OFF: High Tide

[M S Wright]

On Tue, 28 Jul 1998, Marshall Wood wrote:

>  Since I've enjoyed all the Simon House stuff that I've picked up so
 far, I'm thinking about buying some of the High Tide CDs.  There is a
 single CD that contains both _High Tide_ and _Sea Shanties_ - are these
 good?

I reckon they are the best of the HT stuff, they are the originals anyway
(ie originally intended to be released, when the band was of its time). I
am pretty sure that the albums are complete, as they are both short LPs
anyway. IF you haven't heard any HT then it'll be a bit different to
Simon's other stuff, cos it is heavy and sprawling and flowing and
gorgeous and drenched with large violin (at least this is how I recall it,
I haven't listened to them for ages, shame on me).

There are other HT releases, but have never seemed as good to me. There
was an 80s recording (Interesting Times) and a live LP released. There was
also a track on another album, but get the originals first as they are the
best.

> Any other "must have" Simon House material - I've got all the
 Hawkwind and Spiral Realms CDs, plus _Yassasim_ and some of the stuff he
 did with Nik.  There is something called "Gulp" from '91, and one or two
 releases with the Third Ear Band - are these any good?  I'm aware of the
 work House did with David Bowie, but I'm not much of a Bowie fan...

If you ever see the first Vitamin Z album then there is a violinist called
Simon House on one track, but resist the urge to but this, cos it isn't
very interesting. I'm not a big fan of the TEB, but that is more to my
musical tastes rather than fair comment on their output. I've only got
'Music from Macbeth' which is improvised and thin and meandering (again
not heard it recently so this is not a reliable slagging off).

Cheers

Mike w