Focus On Music: Moby

Moby is an American electronic musician and is also the name of his live band. Born Richard Melville Hall on September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York. Moved to Darien, Connecticut at the age of two.

He has also released music under the names Voodoo Child, Barracuda, U.H.F., The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, On the Rim of the Wheel a Nail, and Brainstorm/Mindstorm.

Moby plays keyboards, guitar and bass guitar, and expresses mild irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums are samples. He took his performing name from the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, who is his great-great-granduncle.

On his upcoming effort Destroyed, Moby constructs synthetic symphonies out of sounds coaxed from broken-down gear during dead-of-night sessions in hotel rooms.

It’s an insomniac artist’s way of making sense of the world during a time when the music industry, and everything else, seems to be falling into chaos.

Destroyed, arriving May 16 in an arty deluxe package complete with a book of Moby’s photography, capably chronicles that dissonance in disembodied electronic music filled with human concerns like love and hope.

click any track below to listen