“Columbia’s LP release had decent sound, but Analogue Productions’ new vinyl mastering by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, takes the sound up several notches from there. The LP is housed in a gorgeous film-laminated jacket from Stoughton Printing — it looks and sounds better than ever.” Recording = 10/10; Music = 9.5/10 – Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi +, Issue 129
“I’ve enjoyed Mark Wilder’s 1997 CD remastering of Head Hunters for Columbia/Legacy, but every time I played it, I thought I should pick it up on LP. Listening to the new Analogue Productions edition (AAPJ 084) confirmed that suspicion. Hancock’s opening synth lines in ‘Chameleon’ thump soundly in both formats, but have cleaner edges from the new vinyl. More important, as the other instruments join in, each has more room to breathe. Harvey Mason’s kick drum is too forward on the CD and crowds the music; on AP’s LP, it’s audible but in support. Reverb is now audible in the notes of Bennie Maupin’s sax, and Paul Jackson’s bass, still the funk backbone of the album, isn’t as overbearing as it now sometimes sounds to me on the CD. AP’s 33.3rpm mastering gives each instrument space, and by deepening the soundstage it humanizes Hancock’s electronic keyboards and burnishes some of the high-treble edge they have on the CD. … This new pressing lets you hear how carefully Hancock constructed the music, and how well he and the other musicians worked together to bring it to life.” — Joseph Taylor, SoundStage! Hi-Fi, October 2015
There are few artists in the music industry who have had more influence on acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B than Herbie Hancock.
Jazz purists, of course, decried the experiments at the time, but Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital four decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul and hip-hop.
Track List
1. Chameleon
2. Watermelon Man
3. Sly
4. Vein Melte
