Album Reviews

Jimi Hendrix’s second studio effort upped the outrageousness of his debut (British or American), beginning with what many would say was a sacrilegious, though eye-catching, cover and continuing with the opening bit of “nonsense about space ships and even space people.”

But once Jimi, Noel and Mitch hit the deep groove of “Up From the Skies,” it’s obvious that a cooler, jazzier and more serious Jimi is at work. Mitchell’s nuanced brush drumming gives Jimi’s juicy wah-wah an ideal cushion, and while some might complain about Eddie Kramer’s aggressive pan-pot moves, it was a sign of the audio times and mostly works with the music.

The hard hitting “Spanish Castle Magic” returned the group to its former hard edge with Jimi’s poetry producing images that remain rich and startling all these years later. “Wait Until Tomorrow” ups the funky energy and is another Hendrix song laced with powerful, disturbing imagery, yet suffused with good humor.

The energy kicks up again with “Ain’t No Telling,” which makes it obvious that this album is going to continue rocking out. But no! Jimi shifts gears abruptly and we get the ballad “Little Wing,” one of his masterpieces, followed by the probing, introspective and thrilling “If 6 Was 9.”

Now that’s a side of a slab of wax for the ages! I treasure the memory of buying the album the day it came out and hearing that side for the first time on a pair of Koss Pro-4As. I’ll never forget it!

Side two isn’t quite as strong, though any side with “Castles Made of Sand,” and “One Rainy Wish” is strong enough, marred mostly by the tepid psychedelic confection “She’s So Fine,” —probably a bone Jimi had to throw to Noel Redding. Some people found the ending of “Bold As Love,” over the top and cartoonish, but the flanging effect atop Hendrix’s hot lava flow solo and Kramer’s brilliant engineering and mixing produced as close to a sonic LSD experience as you’re likely to have without taking a hit.

So the music is the good news, and the jacket art is as faithful to the original as you’re likely to encounter short of an original UK Track (Reprise changed the inside gatefold picture, perhaps fearing Jimi looked too scary), including the jacket lamination and fold over construction, but instead of the black and silver Track label we get the unauthentic and inappropriate pastel colored “Experience Hendrix” label.

Worst of all, we get really grainy, compressed and awful sound here, sorry to say. There’s no way Janie Hendrix was going to ship the master ship, er I mean tape to Japan, so I don’t know what was used as a source but of all the copies I have here: American “pink Steamboat” (Reprise 7-Arts RS 6281) original, British Track original (Track 613003), late ‘70s Japanese (Polydor MPF 1076—though it’s terribly bass shy), a non-gatefold UK ‘90s Polydor pressing (847 243-1) and even the George Marino mastered Experience Hendrix/MCA 180g vinyl, which was mastered from 96k/24 bit digital, this expensive Japanese pressing is the worst sounding.

It’s grainy, hard and antiseptic sounding. It sounds just plain lousy, though, of course, the pressing quality is superb. In fact, I could make a case for the “Experience Hendrix” Marino mastered LP as sounding the best. It’s less compressed than the UK Track original, and the top end is open and grain-free. The cymbals, which are so well recorded, sound sweet and chimey as they do on the Track original, but the dynamics are better. Ditto the U.S. original, which I bet Kramer had more control over than he did the Track edition.

Don’t fret if you bought this one though, it’s such a good recording that I bet you think it sounds swell. And it does! Until you compare it to the others.