Moby

Editor's Review:

Moby, known as a premier behind-the-scenes producer, has engineered a powerful and dramatic use of technology on "Play." His sophomore album brings an eclectic blend of rhythms, tones, and a musical encyclopedia of instruments to evoke with a spacey, provocative blur of passion and soul. With smooth magician's quickness Moby changes up beats with his psychedelic use of guitars and keyboards.

With Play Moby stands upon a pedestal of southern blues, where he can reach into his hip-hop bag of tricks for dynamic melodies as special effects coast in and out. Moby works to create an entire landscape of sounds, where guitars seize up and boil over the fat consistency of the bass line, making Moby's music for the head, as well as for the rave.

This truly astonishing soundtrack for real life is best experienced on a Discman while cruising through the park at sunset, where airy tracks such as "Porcelain" evoke images of journey and escape. Its tropical jungle rhythms will make you contemplate the poetry that technology can accomplish in post-modern music, while the Matrix-esque "Bodyrock" will set you running from the shadows. Tracks such as "Find my Baby" feel as if twenty people breathe with you as you listen, while cuts such as "Honey" uncover Moby's lone, aching voice as his guitars roam in and out at odd angles, but never overwhelm.

Moby is an artist whose work runs the sonic spectrum from powerful to submissive, incorporating Motown, jazz, soul, gospel, rock and rap into a cohesive blend that is truly unique. "Play" is an aural experience which challenges and re-defines what one artist can do alone with enough gear and enough imagination. Heat Factor: Four half pipe grinds with a complete 360.

Bookmark:

Record Label Rave New World Released April 2000

Tracks 1. Honey 2. Find My Baby 3. Porcelain 4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? 5. South Side 6. Rushing 7. Bodyrock 8. Natural Blues 9. Machete 10. 7 11. Run On 12. Down Slow 13. If Things Were Perfect 14. Everloving 15. Inside 16. Guitar, Flute & String 17. Sky Is Broken, The 18. My Weakness