Thursday, June 20, 2024

(Pre) Friday Flash(back)

Richard Melville Hall is normally known as Moby.

Moby has sold 20 million records worldwide. Following taking up guitar and piano at age nine, he played in several underground punk rock bands through the 1980s before turning to electronic dance music. 

In 1989, he moved to New York City and became a prolific figure as a DJ, producer and remixer. His 1991 single Go was his mainstream breakthrough, especially in Europe, where it peaked within the top ten of the charts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. 

Between 1992 and 1997 he scored eight top 10 hits on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart including Move (You Make Me Feel So Good), Feeling So Real & James Bond Theme (Moby Re-Version).

Throughout the decade he also produced music under various pseudonyms, released the critically acclaimed Everything Is Wrong (1995), and composed music for films. His punk-oriented album Animal Rights (1996) alienated much of his fan base.

Moby found commercial and critical success with his fifth album Play (1999) which, after receiving little recognition, became an unexpected global hit in 2000 after each track was licensed to films, television shows, and commercials. 

It remains his highest selling album with 12 million copies sold. The seventh single, South Side, featuring Gwen Stefani, remains his only one to appear on the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 14. Moby followed Play with albums of varied styles including electronic, dance, rock, and downtempo music, starting with 18 (2002), Hotel (2005), and Last Night (2008). 

His later albums saw him explore ambient music, including the almost four-hour release Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep. (2016). Moby continues to record and release albums; his twenty-first studio album, Resound NYC, was released in May 2023.

Tomorrow return to stream the latest record, Always Centered at Night, his 22nd studio album. Released through Moby's label of the same name, Always Centered at Night, and Mute Records.

Moby's first release on the label was the album's first single, Meduza featuring Aynzli Jones, issued in June 2022. 

Jones also collaborated on Moby’s 2008 song Alice. Similarly to his 2023 album Resound NYC, it features collaborations with vocalists on all tracks, although the tracks are new. The album also includes a collaboration with British writer and musician Benjamin Zephaniah, who died in 2023.

So start your Thursday right with some old school Moby! 

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