Herbie Hancock - Future Shock (1983 Japanese CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Herbie Hancock - Future Shock | Vinyl LP - 1983 Japanese CBS/Sony (25AP 2672)

• The album that brought turntable scratching into the pop mainstream, co-produced by Hancock and Material (Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn), with Grandmixer D.ST's turntable work on "Rockit" winning a Grammy and five MTV Video Music Awards
• Hancock's most radical reinvention since Head Hunters, built from electro-funk, industrial textures and hip-hop techniques on tracks composed largely by Laswell and Beinhorn and reshaped by Hancock's keyboard playing
• Japanese CBS/Sony pressing with liner notes by Yoshinori Ōtomo, mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk

Herbie Hancock heard Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals" in 1982 and told his collaborators he wanted to make a record with scratching. Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn of the avant-garde group Material had already been road-testing much of the music that became Future Shock, and the partnership made sense on both sides: Hancock brought his name, his keyboard skills and his instinct for what would translate to a mass audience; Material brought the industrial textures, the drum machine programming and the connection to Grandmixer D.ST, one of New York's first turntable manipulators. "Rockit" opens the album with D.ST's scratching cutting across a rigid, mechanical beat, Laswell's bass locked to the drum machine while Hancock's synths stab in and out. The track became an international hit and won the Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental Performance, but its impact went beyond the charts: the Godley and Creme video, with its jerking robotic sculptures, put turntablism on MTV at a time when the channel was still largely resistant to Black artists. "Future Shock", the eight-minute title track co-written with Curtis Ruffin, shifts into a slower, more spacious groove. "TFS" closes Side A as a sparser, more atmospheric piece.

Side B is where the album's range becomes clearer. "Earth Beat" brings D.ST's scratching back alongside percussion from Daniel Ponce and the distinctive guitar of Pete Cosey, who had played in Miles Davis's most extreme electric bands a decade earlier. "Autodrive" is the track where Hancock's jazz instincts surface most visibly, with jazz piano licks on a grand appearing in the middle of the electro texture. "Rough" closes the album with D.ST scratching over the densest mix on the record, Sly Dunbar's drums sitting alongside the programmed beats. Bob Belden later drew a direct line between this album and Head Hunters: where Head Hunters and "Chameleon" merged jazz and funk in 1973, Future Shock and "Rockit" merged jazz and hip-hop in 1983. Basic tracks were recorded at OAO Studios in Brooklyn, overdubs at RPM Studios in New York and Garage Sale Recording in Los Angeles, mixed by Dave Jerden at Eldorado Recording Studios and mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk. This is the Japanese pressing on CBS/Sony (25AP 2672) with cap obi and Japanese liner notes.