"Axis: Bold As Love" 45rpm UHQR Mono and Stereo Teach Old Musical Dogs A Few New Sonic Tricks

limited to 2500 mono and 4500 stereo copies

If you're old enough to have bought Axis: Bold As Love when it was first released in January of 1968, and you were a stoner, you'll not likely ever forget your first spin, especially in stereo, wearing Koss Pro 4A headphones. Eddie Kramer was never shy about using the pan pots and things flew around your head and shifted left to right to left, sometimes without purpose. But it was fun, it was a free-wheeling time and Jimi had as deft a sense of humor as he had fingers on string touch.

If you got your copy really early, you got this label

Jimi conjured up vivid images in his lyrics. Castles made of sand, smell of a world that has burned, I want to hear and see everything, and eleven moons played across the rainbows, "Go ahead on Mr. Business man you can't dress like me"... you didn't need mood enhancers to float away buoyed on Jimi's poetry. Kramer close mic'd him so he sang directly into the center of your head. Was that gum he was chewing?

There were and of course still are so many epic musical moments. The abrupt gear change to "I have never laid eyes on you, not before this timeless day...." always delivers as does the end of "Bold As Love" the phasey finale that the annotation incorrectly states was the effect's first use when Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" had it in 1967. The albums' finale was as close to a musical description of an acid trip as has ever been recorded IMO.

Over the years I've bought and been given so many editions of this record. First the original U.K. Track edition that's a bit more polite than the raucous Reprise, and also more detailed and then later ones from Experience Hendrix at first cut from digital files but eventually from tape more times than I can remember. There are few bad ones!

This photo taken at Sterling Sound, which you might have seen here before, was from 1997 when the album was first re-issued on vinyl cut by George Marino from a high resolution digital file (Janie, me, Eddie Kramer). Kramer brought a test pressing over to hear on my system. That was fun!

Jimi at 45rpm UHQR should be better than Jimi at 33 1/3rpm UHQR, as good as the 33 1/3 UHQRs are/were in both stereo and mono. More spacious by a surprising amount, greater instrumental and vocal separation, absolutely no inner groove high frequency roll-off, notably better bass guitar attack and kick drum definition. I compared. if you have the 33 1/3 UHQR do you need this? Your call of course and I'm not here to say the differences are dramatic, because they are not, but they are obvious: after you've been playing this record for so many decades hearing something new or hearing something old in a new way is kind of amazing.

"Up From the Skies" and "Spanish Castle Magic" didn't register big differences but "Wait Until Tomorrow" really did, especially on the bottom end, which like most rock records really doesn't go all that deep but the definition was notably better. And the overall dynamic punch was obvious. Bernie's cut is outstanding and the UHQR pressing is silent and concentric. You pay a premium price and you get a premium product.

The Mono UHQR

This is a real mono mix, not a fold down. If you find the pan potting gimmicky and want a more pure musical, less psychedelicized version, the mono is highly recommended. It's timbrally very different from the stereo mix but that's partly probably due to having the same material coming from both speakers, so bass is essentially doubled. Everything is of course. So the real comparison would be one speaker centered in the room and I can't do that. Regardless, the balance is warmer, fuller and more powerful compared to the stereo mix.

Eliminating all of the back and forth gadgetry lets more of the solid musicianship shine through, which mostly spotlights Mitch Mitchell's drumming and helps produce a more coherent sense of the group's ability to play as one. There's plenty of depth/front to back layering developed too, something good mono mixes usually produce.

The shelves here are lined with every possible American, a few U.K. and a Japanese edition that I didn't pull out and compare to this one. Sorry! No time. But look, this is one of the enduring records of the 1960s and while some critics though the songs were too short and underdeveloped, how can you argue with "Up From the Skies", "Little Wing", "If 6 Was 9" (American title), "Castles Made of Sand", "One Rainy Wish" and "Bold As Love"? You cannot!

Every rock collection requires this record, whether or not you need a UHQR 45 is a personal choice but if you want what is probably the most consistent sounding throughout the sides with no end of side high frequency roll-off and of course zero distortion, this would be it. Mono or stereo.

Happily the tape remains in excellent condition. Chances are good you will hear things you never before heard, and chances are better you'll hear familiar things just sounding better defined.

The packaging is the newer box, not the older doweled box. There are people who complained about the doweled box taking up too much space and there are people now complaining that the new box isn't as "deluxe" as the doweled box. Kassem says both the cost of the doweled box and more to the point the delay time in getting it was creating havoc with release dates and keeping current. I say, just put the record on, crank it up as loud as you like it, and your complaints will surely wait til at least tomorrow.