The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Axis: Bold as Love (Reprise)

Bright, tremolo-picked arpeggiated chords result in Jimi Hendrix's signature shimmering sound, mirroring the refraction of light into the rainbow spectrum of human emotions, which he paints in "Bold as Love." A frantic but distant-sounding drumline evokes the sensation of hurtling through space and the human psyche — a feat that drummer Mitch Mitchell took 27 takes to perfect. A bold departure from their debut, released only seven months prior, the London-based rockers dive into the metaphysical and psychological through a fresh sci-fi style in Axis: Bold as Love.

An apocalyptic vortex is crafted in the album's first track, "EXP." Distorted voices — modulating between hyperfast and sedated — debate over UFOs, inciting a sense of deja-vu to the psychedelia of Are You Experienced, but this time with an interstellar twist. The fuzzy, distorted strumming of Hendrix's Stratocaster revs up, weaving every note in and out of each ear, creating a dizzying sensation like being cast into a black hole of sound. The Seattle-born star employs this vertiginous motif again with the swirling, backwardly played guitar opener on "You Got Me Floatin" that flings us straight into the milky way.

Following the Monterey Pop Festival, "Little Wing" personifies their stellar set with delicate bells, dreamlike bluesy vocals and a major chorded guitar solo alluding to the band's ascension towards Nirvana. The trio rides high on their American success and couldn't care less about the nay-sayers, with Hendrix concluding, "Go 'head on, Mr. Businessman. You can't dress like me." And he is right; no one else can.

This article was submitted as an assignment for the Music Journalism course at the University of Texas at Austin taught by professor Raul Hernandez.