Woronzow News, Tony Hill, High Tide

[Jon Jarrett]

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Denis Regenbrecht wrote:

> Speaking of High Tide: I saw both "Sea Shanties" and "High Tide" in a music
> store the other day. I nearly bought both of them, but decided against when
> I saw those Neu! remasters.
> But as I might buy them the next time, I'm interested what I have to expect
> from High Tide. It should be great music, with both Simon House and Pete
> Pavli, but I haven't heard any songs by HT yet. So anyone here, who could
> tell me what HT sound like?

        I've tended to describe those two albums as `doom folk' :-) Heavy,
oppressive-sounding guitar-and-violin duelling; Tony Hill is an inspired
guitarist, he as got better but even in 1969 and 1970 he was still pretty
bloody good, and doesn't play like anyone else I've heard. Simon plays
much more like a fiddler than he did with Hawkwind but that means there's
more of it. There are some *killer* riffs. The song structures are
complex, and none come in at less than 5 minutes really. _High Tide_ has a
14-minute track called `Saneonymous' which is really quite hard work to
get through in the same way as a good doom record is, it presses down on
you. Tony Hill has the gloomiest of voices and the lyrics are poetic but
extremely dark and not a little twisted. I don't really make anything of
Pete Pavli's contribution but that only means it isn't as stand-out as the
two leaders. Definitely definitely get these albums, if you can find the
two-on-one CD I have get that as there's no remastering on the single-disc
reissues so it's just a more expensive way of getting the same stuff. But
do not expect it to cheer you up. Yours,
                                         Jon

n/p: Disarray - `Access to Fools'
--
       Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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  "There is a certain pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know"