After consumers and critics checked out of 2005’s relatively uninspired and unaccommodating Hotel as swiftly as they had arrived, Moby is hoping to regain their attention spans with his ninth studio release Last Night.
Recorded in his home studio in Manhattan and mixed by Dan Grech Marguerat, who has also worked with Radiohead and the Scissor Sisters, the fifteen track album features in true Moby fashion a multitude of guest vocalists, including Wendy Starland, MC Grandmaster Caz, Sylvia from the band Kudu, British MC Aynzli and the Nigerian 419 Squad.
Moby says of the album: “Last Night is basically a love letter to dance music in New York City.
"What I love about the New York approach to dance music is the eclecticism and the open mindedness on the part of the musicians, the djs, and the people in the bars and clubs.
"In making Last Night I essentially tried to take a long 8 hour night out in New York City and condense it into a 65 minute long album.”
They say:
Pitchfork: “If Moby’s glory days were anything like this, Last Night never quite makes an entirely convincing argument why anyone would ever want to go back.”
Rolling Stone: “Moby goes for groove over texture, relying on high hats, piano and strings while wisely staying off the mike.”
The Times: “Moby’s most non rock, disco friendly, purely pleasurable album since Play.”
We say:
Last Night casts Moby as the Big Apple’s wild child of the moon, leaving behind the pseudo rock star persona of more recent times and plunging headfirst into the subterranean world of gospel and hip hop tinged house music.
It’s easily his most euphoric, dance friendly long player in years, with beat heavy tracks like the stark raving mad, Black Box esque ‘Everyday It’s 1989’ and hihat powered ‘The Stars’ recalling the days of the NYC mega clubs, long before they became victims of commercialism and real estate development.
And they succeed without getting by on nostalgia alone, as Moby’s mechanical, groove based house roots combine in spectacular fashion with modern day production values and gospel engined heart to expand his sonic canvas. It’s something old, something new. And it’s also incredibly soulful.
Yes, soulful. Despite all his eccentricities and ad whoring, this 42 year old vegan has more soul than an academy full of uber cool British indie acts. Last Night – exciting, intelligent, transcendent – clearly demonstrates this.
Like this? Try these:
Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
The Chemical Brothers – Surrender
RELEASED
Out now
LABEL
Mute
POSTED...
Sat 24 May at 12:06am
