Moby
Play
V2

It was with much fear and loathing that I placed the new Moby disc in the CD player. Probably the first true techno superstar, Moby had taken a massive left turn on his last disc Animal Rights, delving into the murky world of hard techno/industrial to disastrous results. Thank God that with Play, Moby has put out his best album yet.

On Play, Moby has borrowed from everything. The soul, blues, and breakbeats makes this a lovingly layered production. There is a certain serenity to this disc missing from previous Moby releases. Perhaps the old man has just finally grown up enough to calm down a bit. The tracks that work best, and are the most fun, are the ones where he has heavily sampled Alan Lomax's old Southern field recordings. "Honey" begins the disc and shows us the road we are about to travel down. An uplifting blues loop by Bessie Jones mixed into an up-tempo Fatboy Slimish groove. The tracks that work less well are the ambient ones that Moby seems to love so much and should be saved for his soundtrack work. Moby also sings on many of the cuts on this disc to varying degrees of success, but even his quiet voice adds a nice texture to the music.

This is not Fatboy Slim bigbeat. This is not bleep and buzz techno. Play is about as wonderfully earthy and soulful a techno release you will find this year. And well worth purchasing if you want to try techno for the first time or have been into the music for years.
-TS

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