Well, Moby is back--that is, for the last few years, he's gone back to his own roots, the roots of the sounds that first made the melodic trance-dancer and the master sampler a giant commercial and artistic success.
Moby first went full-length with 1992's self-title album debut after he was already well known in electronic club dance circles.
That first album was an absolute tour de force of interesting, non-repetitive, and gorgeously programmed techno dance music.
And this was techno you could trance out too--placing this first Moby album among the first examples of trance.
He followed it up in the same vein with 1993's 'Ambient' where he expanded into the then-hottest rising trend in pop music, which was, well, ambient trance dance.
Moby's 'Ambient' showed off his ability to intelligently experiment with music.
His later hits such as "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" and "The Rain Falls and the Sky Shudders" can trace their roots back to this 1993 album.
There are also the cauldron of bass on "Myopia", the ominous and flanged droning on "Bad Days", and the haunting orchestrations on "My Beautiful Blue Sky".
Eventually it was 1999, and the already popular Moby really nailed the commercial success with 'Play.
' This album saw him take on new dimensions in his music with included sampling of old American blues and gospel singers.
This American roots music merged into his melodic and moody electronica made a formula that put him over the top commercially.
He wouldn't see that kind of commercial success again, although before and after he certainly wasn't and hasn't been hurting.
But now we've got 'Last Night' and its remixed version.
Instead of going back to American musical roots, we have Moby going back to Moby's musical roots.
Moby has been all around the New York club scene for twenty years and on this album he pays tribute to old trance dance root sounds that have been in and out of--and in some cases, now coming back into--musical fashion.
This album has rowdy pianos, supercharged keyboards, and randomly sampled diva voices.
"Every Day It's 1989," "Disco Lies," and "Stars" all sound as if they were produced by Moby before 'Play,' before 1999 (hey, in Moby's mind, it's always 1989, apparently).
In fact, people who have been Moby's fans for longer than 'Play' has existed likely find, or will find if the don't already own a copy of it, 'Last Night' to be his best album since his well-received 'Everything Is Wrong.
' Moby has further made this one of this best albums by drastically diminishing the role of his own vocals--sorry Moby, but you can't sing at the level at which you program.
Moby will continue to have a home in urban clubs across the nation, as well as in the dormitories of stressed-out college kids who want some music to stimulate their brain cells but, God forbid that they should listen to classical music for that end! This is an electronic age, and Moby is a master of electronics.