Moby: Replay: His Life and Times

by Martin James

Illustrated with photos taken from Moby's extensive personal albums Moby: Replay -- His Life and Times draws from exclusive and lengthy interviews conducted over the last seven years with Moby... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587540118
• ISBN13: 9781587540110
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Olmstead Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Replay Offers Unplugged Look at Famous Raver

(As previously printed in Mean Street Magazine) In Martin James' "Replay," Moby aptly describes himself as the little man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. He plays, mixes, samples; the audience jumps, dances, sweats. All this ecstasy-permeated excitement is created by one unlikely man: small, somber, and sober. In "Replay," James draws from seven years of interviews with Moby to offer a look behind the curtain at the world's most famous raver. The book succeeds on several levels. For those of us relatively new to the Moby phenomenon, "Replay" breaks it down from the beginning, starting with the birth of Richard Melville Hall in Harlem in 1965. The book offers definitive proof that this slight, bald-headed mass of genius and contradictions did not drop to the Earth from space. For DJs and techies, Replay offers a chronicle of dance music from the `70s to the present, plus practical insight into the equipment Moby uses to create his huge sound (Cubase software). Like any good bio, "Replay" offers scandal too. We learn that Moby's first musical purchase as a kid was the 7-inch single of Convoy, which he listened to in a continuous loop. We also learn that the once monk-like vegan, Christian and teetotaler has learned to not only rock the party but party himself, now indulging in champagne and a modicum of sexual adventures. And for anyone who is awed by the power of Moby's music, the book offers a glimpse into his musical influences and development. The book also includes one hell of a discography. It is James' reverence for music that represents "Replay's" greatest weakness as well as strength. He literally takes the reader to school in the first few chapters of the book with references to countless musical influences (Brian Eno, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV are among the less obscure). As the book charts the development of dance music in all its guises-disco, electro-funk, hip-hop, house, acid house, ambient- and all of its geographical permutations, the reader begins to feel they have unwittingly enrolled in Techno 101. What keeps the reader turning the pages? Among other things, the words of Moby himself. You earn something important in "Replay," if you haven't discovered it already: Moby was born to create dance music and according to Moby, we were all born to enjoy it: "When you're born the first sound you hear is a screaming woman, unless your mother was anaesthetized. So your most primal sounds are, first of all the heartbeat, which is like the kick drum, and then a screaming woman. So we've all been listening to techno ever since we were born."