Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
|
Moby Featuring Gwen Stefani
Listen to Moby Featuring Gwen Stefani:
Here’s hoping that the new millennium has more to offer in the way of pop music than the previous decade. Whether it was due to the slow death of the ‘single’ format, or the rules that Billboard utilized, or (most likely) the dearth of worthwhile songs, the nineties marked a time when music sounded too pooped for pop. It was a time when a #1 hit didn’t necessarily mean that people would remember you; hell, they might not have ever heard of you in the first place – Tommy Page (“I’ll Be Your Everything,” #1 in April 1990)? Sweet Sensation (“If Wishes Came True,” (#1 in September 1990)? The nineties were a decade when virtually every big-selling artist came wrapped in the glossy plastic veneer of ‘product’. It is specifically for this reason that Moby stood out. Other pop acts pandered to their audience, spitting out predictable pabulum. Moby simultaneously challenged and soothed his listeners. While most pop acts relied on formula and demographics, Moby relied on history. Other pop acts changed clothes three times per show, presumably because their outfits were out of style fifteen minutes after putting them on. Moby dressed like an ordinary guy. Low-key and self-effacing, Moby appeared more interested in the creative process than the business, and that in itself was refreshing.
The truth is that in the pop marketplace, Moby is anything but ordinary. As an art form, ‘Techno’ tends to be forward looking, but usually at the expense of ignoring all that has come before it. Moby doesn’t ignore tradition, he embraces it. Rather than obsessing on the futuristic aspects of contemporary dance music, Moby builds on heritage by making synthesized music sound organic. He ventures toward a the future, but utilizes obscure, soulful samples that in some cases reach back over fifty years, and bathes them in genuinely beautiful piano phrases. Moby’s own lineage dates back even further; Herman Melville is Moby’s great-great granduncle, whose novel, Moby Dick, provided a nickname and stage name for the musician (His actual name is Richard Melville Hall).
Moby started out in the early nineties as just another DJ creating techno music for the dancing hordes. Dance music was a style that spurned any type of star figure, but Moby’s creations appealed to a mainstream audience, a mixed blessing that alienated him from the scene that spawned him. When his original core audience started to resent his lack of anonymity, a larger, more broad-minded audience took their place. Diversity was key for Moby, and his subsequent releases proved that techno was simply a stylistic base for some of his creative ideas, affording him the ability to actually play instruments instead of relying exclusively on samples. Perhaps with some irony, he named his 1999 album Play, suggesting both the ‘play’ buttons on his sampling equipment and the tactile sensation of genuine instrumentation. Sales for the album built slowly, but steadily. In two years’ time, Play was ubiquitous, with a half-dozen songs getting regular airplay and multiple advertisers licensing rights to its themes. One song from the collection, “Southside”, had been remixed with backing vocals from No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, and it became Play’s first top 40 hit. It was one of the album’s more contemporary selections, featuring an addictive chorus and some adroit guitar playing. Moby’s Area:One tour kept interest alive throughout the summer of 2001, and Play was re-released with the newly mixed version of “Southside” in place of the original. In addition, a two-CD version was released, featuring various B-sides that were recorded at approximately the same time as the original album. With plenty of exposure and a limited amount of exploitation, Play had grown from a success into a phenomenon. In two years time, when much of the music by other DJ’s will sound ‘Lost In Space’, Moby’s songs most likely will be remembered as the musical link that brought us from the 20th to the 21st century.
 
|
Hit Network
More Music Reviews
More Movie Reviews
More Book Reviews
More Concert Reviews
See more hits from the 2000's
Powered by Millennium Communications Inc.