Jimi Hendrix: 'Valleys Of Neptune'

What we hope for when the work of a major artist is exposed for a fresh glimpse is that the occasion will afford us a genuine opportunity for reappraisal.

In rock music this is especially difficult, as the history of the genre tends to cluster around the mythologising of key romantic figures we have come to feel we know inside out. Jimi Hendrix is precisely such a musician; left handed best-guitarist-in-the-world who died of a drugs overdose and recorded 'Voodoo Chile'. What could we possibly find out about Hendrix’s music that we didn’t already know?

There are already heaps of live and unofficial recordings of Hendrix playing, which have seemed to give the legend a texture that couldn’t be further deepened. Amazingly, this restrained reissue from Sony and Experience Hendrix LLC has seven tracks that have never previously been released. Here they are carefully issued alongside a further five that have appeared before, either in different versions (as is the case for 'Stone Free', which was a B-side for the 1966 single 'Hey Joe') or on other less worthy reissue albums. The intention seems to have been to release the album that The Jimi Hendrix Experience would have released had Hendrix himself not died, and that has been the successful result. Aside from a schlocky piece of nostalgic cover art (a picture of Hendrix’s face floating around in smoky nebulae that slips easily into the tradition for cheap Best Of compilations) 'Valleys Of Neptune' offers a rare opportunity to experience a new release that is nonetheless 40 years old.

What we already know about Hendrix is that he was a virtuoso guitarist who made a significant contribution (via his “psychedelic blues” experiment) to the idea that feedback could be an appealing sound, and ultimately helped to shape rock as we know it. What we know, but tend to forget, is what that blues transition sometimes sounded like, how crisp and consummate were Hendrix’s recordings, and just why he is so renowned as a player. It is positively exciting that three of the songs here are over 6 minutes long (one is close to 9) and contain extensive guitar solos. They are guitar solos that come headlong out of the jazz/blues tradition, when rhythm was still king and before 70s excess invented the much maligned self-indulgence of noodling. 'Hear My Train A Comin’' and 'Mr Bad Luck' are extended works that, like free jazz, move through many musical landscapes but never lose the form that keeps the listener interested.

Everyone has seen grainy footage of Jimi Hendrix and The JH Experience reworking the Brit blues of 'Sunshine Of Your Love' in a live session, and one of this record’s biggest joys is the nigh on 7 minute studio recording of that track which holds the feat for posterity in a more refined but equally licentious version. A quarter of the way through there is a chugging a-tonal sequence which is now deeply unfashionable, but it builds tension marvellously back into a speedier breakdown, and the track never feels like an irrelevance or novelty.

There are shorter tracks too - 'Lover Man' and 'Lullaby For The Summer' are pop song length, but they have urgent excess just creeping off them in all directions, as though the music had an energy that just could not be dispelled. Fraught, precise and beautifully consistently recorded and mastered; you can’t ask any more from a re-issue than that.



Released on 8th March 2010 by Sony and Experience Hendrix LLC.

Written by Huw Green.