TRIBUTE

Acclaimed electronic musician, producer, and activist Moby shares all-new remixes with two disc, 58-track album, always centered at night remixes out now via Mute alongside “wild flame (dark1 remix)” featuring Danaé. The whopping LP comes following Quiet Home DJ Mix and a sold out September 2024 EU/UK tour celebrating 25 years of Play.

Moby opens up the sheer scope of the acan album project with a meaty 58-track remix album. The latest single, out today, is the cosmic “dark1” remix of “wild flame” which finds Danaé delightful vocals shimmering over loose congas, spacey synths and intricate rhythms. The new, re-worked tracks see Moby breathe new life into the 2023 original body of work. Thrilled to share the jam-packed project, Moby says, “I felt that the collaborations on ‘always centered at night’ were each so special that I wanted to create remixes to give the vocals as many sonic backgrounds as possible.”

Even by Moby’s standards, always centered at night is a bit special. The album features 13 collaborations in all, from names one might recognize to others listeners undoubtedly will come to recognize. Lead single “dark days” was recorded with acclaimed soul-jazz singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird, a defiant, rhythmic work propelled by her alluring, deep vocals and earnest soul. Other collaborators include serpentwithfeet on the achingly beautiful “on air,” and Benjamin Zephaniah on the propulsive, break- beat driven “where is your pride?,” a spoken word with a powerful message delivered in the late dub poet’s characteristically warm Handsworth burr. “As a vegan activist, and as a wise and compassionate man, Benjamin inspired me for many years,” says Moby. “I hope that ‘where is your pride?’ honors his legacy and also draws people’s attention to his life, work, and principles.”

Other wonderful voices on always centered at night include Sudanese, Netherlands-based chanteuse Gaidaa on “transit,” London based Burundian royal refugee J.P. Bimeni, and Kingston raised, London based Aynzli Jones.

Always centered at night–the album–is the continuation of the project of the same name that Moby announced in 2022. He saw this project as a similar service to the idiosyncratic New York record shops that he frequented in the late 1980s, where he’d hear something recondite and exciting and it would open up whole new worlds. always centered at night was his way of working with special writers and vocalists to make songs inspired by the spirit of musical discovery.

In his pursuit of new sounds, Moby has become something of a collector of voices. He’s a connoisseur of the timbre and texture of human vocal chords, whether sampling artists like Bessie Jones, Vera Hall or Boy Blue on Play, or working with superstars like David Bowie, Ozzy Osborne and Britney Spears; “I’m always looking. Sometimes it’s about going on YouTube. Sometimes it’s Spotify. Other times, it’s just walking around Lower Manhattan going to karaoke places, where I’ve actually found a couple of singers. It’s this constant process of looking for voices, and getting excited and inspired when I find a wonderful voice.”

These are often personal songs, and the personal is the political, as is the border-defying nature of the work. Moreover, they’re crepuscular, conceived at twilight, with many of the styles of the last 30 years in electronic music coming to the fore, such as the trip-hoppy “we’re going wrong” featuring Brie O’Banion, the broken beat, almost drum ‘n’ bass influenced “medusa” (with the aforementioned Aynzli Jones), or the Latin house of “feelings come undone” with Raquel Rodriguez.

Moby is a multi-platinum-selling, multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, author, and animal rights activist. He has been a vegan and vegan activist for 35 years and last year released his directorial debut Punk Rock Vegan Movie via his production company Little Walnut, a passionate and stylistically idiosyncratic look at the ongoing relationship between the worlds of punk rock and animal rights. It includes interviews with some of the biggest names in punk and rock history.

The expansive, fresh remix album, always centered at night remixes–complete with two discs and 58 tracks–is out now via Mute. Keep up with all things Moby on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo credit: Lindsay Hicks