BE warned, this isn't another glossy run-up-to-Christmas "Best Of" package.

Axis Outtakes is strictly one for the devoted Hendrix collector, and obsessive readers of guitar magazines everywhere.

As the title suggests, this new plundering of the vaults is what ended up on the cutting room floor during the sessions for the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love album, plus some slightly later unreleased recordings.

Although Hendrix, as you may have noticed, was good on guitar, and his band are on fine form here, this double CD isn't exactly a gold mine of lost classics.

There is a hissily-recorded alternative arrangement of Spanish Castle Magic, alternative takes of album tracks including Little Wing, and loads of improvised studio jamming, including Driving South and the sitar-led Little One, which may or may not feature late Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

There's some studio tomfoolery, and a few less-than-classic tracks by bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Strictly for the hardcore fan.

Updated: 09:05 Thursday, November 27, 2003