High Tide - Precious Cargo (Reissue) (1970/1998)

High Tide was a highly underrated British band that played psychedelic progressive rock when the genre was in its infancy. Precious Cargo is seven tracks of live-in-the- studio slices of hauntingly beautiful yet terrifying soundscapes. Their sound is one that should have been playing in the background of an Alfred Hitchcock film or more recently, a Wes Craven production comes to mind.

What made their sound so eerie was the violin of Simon House. Much in the same way Jean Luc Ponty used his instrument, House used his violin as more of a lead instrument and the rest of the band fell in line to fill in the layers to make one impressive wall of sound that would wake up the spirit and startle the thought process; their music was very potent. I think that this LP was very impressive considering the time period in which it was recorded; it leaves no doubt in my mind that this band was way ahead of their time.