''Perfect Machine'' is the thirty-second album by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

. It was the third and final album in Hancock’s series co-produced by

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

. Guests include bassist

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...

Background

The album was produced with

and performed with

, Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner of the Ohio Players, and Grand Mixer DXT. It marked the end of his "Rockit" phase in the 1980s. Richard S. Ginnell at AllMusic called the album "mostly thumping, funk-drenched techno-pop".

Track listing

All songs by Hancock, Laswell, Collins and Bonner, except where noted. #"Perfect Machine" (Hancock, Laswell, Skopelitis) - 6:35 #"Obsession" - 5:20 #"Vibe Alive" (Hancock, Laswell, Collins, Bonner, Mico Wave) - 5:26 #"Beat Wise" - 5:52 #" Maiden Voyage/P. Bop" - 6:34 #"Chemical Residue" (Hancock) - 6:01

Personnel

Musicians * Herbie Hancock – piano,

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, music sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commerc ...

Series I & II, Roland Super Jupiter, Rhodes Chroma, Macintosh Plus,

Yamaha DX1 The Yamaha DX1 is the top-level member of Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha's prolific DX series of Frequency modulation synthesis, FM Digital synthesizer, synthesizers. Background The DX1 has two sets of the synthesizer chipset used in the Yamaha D ...

, Yamaha DX7 and DX7IIFD, Kurzweil K250, Yamaha TX816, Oberheim Matrix–12,

Akai S900 The Akai S900 is a 12-bit sampler, with a variable sample rate from 7.5 kHz through to 40 kHz. It was common in recording studios until it was superseded two years later by the S1000. An expanded version, the Akai S950, was released in 1988 al ...

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

Jeff Bova Jeff Bova (born Jeffrey Bova in 1953) is an American musician. He has been active in the music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, ...

, Pete Sturge – synth programming *

– bass guitar, vocoder * Mico Wave –

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

bass,

talk box A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the so ...

, vocoder * Pete Sturge – keyboards, samples and editing * Nicky Skopelitis – Fairlight drums * Grand Mixer DXT – turntables, sound effects * Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner – vocals Production * Herbie Hancock – producer *

– producer * Tony Meilandt – associate producer * Martin Bisi, Mike Krowiak, Dave Jerden, Billy Yodelman, Bryan Bell – engineers * Dave Jerden – mixing *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer. Over the course of his career, he has received over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Ha ...

– mastering

References

{{Authority control 1988 albums Columbia Records albums Herbie Hancock albums Albums produced by Bill Laswell