Cargo

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.

The second Cargo album is much more produced than the first, and it works in its flavor, emphasizing the inherent heaviness of their sound, strengthening the sound of the guitar and organ. A couple of the songs are quite good with "Geordy", a terrific moody slow-burner, the best. There's also a bizarre song about how happy they are for their friend who fell out a window to his death.