Moby the person and musician may be many things to those of us who are grateful for him (and even those who may turn their noses & ears). His musical palette includes original compositions & productions that form a bridge across genres of electronica, dance, techno, down-tempo, trip-hop, ambient, DJ-remix, alternative rock and yet somehow more. And he's forged his own independent artist's path through & mostly around the music industry.
His most commercially successfully album (over 10 million sold, double-platinum in US), which also critically broadened his reach, is his fifth, 1999's Play (more info), a true classic IMHO. Several of its cuts permeated US & international media culture for a few years into the new millennium. Play was composed, assembled (from many gospel & folk samples) & produced entirely in Moby's Manhattan apartment, nearly by his lonesome, a wonderfully romantic ideal. No electronica-related collection should exist without Play. His most recent ambitious effort, Innocents, was released just this last October. A sort of production-opposite from Play, it was 'made in LA,' his new home, and includes more collaborators than ever before. 4 months ago I had the great fortune of catching 1 of the only 3 live shows Moby is (was) doing to showcase Innocents and his broad catalog. Maybe a future post will detail that magnificent road-trip odyssey.
Onto matters of the heart, Moby's heart that is. Those of you fairly familiar with his output may already realize what I want to get at here. Ever since that first listen to God Moving Over... during the final celluloid of Heat, on through his wonderful catalog including the very ambient & achingly beautiful s-l-o-w The End Of Everything (as Voodoo Child), to Play, 18 and beyond through more to Innocents, I have consistently felt the musician's open heart poking right through. Moby's use of strings, keyboard, loops and related electronics seems to reveal what he feels deep within - and it must be a heart of compassion, concern, empathy, loss, love and hope. His musical phrasings and layering are his vehicle for this expression, and one of his most notable trademarks. Sometimes passages can bring me to tears, sometimes remind me of or comfort me during lonelier or alone times, other moments tell how even in the grayest of times light and the fresh dawn await. At his peak during these parts of the arrangements, the most beautifully moving melodies can be heard and felt. It's in these moments that the purity of a musician is available to any ear, any soul, for healing and respite from the usual noise around us. Whether you're familiar with Moby or not, I invite you to pull closer and appreciate the feeling in this music that I do. Perhaps it can expand our notions of what electronica & technology can realize in the best of warm hands. A carefully curated sample of Moby tunes & videos across 2 decades is below, possibly a playlist to accompany a winter's night alone or summer's dusk shared by two.
I don't need to have the last word here. As one fan & music reviewer, analog1, so perfectly put it, "...MOBY is always best when no one is listening and he lets his heart make the music." (Well, at least no one but you & me!)
Thanks for listening and don't forget to turn the lights out before you press play...
Aurally yours,
david
david@musicelectrons.net
Open your ears:
Moby albums en iTunes masse
Rushing from Play
Blue Paper from Hotel
Landing from 18 B Sides
Whispering Wind from Play B Sides
Inside from Play
Jltf from Wait For Me
Lie Down in Darkness from Destroyed
Natural Blues from Play
Division from Wait For Me
One Of These Mornings from 18
The Last Day from Innocents
Porcelain from Play
Downhill from 18 B Sides
Rockets from Destroyed
Gentle Love from The End of Everything
Pale Horses from Wait for Me
In My Heart from 18
Open your eyes & ears:
Porcelain (1999)
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (1999)
In This World (2002)
Be The One (2011)
The Lonely Night (2013)
Almost Home (2014)
