It was with a great deal of trepidation and excitement that I put my hand up to review the latest posthumously released studio album by the American rock musician and legend, Jimi Hendrix. The fourth release under the Experience Hendrix deal with Legacy Recordings, the tracks featured on People, Hell & Angels are previously unreleased recordings of songs that Jimi Hendrix and fellow band members (mainly the Band of Gypsys lineup featuring Billy Cox and Buddy Miles) were working on as the follow-up to Electric Ladyland, tentatively titled First Rays of the New Rising Sun. The majority of the recordings are drawn from sessions in 1968 and ’69 at the Record Plant Studios in New York, with a few inclusions from Hendrix’s brief residencies at Sound Centre, the Hit Factory, and his own Electric Lady Studios.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sao6m0guA-E
The album opens up with the track ‘Earth Blues’, and sets a tone that is unmistakably Hendrix all the way, progressive blues played with a freakish talent that has inspired millions the world over. ‘Somewhere’ just screams, Hendrix’s Fender gets a working out within the first four bars, his attack on the guitar and his take on the blues certainly set a standard that (debatably) has never been seen or heard since. ‘Hear my Train a Comin`’ oozes groove, somewhat lazily (yet brilliantly) slotting into the most hectic lead break that has to be heard. The sheer fluency of Hendrix’s playing is breathtaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1oq2r_CiA
According to Eddie Kramer, the engineer who recorded most of Hendrix’s music during his lifetime, this may be the last Hendrix album to feature unreleased studio material even though when Hendrix died in September 1970, he left behind over 1500 hours of unreleased music! Although Kramer said that several as-yet-unreleased live recordings would be available in the coming years. This is the 12th official studio set released since Hendrix’s death. The last, 2010’s Valleys of Neptune, proved his appeal hadn’t waned: it charted top 30 in the UK, and reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 stateside.
The very nature of Hendrix’s approach to recording was due in large part to the fact that, having his own studio, he was not at the mercy of a record label. This freedom produced this amazing archive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQDgbW_zP4k
‘Let Me Move You’ features some of the dirtiest saxophone you’ve ever heard, namely in part to Lonnie Youngblood (a long time friend and occasional member of the Hendrix musical family). Youngblood also sings on this track, allowing Jimi to just wail away. A kick arse song that is named ever so suitably. ‘Izabella’ has the coolest time signature going on, you can hear the whole gammut of freakishness in this track – backing rhythm guitars, congas, triangles… the lot.
‘Easy Blues’ isn’t easy, let me tell you, as I sit here with a friend on the lounge who is an accomplished guitarist and Hendrix fan in his own right. His attempt to play the groove and lead makes him sound like he’s picked up a guitar for the first time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ZrMHSUOh8
‘Crash Landing’ has become one of my standout tracks on this album – pure Hendrix. While the debate still rages about where his muse would have taken him next, few would question his place in the pantheon of rock greats. After all, Miles Davis didn’t offer to play with just anyone! No one knows for certain, but this song offers a tantalising glimpse of how Hendrix’s genius might have progressed.
‘Inside Out’ is a beast of a song, and the only track on this album where Jimi plays all the instruments with the exception of drums (played by Mitch Mitchell). I’m loving his bass playing, he is all over it – no vocals, dirty assed blues at its finest. ‘Hey Gypsy Boy’, is the mellowist track on this epic piece of history. One could safely assume he had some good acid whilst recording this song. There is so much wah and analog echo going on, it seems all to meld into a single guitar line. I so wish i was there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jApI3SOY6mA
‘Mojo Man’, written by Albert Allen and Arthur Allen, and featuring the former as vocalist is what would no doubt have influenced the upcoming ’70s disco scene, big progressions, big band horns and heaps of synth and keys – makes me want to get the cord flares and big lapel paisley shirt out and get my funk on. Awesome stuff indeed. The final track, ‘Villanova Junction Blues’ brings it all back in, just the way you would expect – the 3 members jamming away. As the concluding piece, it is just a short jam between the musicians that accomplishes everything in its less than two minute, offering a few rhythms and melodies to end the album – no vocals, just a groove that would finally see the light almost 45 years after the passing of one of rock and rolls immortals.
This album may not be somewhere to start your introduction to the Jimi Hendrix massive back catalogue, but for me , it was a pleasure to listen to something new, even though, as mentioned its over 40 years ago these tracks were written. Highly recommend.
9/10
Reviewer: Adam Barbuto