Jimi Hendrix enthusiasts looking to experience “Are You Experienced” in its ultimate form may be in luck.
A version of the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album done in UHQR with “Clarity Vinyl” is due for release March 30.
The vinyl comes at 33 1/3 rpm, stereo, numbered and limited to 20,000 copies. Mastering is by Bernie Grundman, well known and respected for his work with archive titles.
Two catches that may give buyers pause: The boxed album goes for $125, plus shipping. And as great and seminal as the album is, it has long had the weakest sonics of the official Hendrix studio albums.
The project comes from Analogue Productions, which fairly recently released an SACD of “Experienced,” and an earlier SACD retelling of “Axis: Bold as Love.” The latter received sterling reviews, while there were mixed reactions to the “Experienced” disc. A UHQR of “Axis” was limited to 5,000 copies is no longer available from AP. (Inflation: that release went for $100.) Both of the SACDs are still available.
“This UHQR is remastered (and cut to lacquer) by the legendary Bernie Grundman from the original analog master tapes,” AP said in announcing the “Experienced” release March 25. “From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer’s stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center.
“Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation.”
The Ultra High Quality Records process works with 200 gram off-white vinyl, eschewing the “particles of carbon black pigment” that AP says can degrade the sound quality (compare with the familiar black vinyl used for the vast majority of record releases). Quality Record Pressings is handling the pressings.
“Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market,” AP says.
Look for “gold foil individually numbered jackets,” a “deluxe box” and a “hand-signed certificate of inspection.”
The new “Are You Experienced” uses the original American track listing, which saw the Experience’s British singles added to the album: “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” The beloved Hendrix blues “Red House” does not appear on the U.S. version.
While 20,000 copies is a healthy run, the album is sure to become a collector’s item. (The UHQR of “Axis” resells for north of $600 these days.) The “Experienced” release raises hopes for a UHQR of “Electric Ladyland,” which is yet to surface in an audiophile format.
(For those seeking to spend considerably less, Legacy’s 2014 vinyl release of “Experienced” is well regarded.)
I bought Are You Experienced when it was first released in 67. I remember not being especially impressed with Purple Haze, but the title tune “blew my mind”. I would lay on the floor with my head between the stereo speakers listening to May This Be Love. The rush I got as the drums and guitar switched back and fourth from the right to the left was otherworldly at the time. That album cover too was a psychedelic masterpiece and graces my wall to this day along with the Mr. Experience poster I also bought in 1967. What a time it was to be a teenager.
I too bought this album when it first came out, on Reprise Records. I was blown away, all heaviness, no filler. I only wish I could have seen The JHE at Monterey. I was lucky enough to see the original Experience at the LA Forum in 1969, for that I am grateful. Amazing!
Monterey Pop fest of 67 is the place I would choose to go if I could go back in time. It was in my estimation the peak of the whole peace and love spirit and sadly, the beginning of the end for it. I’ve been collecting hippie/psychedelic artifacts, mostly posters, since the 60s and the poster from that event remains my holy grail poster. I do have a bumper sticker from the event. I wish there was a site like this one, but devoted to the psychedelic art instead of the music. Anyway, you are so lucky to have seen Hendrix. I only saw Mitch Mitchell in a Band of Gypsies reconfigure band in the 70s.