The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Electric Ladyland
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Details At A Glance
|
General
|
Extras
|
| Category |
Music |
Theatrical Trailer(s) |
None |
| Rating |
 |
Other Trailer(s) |
None |
| Year Released |
1997 |
Commentary Tracks |
None |
| Running Time |
60:02 minutes
(not 75 minutes as stated on packaging)
|
Other Extras |
None |
| RSDL/Flipper |
No/No |
Cast & Crew
|
| Start Up |
Language Selection, then Movie |
| Region |
0 |
Director |
Roger Pomphrey |
Studio
Distributor
|
Warner Vision Australia
|
Starring |
Jimi Hendrix
Noel Redding
Mitch Mitchell |
| Case |
Amaray |
| RRP |
$39.95 |
Music |
Jimi Hendrix |
|
Video
|
Audio
|
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame |
Full Frame |
MPEG |
2.0 |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio |
None |
Dolby Digital |
None |
| 16x9 Enhancement |
No |
Soundtrack Languages |
German (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s)
English (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s)
French (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s)
Italian (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s)
Spanish (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio |
None |
Miscellaneous
|
| Macrovision |
? |
Smoking |
Yes |
| Subtitles |
None |
Annoying Product Placement |
No |
| Action In or After Credits |
No |
Plot Synopsis
Jimi Hendrix was probably one of the last great
guitarists who, among other things, had the ability to blur that all-too-prevalent
line between playing a rhythm figure and a solo. After his death in 1970
under still-controversial circumstances, this amazing guitarist has had
an ever-growing legend, and it's easy to see why when you've heard some
of his greater pieces of work. Electric Ladyland is
a marvellous insight into the man, the music, and the conditions that influenced
them both. However, I should take the time right now to warn that there
is no chapter selection facility on this title at all. This is an omission
which I found heinous and annoying for various reasons. The omission of
any uninterrupted music videos is also a major minus. You may wind up buying
this disc under the impression to expect a few videos that were made to
go along with Hendrix's singles - don't. This disc is a documentary
about the making of an album, not any serious exhibition of Hendrix's musical
abilities. Bassist/backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch
Mitchell offer some commentary about the making of the album, with
the luxury of thirty years of hindsight. It's such a pity that Hendrix
himself didn't even get to live that long, let alone long enough to look
back that far on the impact of his own musical genius.
Transfer Quality
Video
This album is now more than thirty years old, and while
the music itself has defied the much lamented claws of time, the archival
video features have not fared so well. The archival footage truly looks
its age, with maybe the sole exception of some monochrome footage of Hendrix
talking about his views on life, love, and, of course, music. The recent
interview footage is crisp and clear, and it is interesting to see how
surviving Experience members Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding
have
aged. I hesitate to call this DVD a music video because there is no uninterrupted
music on it at all - it's more of a documentary. As it stands, it is an
interesting insight into the making of one of the most influential albums
of the previous century.
Amazingly enough, there are no true MPEG artefacts
(ones that aren't simply worsening of the inherent problems in the source
material), which can be explained in two ways. The easier way is that there's
no way the programme content could even fill the limits of a single-layer,
single-sided disc. Of course, I prefer to see it as an oversight on Warner
Vision's part, as they somehow managed to make most of this disc a wonderful
example of every film and film-to-video artefact known to man. The footage
intended to be part of a music video for Electric Ladyland (the
song, I mean) is so blurry in parts that the individual members of the
band can only be made out by instrument and skin tone. Thankfully, the
thirty-year-old footage is mostly used sparingly.
Audio
The only remarkable things about the audio is that there
is a choice of five languages, all in MPEG 2.0 audio encoding. The sound
quality is mostly good in all these tracks, but they all suffer from being
heavily aged during the thirty years in which we've waited for this disc.
Amazingly enough, the raw music tracks during the interview segments with
Eddie
Kramer, who engineered the Electric Ladyland album, are
perfectly clear and undamaged by time. However, in keeping with the time-marred
look of the video element of the historical footage, its audio quality
is plagued by tape hiss and monophonic sound limitations. Given how hard
it is to digitally remaster thirty-year-old news footage, however, I think
we can let this pass.
Unfortunately, because there are no subtitles on
this disc at all, it is hard to use the other language options for a bit
of educational fun. Everyone I know knows how I enjoy hearing dialogue
in Spanish with English subtitles, so they can imagine how I felt robbed
of yet another source of pleasure with this DVD. Not that it's really much
of a worry, but given how under-utilized the storage space of the DVD is,
I think the asking price is really something of a joke.
Extras
None, nada, zip. Not even the convenience of chapter
selection.
Summary
I was actually more interested in Noel Redding
than Jimi Hendrix himself, mainly because I am a bass player and
vocalist. However, the film offers an excellent insight and window back
into the days when it took more than a force-feeding advertising campaign
to become a famous musician. It is an interesting journey back into a time
when all music, not just the varieties that completely shun major marketeers,
was interesting and wild.
A highly variable video transfer. Because I have
elected to judge it mainly by the quality of the newer footage, I'd call
it good quality. Just be aware that the archival material is of average
(at best) quality and the superior resolution of DVD highlights that fact.
The audio transfer is mainly CD-audio quality or
near enough to make no odds, except for that dreaded archival news footage,
which is still better than anyone can expect after all this time.
No extras at all, not even chapter selection, and
none of the essential full length music videos, which is most annoying.
| Video |
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| Audio |
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| Extras |
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| Plot |
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| Overall |
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© Dean McIntosh
30th January 2000
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Review Equipment
|
| |
|
| DVD |
Grundig GDV 100 D |
| Display |
Samsung CS-823AMF, 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite
input |
| Audio Decoder |
Built In |
| Amplification |
Sony STR-DE835 |
| Speakers |
Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Sharp CP-303A Back
Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer |
