Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Rockit 5:22
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synthesizer, vocoder, mini moog, Fairlight
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programming
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bata
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turntables
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- A2 Future Shock 8:02
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background vocals
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drums, bongos
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guitar
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Dwight Jackson Jr.lead vocals
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Clavinet, Moog
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programming, prophet-5
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- A3 TFS 5:15
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synthesizer, piano
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programming, prophet-5
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- B1 Earth Beat 5:10
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synthesizer, Fairlight
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programming
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bata
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turntables
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- B2 Autodrive 6:25
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synthesizer, mini moog, piano
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programming, shortwave
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- B3 Rough 6:57
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background vocals
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drums
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background vocals
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Roger Trillingbackground vocals
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Lamar Wrightlead vocals
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synthesizer, Fairlight
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prophet-5
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turntables, voice, background vocals
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- Total length: 37:11
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14 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Future Shock [p] 33 rpm
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Future Shock 33 rpm
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Future Shock 33 rpm
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Future Shock 33 rpm
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Future Shock 33 rpm
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Future Shock Bonus Tracks, Remastered
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Future Shock Remastered
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2008 CD SICP 20013
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Future Shock Remastered
34 Reviews
'Rockit' is a fantastic track but jazz artists really should stay the hell away from synth pop. The rest of the album is like a dentists drill on a loop.
Published
wtf is this? This sure isn't jazz. I realize Herbie has a funky sound to his jazz but there is nothing really jazz about this album. This is funk pop that is very uninteresting and a very disappointing release. Do not get this unless you are a major Herbie Hancock fan. I am afraid to listen to anything Hancock did past the 70s now.
Published
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(August 2021)
I can’t decide if this is genius or just downright awful. Either way, I respect the guts to pull off this kind of experiment, even though listening now in 2021, there is nothing futuristic about this album. If anything, it sounds like a relic from the past, from the days of proto electronic music, suffering the same fate as some of Miles Davis’ records from this era.
I can’t decide if this is genius or just downright awful. Either way, I respect the guts to pull off this kind of experiment, even though listening now in 2021, there is nothing futuristic about this album. If anything, it sounds like a relic from the past, from the days of proto electronic music, suffering the same fate as some of Miles Davis’ records from this era.
Published
Herbie Hancock always tries something new like Miles Davis.
"Rockit" uses scratch.
"Future Shock" is a cover of Curtis Mayfield song.
"Rockit" uses scratch.
"Future Shock" is a cover of Curtis Mayfield song.
Published
Great electro synthpop sound. Rockit is essential. The rest of the album is good too.
Published
An "Oh Yeah, I Guess This Exists" Kind of Album
This would've probably made more sense as a Kraftwerk album, and even that would sound out of place. Not a sound that holds up particularly well today, very much stuck in its time, but a few interesting tracks like "Earth Beat" and "Autodrive" are here. A lot of it sounds like something you'd expect to hear in the soundtrack of a SNES or Sega Genesis game. A somewhat amusing listen, but not something I expect to go out of my way to find again.Published
This is a pretty fun album if you're not expecting it to be a Hancock jazz album. It's definitely in the electronic funk genre. It's got some catchy beats. What caught my ear is "Rockit", as I recognized it from a Simpsons episode. I forget which one.
Published
I thought Herbie Hancock made this!?!?! What's a jazz musician doing embracing emerging culture?!?! Sacrilege!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a group of jazz critics and fans who believe jazz musicians should not be interested in any music that has been produced since rock and roll first appeared. This same group think there is something demeaning in a jazz musician making music that cannot clearly be categorized as "jazz" (in this exclusive definition). I imagine those people were very, very mad when this record came out. (Maybe they weren't mad. Maybe they had already rejected Hancock when he got successful embracing funk music 10 years earlier. Maybe they never considered him a jazz musician.)
This is a record by a man who is ostensibly a jazz musician but, with the exception of a token piano solo, it is not identifiable as jazz.
Rather it is Electro, which I have learned is sort of like '80s instrumental hip hop. (There are vocals on some tracks, though it's singing.) Hancock plays some melody lines on various synthesizers and does play the odd solo - including at least one we might describe as "jazz" or "jazz derived" - but often spends his time playing rhythm on the Clavinet or something else. He is accompanied at times by a turntable, as well as normal rock instruments. It's hard to think of a bigger middle finger to the conservative jazz critics, which is great.
The music itself is pretty funky, though it has dated an album lot, given its reliance on emerging musical technology. The melodies are catchy enough. The lyrics, when they exist, are forgettable.
But "Rockit" was a hit and, arguably, the first time someone from the older musical generation had both embraced elements of hip hop and been successful at it. It's probably pretty damn hard to overstate the influence of the single, if not the actual record. But the record is pretty good too.
There's a group of jazz critics and fans who believe jazz musicians should not be interested in any music that has been produced since rock and roll first appeared. This same group think there is something demeaning in a jazz musician making music that cannot clearly be categorized as "jazz" (in this exclusive definition). I imagine those people were very, very mad when this record came out. (Maybe they weren't mad. Maybe they had already rejected Hancock when he got successful embracing funk music 10 years earlier. Maybe they never considered him a jazz musician.)
This is a record by a man who is ostensibly a jazz musician but, with the exception of a token piano solo, it is not identifiable as jazz.
Rather it is Electro, which I have learned is sort of like '80s instrumental hip hop. (There are vocals on some tracks, though it's singing.) Hancock plays some melody lines on various synthesizers and does play the odd solo - including at least one we might describe as "jazz" or "jazz derived" - but often spends his time playing rhythm on the Clavinet or something else. He is accompanied at times by a turntable, as well as normal rock instruments. It's hard to think of a bigger middle finger to the conservative jazz critics, which is great.
The music itself is pretty funky, though it has dated an album lot, given its reliance on emerging musical technology. The melodies are catchy enough. The lyrics, when they exist, are forgettable.
But "Rockit" was a hit and, arguably, the first time someone from the older musical generation had both embraced elements of hip hop and been successful at it. It's probably pretty damn hard to overstate the influence of the single, if not the actual record. But the record is pretty good too.
Published
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