The other day, I was going through some of my old tapes for some reason and I came across some oldschool Moby. And of course, it sounded super dated, that’s fine and acceptable. However, when I checked out some of the other stuff that I had from back then, the Moby stuff seemed to sound pretty terrible. When compared to some (I stress the word some) of his contemporaries (Praga Kahn, Messiah, old Beltram, 2 Bad Mice, SL2, Xenophobia and stuff like that) Moby’s music sounded really repetitive and kinda cheesy (or at least more so than the rest which is in itself an amazing feat).
Anyways, fast forward a few years to “Everything is Wrong”. The concept is kinda cool. Laid back tracks with some bangin anthems and even some electro-rock hardcore stuff. The album does have its moments (even 5 years later, just before I stopped partying, I was still hearing cover versions of “Feeling so Real” played at parties [with vocals that weren’t out of tune]) and the few hardcore tracks are done well. Even so, this album has some of the worst and cheesiest synth patches I have ever heard. And the music surpasses my cheese limits (which are pretty tolerant compared to most of you probably) numerous times. And if you compare this one to its contemporaries (stuff like Aphex Twin, FSOL, Orbital, Goldie, Empirion, Underworld, BT, some Faithless, U-ziq, Vibert/plug, Photek, Ed Rush, Hype, the list goes on and on) this album is pretty terrible. If you forget about the fact that there are some supposed “juxtapositions” of different genres (which I kinda disagree with) and isolate the individual tracks and compare them to similar isolated tracks, the album seems even more unimpressive. Yet, somehow, critics (mostly the American ones) seemed to praise this thing.
After that, I always felt that Moby’s music started to get a lot better. Apparently he did the age old trick of writing tons and tons of music and only releasing the “good stuff”. Well, I think that this worked well for the “Play” album. For what it was, I thinks it’s a fairly decent album and I love the oldschool Lomax samples (even though most of the tracks that use these samples just sound like cheesy remixes of some already decent music from archives that anyone outside of the field of ethnomusicology (or anyone who doesn’t have an appreciation for similar types of archives) seldom comes into contact with. In other words, they were already great songs to begin with). Even so, the synth work is much better and Play is a decent album. I also liked both of the Voodoo Child albums as well. Even though the tracks are very simple, with minimal effort in the arrangement department and the patches are most likely all just nice-sounding presets on our fav synths of the day, these albums have a certain charm to them and some cool electro melodies. Simple but they sound nice.
However, “18”, hmmm. Other than a few choice cuts, I feel that this album is a return to the world of mediocrity that Moby will tread for the rest of his career (outside of a few more isolated tracks or possible Voodoo Child releases). This point is only proven to be right be the few new tracks from Hotel that I’ve been hearing. So, my question is, Why does Moby always manage to get so much attention from mainstream media and praise from electronic music connoisseurs when he tends to trod down this path of mediocrity for the vast majority of his career. There are soooo many better releases out there, yet Hotel is supposedly anticipated as a major release from V2. Comon, what’s goin on? Moby just gets so many chances to release mediocre music and nobody forgets about him.
Does anyone else find Moby's music to be highly over-rated
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1143 posts since 6 Oct, 2004 from berlin
I didn't mention animal rights but that's a whole other story altogether. And now, for some reason he gets praised by critics for releasing a mediocre hard-rock album in the heyday of "electronica". I remember the bad reactions to that thing at the time. It's not terrible, but not good by any means either.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1143 posts since 6 Oct, 2004 from berlin
and this is even more disappointing with the bankruptcies of Moonshine and React. By no means were these labels only releasing good music, but they were releasing the odd innovative artist who (unless they get moved to Resist) will no longer have distribution while you can easily buy Moby stuff at Walmart. Sucks.
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- KVRist
- 212 posts since 23 Feb, 2003 from Charlotte, VT
Oh thank God. This post made my day. Why does anybody take this hooey seriously?
Pythagorean perennialist.
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- Banned
- 12367 posts since 30 Apr, 2002 from i might peeramid
having only heard about 30 seconds of moby in my life, but hearing moby's name on the lips of loads of 'industry peeps' et c. for years incl. "now moby did this or that," i figure he's one of those straight puppets up there to act straight for straight people to go "he's one of those extreme progressive ones" so that they are happy being straight.
you come and go, you come and go. amitabha neither a follower nor a leader be tagore "where roads are made i lose my way" where there is certainty, consideration is absent.
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- KVRist
- 397 posts since 7 Jun, 2003 from Sedna the Red Planet
He's OK - bit boring - famous because its been used by TV /radio programmes as background music- its easy to listen to - but - yeah its overrated to us musicians but to the 'tone-deaf' public they like his stuff.........over complex stuff - we like it the public don't makes f**k all money musician poor
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- KVRAF
- 1972 posts since 18 Apr, 2004
the question is, if sombody likes his music or if he himself likes his music.. is that
enough. I struggle with this question from time to time with different artist, its like if I think someone sucks but someone else thinks its really great then how much further can we go, admittedly I don't like to think about it too much cause I always come to the conclusion that none of us really matter.
enough. I struggle with this question from time to time with different artist, its like if I think someone sucks but someone else thinks its really great then how much further can we go, admittedly I don't like to think about it too much cause I always come to the conclusion that none of us really matter.
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- KVRAF
- 1972 posts since 18 Apr, 2004
but i would like my music to matter
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- KVRAF
- 1577 posts since 20 May, 2002 from Cambridge, UK
generic shuffly beats loop + some super-syrupy chords + some random tinkly piano riffs + a gospel vocal sample = another moby hit!
I'll admit I loved "Go" when it came out, when that whole trance thing was starting (and I don't mean what passes for tarnce these days) and the punky stuff isn't terrible I guess, but most of his music is like some horrible insipid lifestyle accessory - the musical equivalent of cheap air freshener
I'll admit I loved "Go" when it came out, when that whole trance thing was starting (and I don't mean what passes for tarnce these days) and the punky stuff isn't terrible I guess, but most of his music is like some horrible insipid lifestyle accessory - the musical equivalent of cheap air freshener
THIS IS MY MUSIC: https://spti.fi/rZyjX7i 
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1143 posts since 6 Oct, 2004 from berlin
this is soooo true. i obviously couldn't have said it any better.Jbravo wrote:generic shuffly beats loop + some super-syrupy chords + some random tinkly piano riffs + a gospel vocal sample = another moby hit!
I'll admit I loved "Go" when it came out, when that whole trance thing was starting (and I don't mean what passes for tarnce these days) and the punky stuff isn't terrible I guess, but most of his music is like some horrible insipid lifestyle accessory - the musical equivalent of cheap air freshener
