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The first Tuesday of every month we spotlight a classic progressive rock album from the 1960s or 70s. This week we feature Jimi Hendrix's classic album, Electric Ladyland, in its entirety. I bought this album when it was first released and I am still impressed with the variety of styles of music and Hendrix's virtuosity on this album.
Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix.[nb 1] The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.
Electric Ladyland includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower",
which became the Experience's best-selling single, reaching number six
in the UK and number 20 in the United States. Although the album
confounded critics upon its release, it has since been viewed as one of
Hendrix's best works and one of the greatest albums of all time, being
featured on various "greatest albums" lists, including Q's 2003 list of the 100 greatest albums and various editions of Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it was ranked 53rd in the 2020 iteration. 
Mirage - Brendon Moeller
Under a range of monikers, Brendon has been at the forefront of
exploring some of the deepest planes of electronic music for nearly two
decades. Dub, house, techno, experimental, drum and bass and more -
releases on labels such as Echochord, Electric Deluxe, Soul People
Music, Silent Season, Delsin, Deep Space Media, Mule Music and many
others, show how well-regarded and widely-loved his music is.
Mirage
sees Brendon take this wealth of experience to create the most
incredible journey of hypnotic atmospherics - we get the feeling of a
composer completely at ease with themselves and their vision of
electronic music.
Grounded by the heaviest of bass-weight, each
track presents a vast and seemingly endless sonic universe - gorgeous
trails of musical fragments drift in every direction, floating away on
crumbling echos and near-infinite reverberant decay.
Highly
textured sonic particles come in and out of view - shifting drones,
acidic undulations, synthetic waves, field recordings and broken
percussion - all within a framework that harks back to the original dub
masters, yet completely of today and this moment in time.
Deft
and precise studio techniques mix with an intuitive and truly hands on
approach to music creation - Brendon has a unique and innate
understanding of both the exact sounds needed and the exact moment to
let them live - conducting this dubwise ensemble with the maximum
finesse to evoke the most powerful emotions and feelings at will.
As he says himself:
The
soundscapes you’re listening to were recorded over a few days in the
middle of a Summer heatwave in Patterson, New York, July 2024.
Endless hum… nature grinding slow, steady decay.
Unmeasured rhythms syncopate… heat’s dissonance, fractured airwaves.
Time drips, pools, melts—liquefied, slipping into cracks of unreality.
Like vapor, slipping between what is and isn’t. The mirage hums.
Frequencies hit—familiar but formless, just the pulse.
Always the pulse.
So pleased to share it with you, a wonderful album of breathtaking beauty.
Huge thanks to Brendon for everything, a wonderful addition to the series.
The
artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind the
album - originating from a photo from Brendon which was then captured
with analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios.
As usual, the album is presented on the physical edition, a custom 6-panel digipack with a separate fine art print too.
The CD also has a special long-form continuous mix of the album, representing the music in its purest form.
Credits:
FreeForm thanks Alex at quiet details for providing us with a copy of this release.
Music by Brendon Moeller
Mastered by Alex at quiet details studios
Artwork by quiet details in collaboration with Brendon Moeller
Design by quiet details
© quiet details 2024 all rights reserved
Gilgamesh was formed at the peak of progressive rock era when ambitions met with sophisticated and maturity.
That characteristics matches their music well.
Though labeled as Cantebury band (and they definitely match that comparison when looking at the line-up), they
are actually closer to the jazz-rock/fusion area.
Music on that album is quite nuanced with proficient playing that is exploratory rather than rigorous, more
atmospheric than energetic. It is one of the less accessible "Canterbury" music which may be an advantage for
instrumental freaks and may put off folks looking for good compositions.
The first composition (over 10-minutes) is, in my opinion, the landmark of Gilgamesh, blending several advanced
motives to create an impressive instrumental suite.
Shorter pieces are less substantial but we still have two tracks well worth attention - number 5 and 7 (their names
are too long to write here ;-)). The 5th track evolves from a fine jazzy keyboard-guitar tandem into a "Hatfieldesque"
fiery upbeat piece.
The seventh track graces us with the female vocals again in the "Hatfield" way, but before that, I must again
highlight the excellent guitar leads supported by Rhodes. Really tight playing by all band members.
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