A Physical Fraction

Moby is an American DJ / singer songwriter and musician. He sings and plays keyboard / guitar / bass guitar and drums. Moby became a successful artist on the ambient electronica scene during the early 1990s. In 1999 he released the album Play, a mix of melancholic chill out, ambient music, and upbeat electronica, that was critically acclaimed and produced an impressive eight hit singles including his most popular songs "Porcelain", "Natural Blues" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?". Play became a commercial and cultural phenomenon, selling over 10 million copies worldwide / the best selling electronica album ever just by the way / and with its eighteen songs receiving an unprecedented licensing in films, television and commercial advertisements.

It can be considered that Moby is one of the most important dance music figures of our time, helping bring the music to a mainstream audience both in the UK and in America and right around the world. Moby has worked with a huge number of diverse musical artists (displaying his eccentric musical taste) such as:


Its obvious that Moby has a range of musical tastes and its very evident in the artists he choses to work with. On January 20 Moby announced that he was to begin working on his next record. The mood for this record will be more acoustic and less electronic than before. In March, Moby announced that he will release the new single ‘Wait For Me’ the title track from his original album on May 4.



'I recorded the album here in my studio on the lower east side (although 'studio' always seems like an overly grand word for a bunch of equipment set up in a small bedroom). In the past I've worked in large and small studios, but for this record I wanted to record everything at home by myself' said Moby on his journal. 'I started working on the album about a year ago, and the creative impetus behind the record was hearing a David Lynch speech at BAFTA, in the UK. David was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine and good. It seems as if too often an artists or musicians or writers creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates. In making this record I wanted to focus on making something that I loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. As a result its a quieter and more melodic and more mournful and more personal record than some of the records I've made in the past.'

Moby and David Lynch discussed the recording process of the album on Lynch's online channel, David Lynch Foundation Television Beta. The first single off the album is 'Shot in the Back of the Head', and the video for which was aptly directed by Moby's muse, David Lynch himself. The single is available for free download from Moby's website.

Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós) mixed the album 'Wait for Me' and according to Moby, 'mixing the record with him (Thomas) was really nice, as he's creatively open to trying anything (like recording an old broken bakelite radio and running it through some broken old effects pedals to see what it would sound like. It's on the record as a 45 second long track called "Stock Radio"). And as a geeky technical aside, we mixed the record using purely analog equipment in true stereo, akin to how records were mixed in the late '60s (some of the songs sound pretty amazing in headphones, if I do say so myself'.

Most Moby albums include essays that he has written himself in the inlay card. 'Everything Is Wrong' had essays on over consumption / 'We use toxic chlorine bleach to keep our underpants white' / and US religious leaders / 'Why doesn't the Christian right go out and spread mercy, compassion and selflessness?' / and 'The End of Everything' discussed being a vegan / 'Could you look an animal in the eyes and say to it, 'My appetite is more important than your suffering'?