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Album Review
by SashaS
3-2-2004
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| 'Baby Monkey' by Voodoo Child, i.e. Moby |
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Voodoo Child: 'Baby Monkey'
(Mute)
Moby revisits an earlier genre and alias
Moby is known for his idiosyncratic oeuvre, his rousing shows, his opinions (regularly aired on his site) and balancing superstar projects with street credibility. So, after producing ‘Early Mornin’’ for Britney Spear’s ‘In the Zone’, Moby is dropping an underground techno record under an alias.
Voodoo Child, a moniker he used during the ‘90s - eponymous single in 1991 and ‘The End Of Everything’ album five years later - has released ‘Baby Monkey’, an el-dance disc. The idea to revive Voodoo Child came at the end of the Euro-tour when he attended an underground party in Glasgow in December 2002, “playing hard, sexy, straightforward dance music,” he recalls.
The following afternoon, one assumes as he stayed until the 5am end, he decided to make a simple, straightforward dance record as a breather behind 2002’s ‘18’, a more commercial follow-up to his breakthrough disc, ‘Play’. Thus, the once dance-music maestro’s LP is return to music he used to make earlier in his career.
One other thing that is evident on this album is that it was done without any pressure and sans commercial maximising strategy. As Moby remarked, “I don't expect it to sell anything. There aren’t any singles, and we aren’t going to make any videos. No promotion, just a nice dance record.”
Songs ‘Gotta Be Loose In Your Mind’, [hypnotic] ‘Take It Hope’, [cooking] ‘Uhn Yeah’ electro-funk around, ‘Electronics’, ‘Gone’, ‘Harpie’ and ‘Synthesisers’ are less instinctive in favour of more ambient, more chill-out feel… All sounding somewhat ‘old-skool’ as the genre he was part of has expended into dozens of sub-styles over the last decade. Still ‘Baby Monkey’ is not revisionist but low-profile release, just fun: it eased assemblage of an Ikea wardrobe without losing my marbles, which is a hell-of-a-sanction!
As for the Britney record, Moby said it shouldn’t have shocked fans who followed his career closely.
“I used to do a lot more production and remix work,” he said. “I’ve worked with Metallica, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, the Beastie Boys, Prodigy and David Bowie. I’ve worked with a lot of people, so I thought it would be interesting to work with Britney and have another interesting name on the résumé.” [And not a bad looking one, either - Public image Ed.]
Moby will start work on his next album in few months time and, though he’s in no hurry, he hopes to release the proper follow-up to ‘18’ in September.
[We’d put monies on it being released in February ‘05, at the earliest, but too impecunious to visit bookies.]
8/10
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Few more Moby-thoughts on Voodoo Child’s ‘Baby Monkey’.
“This is not an experimental record,” Moby explains, “not an avant-garde record, but a straightforward, underground, electronic dance record.”
“I’m probably kind of stunted,” Moby adds. “Anyone who really knows dance music will probably listen to Voodoo Child and think how hopelessly out of date I am, but it was fun to make and hopefully people will like it.”
Having recently produced Britney Spears, the man plans to keep producing, so long as the artists who approach him meet his qualifications.
“I like people who can sing really well,” he said. “Working with someone like David Bowie was amazing because he has such a unique voice.”
The producer will not, however, collaborate with any artists when he starts his next Moby album in the coming months. Past albums have featured Gwen Stefani, Sinéad O’Connor and MC Lyte.
“This whole trend of celebrity collaborations feels more marketing-driven than music-driven,” he explained. “What do people love more, music or marketing?(*) So for my next record I’m probably not going to have any celebrity collaborations. I’d rather just make music for the love of music and not worry about the marketing.”
(*) The answer is - money.
SashaS
3-2-2004
Voodoo Child’s ‘Baby Monkey’ is released 02 February 2004 by Mute
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