Album Reviews

“Why another Axis: Bold As Love?” That’s what I asked myself before buying this SACD. After all, mono and stereo AAA LPs have been in print for several years, and were obviously made for audiophiles. For digital listeners, the most recent CD edition mastered by the late George Marino at Sterling Sound isn’t bad. How much better can this album sound?

Released in the UK in December 1967 (a month later in the U.S.), rock audiences on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean eagerly awaited The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold As Love. The anticipation was warranted: the album contains some of the best material Hendrix recorded and ended up being the best of his core releases. Showing musical growth over its predecessor, Are You Experienced? yet avoiding the occasional self-indulgence that succeeded it on Electric Ladyland, Axis: Bold As Love stands the test of time even with its few filler tracks.

The dismissible skit “EXP” opens the album with oscillating guitar effects and faux-radio show dialogue relating to the existence of UFO’s and “space people.” Axis… quickly accelerates into high gear with some of Hendrix’s best songs: the wah-wah-infused jazz of “Up From The Skies” followed by the surreal lyrics and pounding instrumentation of “Spanish Castle Magic.”

The turbulent first side ends with two lasting classics: “Little Wing,” the psychedelic blues ballad featuring an excellent chord progression that’s become a blues rock standard covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Derek & the Dominoes among others, and “If 6 Was 9,” Hendrix’s declaration of independence (“‘Cos I got my own world to live through/And I ain’t gonna copy you”).

Though nearly as strong, the album’s second side has a couple notable failures, especially Noel Redding’s “She’s So Fine,” a throwaway pop ditty that doesn’t deserve to walk in the shadows of its preceding songs, especially “Castles Made Of Sand”, which features some of Hendrix’s best lyrics (“You can hear her scream ‘you’re a disgrace’/As she slams the door in his drunken face”/“He cries ‘Oh girl, you must be mad, what happened to the sweet love you and me had’”/“His tears fall and burn the garden green/And so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually”).

“Bold As Love,” a two-part song featuring lyrics about conflicting emotions ends the album. The ending modulation, kicked off by sped-up drums and a wailing guitar solo drenched in flanger effects remains fascinating. Once the magical ending is over, you feel like you’ve been rudely jolted back to the reality of your listening chair. The song is like a black hole - it’s too easy to get sucked in!

If you want to truly experience this album, Analogue Productions’ new SACD, mastered to DSD by Bernie Grundman and including both the stereo and mono mixes (mono for the first time in the digital domain), is the only way to do it.

(Full disclaimer: I’m only listening to the Redbook layer of this SACD.) When comparing the stereo part of this new SACD to Marino’s AAA stereo LP from 2010 (his mastering choices on the 2010 CD appear to be the same), the SACD wins. While some songs such as “Up From The Skies” benefit from the record’s warm and present bass, most of the record has an exaggerated and compressed top end that on my setup quickly becomes fatiguing.

Grundman’s mastering has less bass than Marino’s, as well as somewhat attenuated highs. There’s much more air on songs like “Spanish Castle Magic,” and the soundstage is also extremely wide. The ride cymbal in the intro of “One Rainy Wish” sounds majestic, Jimi’s guitar tone on “Castles Made Of Sand” sounds as natural as can be, and Mitch Mitchell’s drums sound full throughout the album. “If 6 Was 9” is an amazing sonic experience (no pun intended) considering that it was sourced from a rough mix on a flaking 7.5IPS reel in Noel Redding’s possession. (Hendrix left the first side’s stereo master in a taxi and had to remix those songs. The remix of “If 6 Was 9” was not satisfactory, so the rough mix was used on the final album.) Overall, the stereo part of this release rocks, yet with its dynamics and outstanding EQ balance is a demo disc for your system.

The mono SACD mastering is just as good as the stereo. Grundman’s mono LP cut from tape and released in 2013 is excellent, but the transparency of the new SACD mastering reveals master tape issues (mostly from the recording and mixing). The reverb during the drum breaks on “Little Wing” has a strength that the vinyl lacks, and “Bold As Love” sounds crystal clear and energized. Mastering choices are more or less the same between both formats and transfers, but, at least on my system, the SACD has a transparency that the LP doesn’t.

Even though tape hiss is more of an annoyance on the SACD than on either of the aforementioned records, this release is a home run for Analogue Productions. If this is any indication, AP’s upcoming stereo UHQR edition of this title (to be reviewed upon release by AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer) will be a sonic force to be reckoned with. This is the best sounding digital release at any resolution I have ever heard of anything, and sets a new high standard for the digits.