Spotlight: The Whale of Electronica

By Joy Michiel

In the world of electronica, there is one guy who is head and shoulders above the rest. His name is Moby. Like so many techno pioneers that have come before him, Moby changes the music and makes it his own bending and stretching it into something new.

It's easy to throw around words like legend and pioneer when talking about electronic music, and when it comes to true-blue dance music heavy-hitters, it's hard to top Moby. The man has changed a lot since getting his start making high-energy rave tunes in the early 1990s, but even as his music has morphed, changed, and yes, mellowed, it's always been clear that Moby still has a soft spot for that bygone era.

Moby has been one of electronic music's most visible and talked-about figures and his career comprises years of work and many musical twists and turns. Born Richard Melville Hall, he received his nickname as a child in honor of his great-great-grand uncle, Herman Melville, the author of “Moby Dick.”

His career stretches back to early rave and acid-house releases in the late 80s and early 90s, where he was recognized for his contributions to dance and techno music. The excellence and originality of his remixes made him a much sought after remixer. His ability to mix all manner of sounds to create some of the most diverse electronica music earned him an ardent, albeit small, cult following.

As one of the most controversial figures in techno music, he was alternately praised for bringing a face to the notoriously anonymous electronic genre, as well as being scorned by hordes of techno artists and fans for diluting and trivializing the form. In either case, Moby is one of the most important figures in dance music, helping bring the music to a mainstream audience both in England and in America.

Fusing rapid disco beats with heavy distorted guitars, punk rhythms and detailed productions, he drew equally from pop, dance and movie soundtracks. Not only did his music differ from both the cool surface textures of ambient music and the hedonistic world of house music, but so did his lifestyle. Moby was infamous for his devout, radical Christian beliefs, as well as his environmental and vegan activism.
Throughout the 90s, Moby remixed tracks, scored movies, produced other artists and made his own recordings. Although his reputation stems from his dance and techno recordings, he has experimented with other genres, usually playing all the instruments himself.

The man, like the music, is cool, but not too cool. He is consciously and intentionally an everyman. Not simply modest, he seems determined to rid himself of identifying characteristics. The shaved pate, the stylist-free personal styling — it all screams regular guy.

Musically, too, his sound is purposely vague, determinedly indeterminate. By his own account, Moby's music is a patchwork of influences, too diffuse to be likewise influential on other artists. Well crafted, but, because of a heavy reliance on borrowed vocals, not especially personal. It's the kind of toe-tapping sonic wallpaper that works as well in restaurants, aerobics classes and movies as it does in clubs.
His concoction of breakbeat rhythms, ambient mixology and inspired blues and gospel samples cry out across musical genres and histories, imparting a time-tested wisdom to beat-driven ears. And with Moby, it is impossible to separate the joy of the message from the joy of the grooves.

Moby's devout faith — in both God and his own musical whims — give this approach a sort of legitimacy that another, less sincere artist would never have. That sincerity reverberates through the beats and instrumental eclecticism like a pulse. With an effortless grace Moby reaches across his turntables and finds something pure and almost organic.

One of the things that is most enjoyable about Moby is his ability to provoke emotion without the use of words, lyrics or vocals. Instruments are all he needs, and that's proven several times. In these days of fly-by-night musicians, Moby is somewhat of an anomaly.

He also is an astute businessman. The electronica/techno genre doesn't generally lend itself to widespread, mainstream acceptance. In an attempt to attract a much larger audience, Moby got a large number of tracks to be attached to television commercials. As a result, these songs were made accessible to the general public, which developed a fervent interest in the songs and the artist.
Moby brands himself with two carefully crafted elements — the business ventures and the everyman musician who drives them.

Like any proper hit maker, Moby has incorporated commerce into his creative method. He sells his music to commercials and soundtracks and his likeness to advertisers. Moby's successes on this score have been, in many ways, unprecedented.

Behind this machine, of course, is the music. To corporate America, Moby offers an easy shorthand for cutting-edge cachet. He is the man who makes electronica safe for the mainstream. As a genre, electronica is long on beats and texture, short on verse-chorus structures or even three-chord progressions. But when Moby gave up his first musical love, hardcore punk, in 1989 for the even more obscure subculture of electronica, he changed it and made it his own. His version looks backward, incorporating melodies, chord progressions and even entire songs into electronica's requisite beats, bass and atmospherics.

Moby's technique of utilizing notes harks back to medieval times. The prolongation of some notes (which are hypnotizing) resembles those of the chants used in religious services. The transitions can be compared to majority of the classical/baroque music. And, then there are the vocals that resemble arias. He has made it music that sounds both underground and accessible at the same time.

Diversity plays a key element in Moby’s strategy. He has made dance records and rock records and ambient records and heavy metal records. He has written classical music for movies and had platinum albums in almost every country in the Western world. He introduces the blues to electronica and makes it commercially trendy. He mixes every kind of beat and mood in his song. And, he is adept weaving a variety of emotions into his music, be it slow and haunting meditative sounds or a body-moving, beat-thumping, dance club favorite. He even managed to produce a radio-friendly song that achieved mass appeal.

And, while he may look like everyman, it is clear Moby is smarter than the average bear.

At the heart of it all are his beliefs. Moby feels strongly that when you put something on stage, it should be entertaining. He is instilled with a sense of performing and making an effort to be dynamic, engaging and entertaining. And, it is important to him to keep it honest through experimentation and allowing his vulnerability to shine through. He tries to invest what he does with a lot of sincerity and emotion.
He comments on the current trend in electronic music where there are rock bands collaborating with dance acts and people experimenting with musical traditions in an open minded way, combining things that have never otherwise been combined. He thinks that what makes dance music exciting is making it functional and investing it with an air of experimentation so that people feel free to try new things and express themselves in more unconventional ways. And, it certainly seems like Moby is laying a great blueprint for others to follow.

Moby performs as part of the Wanderlust Festival at the Village at Squaw Valley USA. On July 30 he will perform a DJ set on the Pulse Stage starting at 10:30 p.m. and on July 31 he will perform an acoustic set in the Yoga Tree Tent at 5:30 p.m. He also will be speaking on July 31 at the Speakeasy. The talk is entitled “May All Beings Be Free of Suffering: Why I am a Vegan” and is free for all yoga passholders. Music day passes are $29.50 per day. For more information or to view a complete music schedule of the festival, visit www.wanderlustfestival.com