Play

06/01/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Mike Lipton

No matter which of his many hats New York iconoclast Moby chooses to don--musical or philosophical--he does it with conviction and reverent irreverence. The 18 cuts (clocking in at 63 minutes) on Play bring together many of the influences that have appeared on previous Moby releases--and some intriguing new ones--although Play presents them in a more cohesive manner.

After exploring everything from stone techno and fast-paced Bronski Beat-styled dance to thrash and ambient, this time around, Moby (born: Richard Hall) has mined (i.e. sampled) the pre-war field recordings of Alan Lomax. As usual, the execution is as unique as the concept. The opener, "Honey" (released as a single last year) gradually builds from an a capella field holler to a thumping groove fleshed out with acoustic slide guitar, piano, wailing vocals, and various keyboards. "Find My Baby" and the spiritual "Natural Blues" follow the same lead, taking solo vocal tracks and transforming them into grand productions that are surprisingly effective. The result gives the music a solid, earthy anchor (much like when Jon Spencer joined forces with R.L. Burnside), pointing to the fact that there's no electronic substitute for the human voice.

From there, Moby assumes vocal duties, sounding downright inspired on the simmering ballad "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and the jungle beat of "Bodyrock." Snippets of murky instrumentals like "7" and "Down Slow" serve as segues between tracks while "Everloving" is based around finger-styled folk guitar.

At the risk of once again alienating fans--as well as purists who may consider this treading on sacred ground--Moby has taken another set of disparate influences and "translated" them into a futuristic language that's all his own.