Moby: Renaissance man outta Waves

Moby’s creativity on the new album ‘Hotel’ doesn’t waver but confirms his penchant for the usual modus operandi of - diversity. It is an album where pop tunes rub grooves with house, electronica beats segue into bluesy pieces, punk echoes counterpoint elegiac moments as in the Bowie-sque closer ‘Homeward Angel’… Yo, the New York-based musician-turned-all-round-artist sprinkles his oeuvre with certain points of veracity to capture more stimulating sounds across many a style.

‘Hotel’ - recorded in Moby’s bedroom mainly by himself, as per usual, with a little help from vocalist Laura Dawn and live drummer Scott Frassetto - is an obvious reference point in an artist’s touring but this time is not about the trouble and strife of a musician’s life but a reflection on human existence. The fascinating thing about hotels - Moby writes in the sleeve notes - is that checking into a hotel room provides an instant sense of history: many persons walked through that room and only six hours before someone was having sex on that bed, someone was breaking up with a girlfriend, someone else was using the bathroom…

As Moby rightly points out - the most intimate human things happen in hotels, under the air of anonymity, “… wiped clean every 24 hours. … In some ways it’s similar to the human condition,” and, ultimately, human life. [Come to think of it, it may put some people off staying in the said establishment…]

Romance, love [making], life and [probable] death [of ambition and a politician?]… Political awareness and comments permeate this album in a subtle way; several tunes are political, “with a small ‘p’”, claims the author, nothing major, no designs on starting a revolution… These are more like bittersweet allegories like ‘Beautiful’, a wry commentary on the bizarre cult of celebrity couples. ‘Temptation’ is the New Order cover Dawn handles with ice-queen sexitude.

The LP is pockmarked by deep social and ideological turmoil of modern-day America against the backdrop of the iPod generation‘s political apathy. Last year Moby lent his support to John Kerry, even teaching the Democratic presidential candidate the chords to Johnny Cash’s alt-country classic, ‘Ring of Fire’, and it is not surprising that there is an anti-Bush song. His political conscience also shines on the song lifted for the single, ethno-funky ‘Lift Me Up’, a cautionary tale about the new tide of fundamentalism sweeping from Washington to Islamabad.

There are more tender moments, such as ‘Love Should’: a rather grand song is like a sketch, perhaps a demo with a guide-vocal; the cut is, as the creator himself remarked, crying out for “some big Hollywood producer with a 70-piece orchestra” to remake it.

‘Hotel’ is Moby’s first album since 2002’s four-million-selling ‘18’, a record that defied its modest creator’s own fears that his phenomenally successful ten-million-seller from 1999, ‘Play’, had been a fluke. In the intervening three years Moby has done many a thing, including being publicly attacked by Eminem, ‘jamming’ with Kerry, cutting an anti-war ditty with Hip-hop godfathers Public Enemy*, releasing several compilations and making ‘Hotel’ album that confirms his status but impinges on no further.

‘Hotel’ is presented today at a free-but-ticketed masterclass in Paris to launch the album. Richard Melville Hall, as he is known to the IRS, will reveal his creative method - such as this being his first CD that’s completely sample-free - discuss musical influences and militant political stance at the event at Parisian department store Fnac.

7/10

* Moby’s first crossover collaboration was with Mystical for ‘Blade 2’ soundtrack.