The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Axis: Bold as Love

THE REVIEW

Mmh, it's hot these days, a scorching afternoon, dark room, one of those afternoons when you'd want to be anywhere but where you are now... I feel like writing this review, will it be a review? Who knows about these things, I just need to write a bit or I'll go crazy. I turn on the stereo, just bought, the best purchase of the year without a doubt, I even hear the subwoofer buzzing, what a blast... I pop open a beer because I really need it..

The record, which record do I want to talk about? Jazz? No, no, that's nightstuff, exciting and incomprehensible for most... Hendrix? Mmh, perfect! I start, "Axis: Bold as Love", his second album, the bridge between "Are you Experienced" and "Electric Ladyland", with "Little Wing" and blah blah blah, you know all these things, or at the limit look for another review or go to Wikipedia or wherever you please. Mmh, let's start, the subwoofer is nice and warm, here we go!

Filtered voice from an unpleasant English interviewer, oh yes of course, it's just Mitch Mitchell, the drummer, then he enters with a black voice, talking about aliens, is he one? I really think so, given the amazing sounds he's able to produce with his Fender right after, hallucinations on vinyl, on the strings. Here's the difference between Hendrix and Clapton: one from the Marshall (valve amps) produces hallucinations, the other, with his touch, blues orgasms.

After the delightful chaos of the first track, here comes a brilliant and sudden intro that can't help but make you smile or at least flinch, here's "Up From The Skies". Mmh, brushes on the drums, you can tell Mitch grew up on Elvin Jones (without boasting, a bit like me, I might as well be a drummer, eh...), the track is a splendid Hendrix swing, not that bourgeois big band stuff, but something intimate, narrated, the words are simple and they fly in this hot air, the guitar does its thing, between bursts of wahwah and acrobatics of someone who has never set foot in a music school but feels the music, his capillaries, his black eyes, his hands, his words, his voice are notes, they are sounds, they are life. A subdued solo, fascinates me endlessly and then everything... Dissolves.

A jolt at the start of "Spanish Castle Magic", the rock soul comes alive and gives vigor and strength to the listener, you want to dance, lose yourself in the jolts of some endless night, have fun while simultaneously crying with joy, I see hallucinatory visions in this guitar, I see those who revel in impossible orgies for anyone (Mitch's words, bless his soul), the drums are also a protagonist, and it will be in the simply STRATOSPHERIC version of "Live at Woodstock", another demonstration of the genius of a genius. Another song, "Wait Until Tomorrow", the soul now is typical of the Sixties: choruses, beat and all the rest, but everything is seasoned and prepared perfectly, the track flows by quickly, which means it's damn good, with Redding's vigorous picking (the bassist), with the perfect drums that go all out at the end, magical.

"Ain't No Telling" is a furious rush, more choruses, but the tempo changes are beautiful, pointless to talk anymore about the guitar that soars at the end and delivers a tasty feedback “à la Hendrix”. Pause. It would be almost pointless to talk about "Little Wing", so I do it. These are undoubtedly the most incredible 2 minutes and 24 seconds in the history of rock, it’s all so, so Hendrix for god's sake. It's Jimi's very soul that gently and fiercely emerges from the speakers, a series of shivers, a few breaths of celestial air, a kiss that makes you fall to the ground, with no strength other than that of love. It's simply too much for everyone, for me, for you, only He could give it to us, only He could use the guitar like a lover, one capable of both the most unimaginable sadomasochistic acrobatics and the best nights, those worth living for. Enough, I've put it on three times, one never tires of masterpieces, thank heavens. I pop open another beer.

"If 6 Was Nine", here he really must have been high, it's a psychedelic trip, with pauses, slow downs, outbursts, hallucinations, colors, ooo yes I see them too, I'm having a trip too, damn!! Hendrix laughs it off, enjoys himself, he sees what no one will ever see again and Mitch and Noel do their utmost to keep up with him, between jazz (did you hear the bass around the beginning of the second minute?), fusion, serious rock, not that sissy stuff that circulates now only good for today's desperate youth... Here there is laughter, here it’s a heavenly chaos, you can see the stars dancing (paraphrasing good old Nietzsche). Pause, I need to recover from the trip and from the absurd octave that suddenly emerged in the splendid finale.

Well, now back to hard rock, a bit like switching from some crazy cocktail to a good whiskey, "You Got Me Floatin'", but, damn, I had just recovered from the trip and he presents me with another? Right after the second chorus I'm assaulted by a cascade of acid on my ears, everything becomes confused, the guitar rises vertiginously, the speakers alternate, dissonances, rhythm, it's all a psychedelic amalgam and when the vocals return, the guitar goes crazy, simple. I catch my breath, the psychedelia may be over but, as the song concludes, the dissonant, fantastic notes return, the drums go wild and... Everything dissolves, my head spins, damn... "Castle Made of Sand", dedicated to his late mother Lucille, is a splendid nursery rhyme, the guitar is reversed and the repetitive drum gives it a dreamy, indescribable rhythm, fast like a day of love...

I think, yes I think of my love, I want my far-away love here, at the first lights of the evening, with this solo in the background that doesn’t seem to be played by human fingers... The song slows down, damn, I’ll be deprived of my dream! But it isn’t so, I'm cold, I'm getting goosebumps, the guitar drifts off alone making me tremble. At over thirty degrees. The track that follows is by Noel, the usual boogie of guitars, the usual gallop towards one's destiny... We know Hendrix's too well, unfortunately. Then follow the distorted notes (always hallucinatory) and imperceptibly jazzy of "One Rainy Wish", and then "Little Miss Lover", rough, with that beautiful drum intro, it's like strolling through the Bronx, there's funk, tons of funk, Jimi is pissed off and sings really pissed off, the guitar is a razor, a terrible blade. To fall in love with.

Here we are, at the end, another badass track, "Bold As Love", the rainbows take shape and breathe in the ether, you levitate, you ascend to some electric paradise, you get lost in these recesses and then... end? No, I haven't heard anything yet. Distorted drums start. And it's delirium. Everything goes crazy, the guitar winks at the classic (Hendrix loved Bach a lot), here I am going crazy too, the track and the album end but I remain pleasantly crazy.

Thank you Jimi.

I pop open a beer.