Moby Plays The Blues

05/31/1999 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef

Over the course of his brilliant career, Moby (a.k.a. Richard Hall) has been many things to many people. He made his first claims to fame spinning techno for the underground scene, before his acclaimed album Everything Is Wrong served up swooning heavy metal for club kids. Since then, he's only enhanced his chameleon status with offerings like a rocking guitar-grind version of the famous 007 theme for the film Tomorrow Never Dies. Moby's latest, Play, is his most radical hat-trick yet, an irresistible confection of big beats, new age Eurovisions and American blues, gospel and field hollers.

"A lot of [the blues] is really in danger of just disappearing," states Moby from his spotless Soho loft. "I'm a white guy who doesn't really understand African-American culture, but if you look at contemporary black music, they borrow heavily from soul, disco, jazz, R&B, and funk, but they don't borrow from the blues tradition. The only conclusion I can come to is that the blues and traditional Negro spirituals, music from the fields, is poverty music. Hip-hop is about money, cash, respect. So maybe the blues represent a part of the tradition they're not comfortable with anymore. I love contemporary black music but I also love Negro spirituals. I see it as part of a great continuum that the [modern] African-American community doesn't seem to reflect."

Play's combination of blues and beats, with vocals sampled from Alan Lomax's Sound Of The South boxed set, is another first for Moby. Songs such as the U.K. hit "Honey," as well as funky numbers "Find My Baby" and "Run On," pair earthy gospel quartets and cotton-pickers' blues with contemporary instrumentation. The effect is both fascinating and a bit foul. Does Moby's update on classic blues equal exploitation?

"If people can make a compelling case for that, I'll agree with them," retorts Moby. "I hope that's not the case. I know what my intentions were. I was responding to the music genuinely with a love of the source material. I didn't hear it and think to myself that I could use it and make a lot of money off of it. I just thought, what wonderful performances."

Besides the blues, Play is replete with new age synth icing, particularly on "Everloving" and "Porcelain," which suggest Enya twisting by a pool filled with pretty flowers.

"I don't think new age," says Moby. "I just thought they were emotional pieces. New age is very lighthearted, undemanding, happy stuff. These songs are instrumental, but more atmospheric and soundtrack-oriented. I respect the democratic process and I respect freedom of the press, but when I make a record I can have a set of intentions and people can perceive it totally differently. One [interviewer] thought that none of these songs worked together, but from my perspective, I think it is a completely solid body of work.

"There are juxtapositions. If I listen to Sgt. Pepper's, that's an extremely eclectic record that creates a cohesive whole. I'm not saying that I've made an album on par with that, I'm saying that this is a bunch of disparate tracks that form a cohesive work."

Say what you will about this former classical guitar student, but Moby is nothing if not a very hard worker, and an inspired one at that. He seems more aware than most of the process involved in music-making, but he also understands that some of the best music happens not by design, but by accident.

"Rock 'n' roll is white trash kids trying to be black, hip-hop is people partying in the South Bronx with a microphone. With the exception of John Cage and the 20th-century 12-tone stuff, musical innovation is mostly by accident. But all I care about when I make a record is how I feel. The purpose of musicianship is to serve the music."

And to play?

"Well," he laughs, "I like to play. And you get free advertising from every VCR, CD player and cassette player in the world."