MOBY – All Visible Objects

Label: Little Idiot and Mute Records
Releasedate: 15 May 2020

You probably think “huh? What is a review of Moby doing on this mainly metal-oriented site?”. Well, we were asked, and to be honest I personally was very interested in electronic and synthesizer music in the past, still appreciate it though. I can clearly remember his breakthrough single ‘Go’ in 1991, awesome track.

Early career:

Moby’s career started in 1989 after he signed with Instinct Records. They facilitated his breakthrough hit with a remix of “Go”, originally a B-side to “Mobility” with an added sample of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” by Angelo Badalamenti from the television series Twin Peaks. Released in March 1991, it peaked at No. 10 in the UK in October. The success of “Go” led to increased demand for Moby to produce more music and to remix other artists’ songs. He often arranged for the artist and himself to trade remixes as opposed to being paid for his work, which was the case for his mixes for Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Soundgarden. During his rise during the 90s he toured with The Shamen, The Prodigy, Orbital, Aphex Twin, and Richie Hawtin.

After he signed with Elektra Records, he released ‘Move (You Make Me Feel So Good)’ in 1993, which reached No 1 on the US Billboard and 21 in the UK.

Moby’s fifth album, Play, was released by Mute and V2 Records, founded by Richard Branson three years prior, in May 1999. Every track on Play was licensed to various films, advertisements, and television shows, as well as independent films and non-profit groups. In 2000, Moby contributed “Flower” to “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “Porcelain” to “The Beach”. He co-wrote “Is It Any Wonder” with Sophie Ellis-Bextor for her debut solo album, Read My Lips. In 2001, Moby founded the Area:One Festival which toured the US and Canada across 17 shows that summer with a range of artists. The set included Outkast, New Order, Incubus, Nelly Furtado, and Paul Oakenfold, with himself headlining.

In February 2002, Moby performed at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. That month he hosted the half-hour MTV series Señor Moby’s House of Music, presenting a selection of electronic and dance music videos.His song “Extreme Ways” was used in all five of the Bourne films, from 2002 to 2012. In 2010, Moby enlisted vocalist Phil Costello as a songwriting partner for a new heavy metal band, Diamondsnake. After writing 13 songs. They recorded their self-titled debut album in one day and released it for free on their website. Moby contributed four songs to the soundtrack of The Next Three Days, including the single “Mistake”.

Since then he has been collaborating with other musicians, playing festivals (Cochella) and releasing 7 further albums – on top of the 9 released between 1989 and 2010. Now he has pleasured us with ‘All Visible Objects’.

The new Moby album, All Visible Objects, is out now on all platforms. Recorded in the legendary Eastwest Studios, Moby created this album in Studio 3 where Pet Sounds was recorded, using the same board that was used in the making of Ziggy Stardust and the same piano that Sinatra used to record some of his most notable hits.

Keeping with Moby’s history of donating to charity he is using this album as a sounding board to bring attention to a long list of charities dedicated to preserving our planet and all its inhabitants. All of Moby’s profits from All Visible Objects will be donated to the charities outlined on moby.com.

Over the last 10 years Moby has been donating 100% of the profits from most of his work to animal and human rights charities. His restaurant, free film music site, mobygratis.com, his festival Circle V as well as his last few albums.

The album

I hope you are ready for a long listening stint: 7 tracks are 5+ minutes, 1 is nearly 7 minutes, 2 are well into 9 minutes and 1 just short of 10 minutes.

Song 1 ‘Morningside’ is a typical dance track with familiar sounding samples. Long intro leading into a nice trance-like track. Halfway through though you can hear this HAS to be a Moby track, so familiar! Upping the tempo and bass, lovely!

‘My Only Love’ begins with a combo of piano against a heavy dance beat. The use of a voxcoder complements the track until the female vocals kick in. Swapping between soft trance moments and hard dance beats make this song, to my feeling, a good track to listen to whilst driving.

The next track ‘Refuge’ reminds me of Faithless, a lot of similarities as the music and composition are along the same lines. ‘One Last Time’ starts off with a funky melody with recognisible samples. Soft, dulceth tones and a tempered voice make this a fully fledged trance track.

‘Power Is Taken’ features Dead Kennedys’ drummer D.H. Peligro on vocals. Proper electronic and dance influences with spoken lyrics. Typical Moby track and an absolute banger!

‘Rise Up In Love’ again, superb track. Reminiscend of the 90s with a big smile. Dance beats, samples, female voice, fast and slow sections – all the right ingedrients for an enjoyable and memorable song.

Track 7 ‘Forever’, similar as previous tracks; trance like, voxcoder, samples providing a solid background for this trance anthem.

Appolo Jane provides the vocals on the next track ‘Too Much Change’; 9 minute 47 seconds (!!!). Slow ballad like vocals against a drumbeat with light jazz drumstrokes. Three minutes intro leading into a more upbeat composition before settling down to the haunting vocals and piano again.

‘Separation’ is an instrumental track lead by piano and keyboards only. Sweet and very meditative.

With ‘Tecie’ you are brought back to the here and now. It is a trance/dance track with bongo percusion, female vocal samples and heavy electronica music.

The last track on this album goes by the album title ‘All Visible Objects’. Long piano intro, before the keyboards are coming in at 2m30s, it then slowly develops into a faster instrumental track. By the 5m20s mark we are back at piano only, to slowly build up to the dance beats and keyboard lead composition until the end.

Conclusion

For a more metal minded person this might not be his/her ‘cup of tea’, but since Moby has collaborated with so many other musicians it is definitely worth a listen – if you have over an hour to waste.

Line up:

Moby: vocals, all instruments
Other vocal contributors: Mindy Jones, Apollo Jane, Linton Kwesi Johnson, D.H. Peligro and Anthony Tremaine Dixson (aka Boogie)

Links:

Official: http://www.moby.com