Moby’s ’B-sides’ are better than many hits!

There is an artist whose eclectic style has grabbed all the accolades and a fair bit of trophies; there is an equally adventurous and even more anti-genre artisan who’s been around about twice as long. The first one is more of a pin-up and has huge corporation to push his product into millions of homes, the latter one is not so good-looking and is signed to a small and, until few years ago, independent label. Their names are Beck and Moby, respectively.

But, when the contenders have descended into obscurity, the history books will probably favour Moby who’s experimented with every imaginable style and made such diverse albums that no artiste has done in over two decades. ‘Play: The B-Sides’ is a compilation that proves that there are very few acts around that can match Moby.

B-sides used to be reserved for wacky/offbeat/showy/investigative angle of artists but over the period of time it simply became a sad place for few items of remixes. The honest artists still stick to the time-honoured formula and, no surprise, Moby is one of them. ‘Play’ collects some Traditional vocals [library recordings] over modern backing [‘Flower’, ‘Flying Foxes’], Krautrock-cum-dance for the Buck Rogers’ [not a pissitude] century on ‘Running’, or the totally ‘Kosmische’ feel of ‘Sunday’ that picks up its dancey pace over a tribal beat towards its finale…

There are pensive and atmospheric pieces, from the chill-out epic-proportioned ‘Memory Gospel’ to the hypnotic dreamery of ‘Whispering Wind’ to the grandiosely orchestrated ‘Spirit’… Inventive, intriguing and brave in the face of mediocrity, the only decent way to evaluate Moby is to view him as a creative offspring of David Bowie, Brian Eno and Krautrock with generous dosage of originality. He’s got the knack for a populist tune, for a catchy chorus that he subsequently undermines/deviates from with some surprising details, sudden twists in arrangements and generally aiming to shake one out of the contemporarary culture’s stupor.

There is also meditative, waterfally music that reflects cosmic rays, the concluding ‘The Sun Never Stops Setting’, a mini symphony in itself. Top of the class.

8/10