Herbie Hancock - Future 2 Future

Herbie's attempts to catch up with various zeitgeists have yielded mixed results - for every "Rockit" and "Just Around the Corner" there are several duds where he, just like the larger share of Miles' 70's output, just tries too hard (like most of his disco-tinged material with that bloody vocoder singing, or the atrocity that was the "Sound System" album).

"Future 2 Future" is his take on modern-day beats, mixed with bits of world music (no, there's no better word for it), with guest appearances from Carl Craig and A Guy Called Gerald, who do little to liven up the proceedings. There's obvious competence here (of course - it's Herbie), but the results are boring; inoffensively lukewarm lite-jazz elevator goldfish music - and that includes the track with "Strings Of Life" running backwards. At its worst it resembles something my fellow countryman Bugge Wesseltoft could have recorded.

Hancock's ambition to mix different styles and avoid museum-style purism is applaudable; unfortunately it doesn't work very well here. This is a tepid, bland album. Avoid.