image, and in doing so accomplished only the watering down of their sound. Simon House's violin is still an important presence and on the whole the jams here are pleasant enough, but there aren't any passages which leap out and grab me.”

“Good, and fairly original heavy rock. The inclusion of violin coupled with nice baritone vocals give High Tide a distinctive sound. One can complain about a general lack of dynamic shifts, as well as a lack of tempo changes, but the music is solid, groovy and well performed.”

“This experimental hard rock is in the vein of Led Zeppelin, thanks to the keyboards work. It steers towards a progressive genre with some psychedelic elements and it's a bit better than their debut. The experimental violin enriches the sound here, even though it's a bit raw.”

“A typical hard psych record of 1970, some songwriting (not the greatest), plus long jamming. The result is that only in some moments does it really shine. High Tide differs from other obscure bands from this period in the use of violin instead of organ.”

“It's really not that different to their first record, maybe a bit more progressive but that's about it. This is dark and heavy with demented violin abound. This group made extremely unique music and this one is almost as good as their first.”

“More of the same guitar based hard rock found on their debut, but with slightly more adventurous song writing, and pretty much all instrumental. The violin dominates and the rhythm guitar is far weaker.”