Herbie Hancock - Sextant [Red & Blue Marble Holland Import]

Herbie Hancock's Sextant sounds like jazz beamed in from deep space, and this limited 180-gram Holland import presses it on red and blue marbled vinyl.

Released in 1973, it was the final album by his adventurous Mwandishi band and his first for Columbia, arriving just months before Head Hunters changed everything. Producer David Rubinson captured a group chasing ideas far beyond the bebop rulebook, with synthesist Patrick Gleeson adding electronic textures that were startling for the time.

Only three pieces fill the two sides. Rain Dance opens with burbling synthesiser patterns that sound like a rainstorm inside a circuit board, Hidden Shadows locks into a lopsided funk groove under Bennie Maupin's reeds, and the long Hornets swarms with buzzing electronics and restless percussion until the whole thing feels alive.

Hancock moves between Fender Rhodes and a bank of synths, while Buster Williams and Billy Hart keep the rhythm loose and elastic. The horns of Eddie Henderson and Julian Priester flare up and drift away, and the band plays with a ritual intensity that still feels a step ahead of its era.

Sextant was too strange for some listeners on release and has been rediscovered by every generation since, from fusion heads to electronic producers. A marbled pressing suits a record this far out.