Category: Moby

I mentioned last time out that singles released across multiple CDs usually meant one of, or a combination of, three things.

1. Loads of different songs as b-sides across the 2 x CDs
2. Loads of different remixes of the single across at least one of the CDs
3. Live tracks to pad things out across one or both CDs

Natural Blues, the fifth single to be lifted from Play, which itself was Moby‘s fifth studio album, combined options 1 and 2.

CD1

mp3: Moby – Natural Blues (single version)
mp3: Moby – Whispering Wind
mp3: Moby – Sick In The System

It feels quite surprising that Moby still had some unreleased material to issue this single given that it was the fifth to be lifted from the album and that all the previous singles had all featured at least two otherwise unavailable tracks, which only goes to show just how much material he had written towards the end of the 90s.   Whispering Wind is a slow, almost-ambient number while Sick In The System is a bit more uptempo in nature, but not fast enough to be thought of as a club number.

Oh, and the single version of Natural Blues is just over a minute shorter than the album version, with various edits, all quite seamless in nature, making it really tailor-made for radio play.

The second CD does exactly what it says on the cover

CD2

mp3: Moby – Natural Blues (Perfecto Remix)
mp3: Moby – Natural Blues (Mike D edit)
mp3: Moby – Natural Blues (Peace Division edit)

Perfecto was the name used by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne, a very highly successful team of British producers who had been doing such things for years, with one of their earliest efforts being their take on Wrote For Luck by Happy Mondays.

And yes, the middle remix is the work of Michael Louis Diamond, one-third of the Beastie Boys.

Peace Division is the name used by Clive Henry and Justin Drake, two UK-based house music remixers/producers.

In addition to the 2xCD releases, Natural Blues was issued in the UK on two separate 12″ singles, across which you would find the Mike D and Peace Divison remixes, as well as a Perfecto Dub version and a remix by Katcha, a trance/house DJ.

Natural Blues was released in March 2000, some ten months after Play had been released.  The album hadn’t sold all that brilliantly during 1999, spending just one week in the Top 40.  But it really took off in early 2000, re-entering at #72 on 9 January, and going on to spend the next sixteen months in the Top 75, including five weeks at #1 in April/May 2000. There is no doubt that the decision to license all 17 of its tracks to films, tv shows and adverts paid dividends in the long run.

JC

It’s going through the record/CD collection that really makes me stop to think and realise just how quickly time is passing.

It was as long ago as May 1999 that Play, the fifth studio LP from Moby was released. I had it down in my head as maybe a decade or so ago, certainly not the last century.

What I do distinctly remember is buying it on the back of hearing most of it played in a record store during an afternoon’s browsing. In my lifetime, I’ve probably done such a thing maybe four or five times, and on every occasion bar one, when I took it home and shoved it onto my own system, the songs didn’t sound anything like half as good.

Play was and remains the exception and it quickly became a firm favourite on heavy rotation in Villain Towers. The mix of electronic dance, rock, pop, ambiance, folk and gospel just struck the right note with me at that particular point in time – it was the sort of record that could play away in the background and on every listen, my ears would pick up something that was fresh.

Within a few months, I began to notice snippets of the album getting used in a lot of TV adverts and then one of the tracks started getting very heavy rotation on MTV/MTV2 thanks to a hauntingly memorable video featuring Christina Ricci.

Next thing you know, Moby and his bloody record were everywhere you turned and it wasn’t difficult to feel bored about it all. Maybe it was a bit of the music snob in me that something I felt I had partly discovered was now very mainstream but in truth, it was simply overexposure at the time.

A few years back I picked up the CD again for the first time ages while I was seeking inspiration for postings on the old blog and was delighted to re-discovered everything about it that makes it a genuine classic, fully deserving all the plaudits that have been thrown at it.

It’s not one that is still on heavy rotation but I usually at some point during a beach holiday turn to it for something well-known and comforting to get me through either a hangover or an hour when the sun is at its hottest and you want and need no surprises or challenging listening through the headphones.

mp3 : Moby – Bodyrock
mp3 : Moby – Find My Baby
mp3 : Moby – Inside
mp3 : Moby – Natural Blues
mp3 : Moby – South side

One other thing worth mentioning is that a fair chunk of the profits made from this album allowed Mute Records to retain a few less commercial and poorly selling artists on the label for a while longer.

Enjoy.