High Tide - Sea Shanties (1969/2006 Remastered Expanded Edition)
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Album: High Tide - Sea Shanties (Remastered Expanded Edition)
Released: 1969 (2006)
Genre: Heavy Psych-, Proto-Prog
Eclectic Discs - ECLCD1037
Remaster housed in a slipcase including 5 bonus tracks of the first and probably best known high tide album, originally recorded in 1969 and issued on Liberty. A brilliant UK progressive psych band that grew from the ashes of the Misunderstood (Tony Hill played guitar), High Tide packed a lysergic punch full of heavy psychedelia powered by a guitar, bass, violin and drums line-up that pushed right to the limit of the sonic spectrum. The band included future Hawkwind member Simon House on violin!! - Freak Emporium
One of the most innovative British bands of all time and the only band that seriously got the heavy and the complex down perfectly at the same time. 1969's Sea Shanties is a monster album that was the platform that this quartet launched their heavy brand of progressive pyrotechnics on the world. Featuring future Hawkwinder Simon House on violin, these guys will appeal very much to the Hawkwind fan, yet were much more complex and dynamic - New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
One of the most important underground hard rock band from Britain and also a very influential group , although they never managed much commercial success. Their sound in their two historical album can be likened to BLUE CHEER or STEPPENWOLF ( but with lenghty improvisations in some tracks) and is sometimes mentioned as one of the first example of Heavy Metal music , some progheads on this site even going as far as citing them as the grandfather of Prog Metal.
The Original line-up was a quartet consisting of a superb singing guitarist , A violinist sometimes playing KBs and a good rhythm section. After the second album’s release , their drummer left for health reason , and HIGH TIDE did not release another album for some 18 years although they still recorded aopparently fairly regularly with an unstable permanent line-up with Tomlin, Theaker , House and Pavli coming and going almost at will, the only mainstay being Tony Hill. Starting in 88, they will release seven records in a span of three yearts , very confused affairs with tracks from all those lost years appearing on different records and no clear recording dates given. Apparently they played together until 1990 , and their latest release is yet another mixed-bag of tracks from all eras released on Black Widow label in 98, but with recording dates at last clearly mentioned .
HIGH TIDE is a highly influential underground band likely to please all Prog Metal fans looking for roots of their beloved music style. - ProgArchives.com
High Tide were a by now long forgotten British hard-rock/psych group that played heavy, fuzzed-out metallic progressive rock. It's taken me awhile to really get into Sea Shanties, but this is definitely an essential album of the then embryonic British progressive scene. High Tide plays heavy psychedelic rock with flailing distorted guitars, wailing violin and deep crooning vocals. A good comparison I've heard tossed around is to imagine Jim Morrison fronting Black Sabbath. While that's a good starting point for their sound, High Tide is much more energetic than Sabbath, generally more upbeat and with much more of a tendency to "jam". Not to mention the fact that High Tide also features some fairly frenetic violin playing as a major staple of its sound. In fact, High Tide might best be known for its violinist, one Simon House, who would later go on to greater notoriety with Hawkwind and David Bowie. Incidentally, early Hawkwind circa In Search of Space has a similar vibe at points. In short, this album just rocks. Yeah, it's a little sloppy and not particularly complex, but you'd be hard pressed to find much to top this as far as sheer energy and power.
I'm not sure exactly when this came out, but being sometime in 1969, there's a good chance that High Tide's debut predated Black Sabbath's first album, rendering Sea Shanties one the earliest incarnations of "heavy metal" as we know it. "Futilist's Lament" kicks things off by simply clobbering you with a sheer wall of sound, while "Death Warmed Up" and "Missing Out" feature some mind blowing jams and overpowering interplay between Hill's soaring guitar and House's frantic and unrelenting violin work. "Pushed, But Not Forgotten" and "Nowhere" are both more vocally oriented, seeing the band drift into a more mellow, Doors-type vibe. Overall, this is essential early heavy psych/prog, occasionally drifting into heavy metal territory, with great vocals and tremendous emotional power. Sea Shanties is an album that truly kicks ass on an extremely visceral level, and is an essential part of the early progressive rock puzzle. - ProgWeed.net
High Tide was a quartet that was part of the burgeoning UK proto-prog/hard rock scene in the late '60s/early '70s. Sea Shanties and High Tide are driving, intense music that, at times, sounds like Jim Morrison jamming with Hawkwind but with more intensity and without the plodding guitar. I'm not a real fan of Hawkwind but this is much better, rockin' music. Simon House's (later of Hawkwind) provides an interesting contrast to the guitar work and provides a unique touch not found in many of the early UK bands, such as Mighty Baby, Gravy Train, or Mayblitz. Start with Sea Shanties. - New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
When I first listened to this album I couldn't believe it was from 1969; it is way ahead of the time. Definitely the heaviest album of that aera. Its trademark is the constant battling between electric guitar and electric violin.
The album starts right away with a heavy electric guitar riff out of one of the boxes, a pumping bass and drums enter, the guitar riff is answered with heavy electric violin out of the other box, and then "Futilist's Lament" is on the way. The vocals of Tony Hill sound a bit like Jim Morrison; the lyrics throughout the whole album are rather pessimistic.
The second track, "Death Warmed Up", is an instrumental and probably the first prog metal piece ever. Guitar and violin together play a very complicated theme of about 3 minutes length, which is repeated once. Then it looks as if they go into another repetition, but what follows for the last 4 minutes is a wild battle between electric guitar and electric violin.
"Pushed, But Not Forgotten" starts quietly with some phased guitar and melancholic violin, over which Hill sings. But the silence is not for long, soon heavy guitar crashes again, and the violin counters maniacally. The song ends with sad viloin over quiet guitar chords.
"Walking Down Their Outlook" provides an interesting early example of violin and guitar actually playing two different voices, which is rare in rock music.
"Missing Out" has a slightly bluesy feeling, although a lot heavier than blues usually is.
"Nowhere" finally is what one could call a ballad, with lines like "On the stage there is no door, at your feet the moving floor decides to burn", yet again it is very heavy, as the whole album.
The mix is not the best, but who cares? The music is fantastic! I rarely deal out 5 stars, but this one deserves it. Be warned though: This album is not for the timid! - BaldJean, ProgArchives.com
Amidst the bewildering explosion of musical creativity in Britain during the late 1960's, many boundaries were pushed forward in directions hitherto unimagined. Countless groups of aspiring and idealistic musicians came together to seek their own musical Nirvana's. Of all these bands, few were as original and as awe inspiring as High Tide. In their all too brief career, Tony Hill (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Simon House (violin, viola, keyboards), Peter Pavli (bass) and Roger Hadden (drums, organ), recorded two albums of stunning power, originality and beauty rewriting the rules of rock music and in turn giving birth to a stylistic hybrid that thirty six years later defies classification.
High Tide was the vision of one of Britain's most original and creative guitarists, Tony Hill. Hill had first come to the attention of a wider public as rhythm guitarist with the highly talented American group The Misunderstood. Formed in California in 1965, the band had come to the attention of a young British Disc Jockey, John Peel, who whilst working in California had attended an early performance. Acting in a managerial capacity, Peel suggested that the band follow him back to England to pursue a career in Europe. Soon after their arrival in Britain The Misunderstood recruited a former member of the Newcastle based group The Answers, Tony Hill. Signed to Fontana records in the Autumn of 1966, the band cut the outstanding single "I Can Take You To The Sun" co-written by Hill and vocalist Rick Brown. Further sessions resulted in the single "Children of the Sun" with the group enjoying a series of high profile shows at The Marquee Club. Just as The Misunderstood began to enjoy success (and had influenced British bands such as The Move and Pink Floyd in the process), the American members of the band were deported from the UK following a brief trip to France in the early months of 1967. This left Tony Hill seeking further session work on the London scene which included a six month spell as part of the trio Turquoise which featured David Bowie and his partner Hermione Farthingale. A series of concerts followed at such important venues as The Roundhouse, Middle Earth and the Wigmore Hall in London before Hill set his sights on new musical pastures to fulfil his ambitions.
These ambitions were realised when High Tide were formed in the early months of 1969. The unique musical style of High Tide was sure to gain the band attention from the off set. A highly imaginative blend of folk, psychedelia, and hard rock with a dark edge was unique for its time and within a short space of time the band came to the attention of The Beatles' Apple Corps, signing a publishing deal with Apple in the spring of 1969. The publishing contract also brought with it the benefit of recording several demos in March of that year with the specific intention of securing a recording contract. High Tide's connection with Apple meant that they were soon approached by several labels, eventually negotiating a contract with the British office of Liberty / United Artists at the end of April. Liberty was changing its focus as a label, with 23 year old A&R head Andrew Lauder keen to steer the label towards the newly emerging "underground" album market. He later recalled; "I'd just begun to dabble in A&R at that time, with The Groundhogs being the first band that I signed directly. Their first album for Liberty sold well and the signs were very encouraging for signing other album orientated bands. I actively began to look for other suitable acts for the label and High Tide came along via Clearwater Productions, an underground management and agency company based in Acton".
Clearwater Productions was set up by Doug Smith, Richard Thomas and Max Taylor to promote the "underground" acts they managed who included High Tide, Skin Alley and Trees and were to become a major force in the Ladbroke Grove hippy scene via their concerts at All Saints Hall in the summer of 1969. High Tide were perhaps the first of Clearwater's acts to reach the attention of a major label, and within weeks of signing, the band had recorded a BBC Radio One session for John Peel's "Night Ride" show and were soon ensconced at Olympic studios in Barnes, South West London to begin work on their first album.
The sessions were supervised by Denver "Denny" Gerrard previously a member of the outfit Warm Sounds who had recorded singles for Immediate and Decca's Deram label. Gerrard was in the throes of recording a solo album and sessions for High Tide's debut offering commenced alongside contributing to Gerrard's own album. Recording was conducted at a rapid pace with the band recording the essence of their live act at that time. The magnificent "Futilists Lament" was one of the first recordings attempted on 2nd June 1969. A work of brutal power it would prove to be an effective opening track to the first High Tide album and a fine way to begin recording.
Another early track attempted was the extreme instrumental "The Great Universal Protection Racket", a ten minute tour de force that was a highlight of early High Tide concerts. Sessions were then interrupted until 29th June by live commitments when a day of further recording took place. Finally, on the 8th July a final recording, "Time Gauges" was committed to tape and the multi-track recordings were mixed and compiled. The realisation that more tracks had been recorded than could be accommodated on a single LP necessitated in several tracks being omitted from the final running order. Thus "The Great Universal Protection Racket" and "Time Gauges" were consigned to the vaults. With this expanded remastered CD reissue they appear for the first time as bonus tracks, alongside demos of "Death Warmed Up", "Pushed But Not Forgotten" and "Dilemma", recorded at Apple studios in March 1969.
Following the recording sessions High Tide undertook regular concert appearances throughout the UK, receiving their first notable music press coverage in an early edition of the underground magazine "Zig Zag" in September 1969. The article stated that; "High Tide's forthcoming album lacks some of their on stage onslaught, but is worth buying to be numbed by the beauty of Simon House's violin and Tony Hill's slicing guitar. Onstage, their volume sometimes causes trouble with balance, but they produce the most spaced out sound I've ever heard. Try and hear them straight, it's a trip in itself"
The enthusiastic write up followed a series of appearances at concerts staged over three consecutive weekends at All Saints Hall in Ladbroke Grove in August 1969 by Clearwater Productions who used the events to showcase their acts. The final August concert proved to be particularly memorable, with High Tide and Skin Alley being joined by the unknown Group X. Doug Smith later recalled; "High Tide had just been signed by Apple Publishing and Liberty and had all this brand new equipment. This band, Group X, turned up and said "Can we play? Can we use your gear, man? It's nice and new." We agreed to let them open the show. That was the first appearance by Hawkwind"!
The fruits of the recordings of the early summer were released in October 1969 as "Sea Shanties" (Liberty LBS 83264), adorned in a striking Paul Whitehead designed gatefold sleeve and receiving universal praise in the British underground press, in turn notching up healthy enough sales to secure commitment from Liberty to release a follow up album, despite failing to chart. In January 1970, the album "Sinister Morning" by Denny Gerrard was released as Deram Nova SDN 10. The album had been recorded at the Olympic Studios sessions in May and June 1969 and featured High Tide prominently. Alas little or no promotion was undertaken by the record company, and the album failed to sell in any quantity. It is now a sought after rarity. By the early months of 1970 thoughts began to turn to recording a successor to "Sea Shanties", the equally stunning "High Tide". - Mark Powell
Futillst's Lament 5:17
2 Death Warmed Up 9:08
3 Pushed, But Not Forgotten 4:43
4 Walking Down Their Outlook 4:58
5 Missing Out 9:38
6 Nowhere 5:54
Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks
7 The Great Universal Protection Racket 11:24
8 Dilemma 5:14
9 Death Warmed Up (Demo) 7:35
10 Pushed, But Not Forgotten (Demo) 4:01
11 Time Gauges 6:24
Tracks 7 & 11 mixed from the original 8-track master tapes
by Paschal Byrne and Mark Powell on 24th February 2006
at The Audio Archiving Company, London
Roger Hadden - drums
Tony Hill - guitar, vocals
Simon House - violin, programming, piano
Peter Pavli - bass
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