Herbie Hancock – Future 2 Future

I'm going to respectfully disagree with previous reviews below and say I'm really impressed by this record. I'm speaking as someone who for much of my life would have counted Hancock's best work as the '60s with Miles, '70s as Mwandishi and '80s with Laswell's productions. I actually bought Future 2 Future on CD years ago and maybe listened to it twice, was disappointed and never returned until now. I'm also a lifelong fan of electronic music like from Kode9 to Autechre, Slikback to Krust, etc.

I think what Herbie did here was brave and interesting. He clearly worked with a fair few collaborators not vampyrically, but as an equal, inquisitive, collaborator and produced work that is unusual, intriguing and worth your time. I think it's wrong to compare this work to the cutting edge of electronic music, whatever that might arguably be at any given moment. Instead the clue is in the title, his shared future - Wayne, Tony, Jack - embracing other futures. I wish there were more such courageous spirits making these kinds of experiments, but I'm grateful for the ones that do.

This is another intriguing CD by Herbie. The possibilities touched upon are not fully explored but are still interesting enough for me. Recommended.

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, with guest appearances from Carl Craig and A Guy Called Gerald, who do little to liven up the proceedings. There's obvious competence on display here (of course - it's Herbie), but the results are boring; inoffensive lukewarm lite-jazz elevator goldfish music - and that includes the track with "Strings Of Life" running backwards.

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.