(Credits: Far Out / Korneff Audio)
Sun 30 November 2025 22:30, UK
Even though he wasn’t known for performing on any records, it’s hard to deny that Eddie Kramer was something of a genius when it came to helping to create genre-defining sounds.
The British producer has endured a career spanning seven decades, beginning in the 1960s as a recording engineer for many of the most celebrated acts of the decade before going on to cement his status as a rock and roll legend by contributing to some of rock and metal’s most important records of all time.
The list of artists that Kramer has worked with over the course of his career is one that would spark jealousy in many other producers and engineers, with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Kiss and Led Zeppelin being among the most high-profile credits to his name.
While the frequency of his work has declined in later years, the sterling contributions that he made to classic albums throughout the early part of his career has been enough to solidify his legacy, and it’s hardly surprising that modern producers still look up to him as an outstanding example of how to apply a touch of genius to a record.
However, while others are busy praising Kramer for his work, and regularly citing some of his contributions as being among the greatest records of all time, Kramer himself doesn’t take the humble approach by politely accepting the praise that comes his way. Instead, he frequently finds himself agreeing that the records he worked on are the finest known to man, with his work alongside one artist in particular standing out as being groundbreaking.
Having been the engineer on each of the three albums by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Kramer takes pride in his work alongside the visionary guitarist and regards it as not only his finest work, but as some of the most important music to have emerged from the period, and indeed, of all time.
Speaking to Classic Album Sundays during his episode of the podcast, he revealed that all three of these albums sit among his top five records ever created, sitting alongside two other masterpieces that he contributed to in Led Zeppelin II and The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet. However, the one album in particular that stood out to him from the Hendrix trilogy was the debut, Are You Experienced?, a record which he claims has never been matched since.
“This album set the guitar world on fire!” he told the podcast. “Nothing had ever been recorded like it before (or since). Groundbreaking with sounds I helped Jimi to create and the songs remain in our subconscious even today!”
While Hendrix’s debut album was certainly a groundbreaking release which featured guitar sounds that had never been heard on record before, one might want to argue that the guitarist excelled even more on his two later releases, with Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland both being even more expansive than his first offering. That being said, you’re hardly going to argue with Kramer’s assertion, and you’d imagine that it would be pretty tough to convince him otherwise.
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