One Time We Lived, via Moby.

Dell’s Motherboard.tv visits Moby’s Manhattan apartment studio, where he talks about his “Noah’s arc” of rarified gadgets, bizarre synthesizers, and vintage drum machines.

If you didn’t hate Moby for having a better birthday than you, the multiple duplicate rare drum machines that line his studio walls may just push you over that edge.

Best line: “A rock band cannot rehearse in the suburbs at 3 o’clock in the morning. You can make electronic music at 3 o’clock in the morning, and your mom doesn’t complain. “

You can download their remix free at moby.com.

Sunday Synth Jam: This video features an interesting three-way Eigenharp synth jam on Moby’s Extreme Ways.

Is the Eigenharp one bizarre instrument, or what?

It’s actually pretty bad-ass looking. Could the Eigenharp be the cure for the curse of Herbie Hancock?

via davek4981:

Mark, Finlay and I jamming Moby’s Extreme Ways on our Eigenharp

Moby

Moby said that he wanted to make his donation in a way that would ensure that the funds had a statewide impact.

“I’ve decided to give all of the revenue from my upcoming California shows to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence,” he said. “My hope is that by doing this I will enable domestic violence prevention workers to continue their work, and also encourage other people to step in and help raise funds for domestic violence prevention and care. Domestic violence is equal parts prison and torture for many women, and my sincere hope is that we can step up and help to protect women in California and end domestic violence.”

The money from the three shows, in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, will be donated directly to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV). CPEDV will act as a pass-through agency and administer the distribution of funds to those shelters and communities most affected by the budget cut. CPEDV Executive Director Tara Shabazz hopes that Moby’s contribution will encourage other donors to support domestic violence agencies either locally, or through her statewide organization.

via moby.com.

This is a teaser video for the Eigenlabs Eigenharp.

The teaser video showcases the sexy construction; the video below shows the bizarre Eigenharp in action on a cover of Moby’s take on the classic James Bond Theme:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’ve seen the Eigenharp in action or had some hands-on time, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!

According to Eigenlabs:

Eigenlabs has spent the last seven years developing a revolutionary new electronic musical instrument, the Eigenharp. A musical instrument more advanced, more expressive and more flexible than anything you have ever seen.

First off, there’s the presents:

• a poem about tacos
• some pleasant quasi-soft-core porn
• a book about tea production
• a vegan cassoulet (a french dish normally made from sausages and pig fat)
• Reading through loads of  ‘happy birthday!’ emails

Not sure about the taco poem – but it’s probably by Beck or something.

Then he’s off to have lunch with Jean Michel Jarre, to chat about how to deal with piles of cash and what to do with all those promotional synths that companies give them.

Next up, it’s time to hang out in Paris with Scarlett Johansson.

Not bad for a “weird bald guy“, eh?

via Moby

Video for Mistake, the new single from Moby’s album Wait for Me out Sept 14th.

Wall Street Journal writer Walt Mossberg interviewed Moby on Monday during his publication’s Summer Scoops Live series.

In the interview, he talks about his hit 1999 album Play, calling it “weird music made by a weird bald guy in a bedroom in the Lower East Side.”) and more.

via prefix

Free Music Friday: Here’s a little something from Moby – the remix of Mistake, from his latest album.

Says Moby:

Frenchie-of-the-moment Lifelike took his hand to album standout “Mistake,” begetting the Human Leaguest song we have ever heard from a dude who wears Black Flag shirts.

And, if you were wondering, that is Moby singing.

Check this out: Moby has released a free MP3, a remix of Mistake, from his new album Wait For Me.

In making Wait For Me, Moby decided to forego expensive studios, state-of-the-art equipment, big name guest artists, and graphic designers and image consultants.

“There’s something so relaxing about doing everything yourself, and not trying to second-guess the market,” Moby says. “I don’t know if anyone’s going to like this record, I don’t know if it’s going to sell anything, but it’s nice to try to do things for the right reasons and not give a second thought to radio play or sales – just make a record because you want to make a record.”

This DiY approach pervades all of Wait For Me, from the recording process to the album cover.

“A friend of mine shot the photos,” Moby says. “I did the art work. I made the record in my bedroom, and mixed it with a crazy punk rocker who got lost on the way to the studio every night.”

This is the latest video from Moby, for Pale Horses, from Wait For Me, out June 30 on Mute.

Moby

argh. what utter nonsense. this is how the record companies want to protect themselves? suing suburban moms for listening to music? charging $80,000 per song?

punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. maybe the record companies have adopted the ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ approach to dealing with music fans. i don’t know, but ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ doesn’t seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of ‘it’s better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices’?

i’m so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music.

the riaa needs to be disbanded.

$2 million for sharing three albums worth of songs is clearly insanity.

Using your public user ID to share music illegally, covering up your tracks by replacing your computer’s hard drive, lying about it and then not settling out of court when you’ve got no case is insane, too.

There are going to be a lot of musicians that say they don’t want to be any part of this insanity.

If Moby really wants to make the RIAA irrelevant, though, he should follow the example of Nine Inch Nails, whose free albums releases and Creative Commons licensing have led to huge sales.

If that doesn’t creep you out – here’s a nice photo of Moby looking like a deranged naked gunman. —>>

Fortunately – he’s a provocateur and Shot In The Back Of The Head is the name of his latest track.

Better still – Moby’s pulling a Trent Reznor and releasing his new song as a free MP3 download.

Get it here (MP3).  Unfortunately, Moby doesn’t say how the track is licensed – so it’s not clear if you can share the track or use it in a podcast.

Download it and let me know what you think of it!

And if you see Moby, don’t look at him in the eyes too long.

Image: Julio Enriquez

No – David Lynch hasn’t gone Phil Spector – he’s just directed the video for the latest Moby track, Shot In Back Of The Head, from his upcoming album, Wait For Me.

Here’s what Moby has to say about the album & working with David Lynch:

i started working on the album about a year ago, and the creative impetus behind the record was hearing a david lynch speech at bafta, in the uk.

david was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine and good.

it seems as if too often an artists or musicians or writers creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.

in making this record i wanted to focus on making something that i loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. as a result it’s a quieter and more melodic and more mournful and more personal record than some of the records i’ve made in the past.

it’s also, for better or worse, all homemade, in that i recorded it at home with my friends and drew the artwork with a black sharpie on copy paper.

the first single (if you can call an instrumental with no vocals that we’re giving away for free a ’single’) is called ’shot in the back of the head’, and i’m happy to announce that david lynch has done the video for it. i sent him the music and said, ‘please do whatever you want’. so he sat down and drew some animation that is very dark and beautiful. david lynch is my favorite film director, and i’m really happy to have him as the first video director on ‘wait for me’.

Let me know what you think of the new track and David Lynch’s video!

Here’s the tracklisting for the new album:

• division
• pale horses
• shot in the back of the head
• study war
• walk with me
• stock radio
• mistake
• scream pilots
• jltf 1
• jltf
• a seated night
• wait for me
• hope is gone
• ghost return
• slow light
• isolate

Moby, with hair, from the eighties:

one of the dangers/joys of the internet is that people re-surface from your past and send you pictures of yourself back when you had hair.

in the interest of furthering my ‘humiliate myself in public’ project here are some pictures from when the cure were kings and echo and the bunnymen had yet to break up and any self-respecting new waver lived the dream of excessive sensitivity, doc marten’s, cuffed jeans, and bad french symbolist poetry read in shitty coffee shops/bars/methadone clinics.

The UMF will take place during the 24th annual Winter Music Conference at the waterfront location of Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami (the same grounds it has occupied since 2006). 

The line-up for the festival is pretty insane:

• Tiësto
• Bloc Party
• The Ting Tings
• Roni Size Reprazent
• Cut Copy
• Deadmau5
• Crystal Castles
• The Presets
• Hercules and Love Affair
• Simian Mobile Disco
• Busy P.
• Carl Cox
• The Prodigy
• Pendulum
• Paul Van Dyk
• Armin Van Buuren
• Moby

Other acts that are newly confirmed for UMF include: David Guetta, Above and Beyond, Erick Morillo, Booka Shade, the Swedish House Mafia featuring (Steve Angello, Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso), Benny Benassi, Rabbit In The Moon, Infected Mushroom, Fedde Le Grand, Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Tiga, Perry Farrell, ATB, M.A.N.D.Y. v. Tiefschwarz, Kraak & Smaak, Dirty South, Pete Tong, Loco Dice, Steve Lawler, Boys Noize, Markus Schulz, Kaskade, Late of the Pier, Planet of the Drums, Andy C + MC GQ and The Whip.

Sounds like a line-up, huh?

In addition to the annual Miami festival, UMF has expanded internationally to include events in Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, San Juan, Madrid and Ibiza.

The life of a superstar electronic musician is not all debauchery and babes.

Moby reveals, in this otherwise pretty boring interview for Suicide Girls radio, that the stories about him having hot tub orgies are false!

Here are five electronic musicians that had great blogs in 2008:

Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails blog was probably the most influential electronic musician’s blog of 2009.

Reznor, more than any mainstream musician, has deftly used Internet media and social networking, and his blog has tied his multi-pronged approach together.

In 2009, Reznor used his blog to tease fans about new projects, highlight NIN media from Flickr and YouTube, release two albums of Creative Commons licensed music, share an insider’s view of one of the biggest concerts of the year and just to share his thoughts about the world.

In 2009, Reznor set an example of how musicians can use new media that will be hard for other artists to match and hard for Reznor, himself, to duplicate.
In 2008, Jean Michel Jarre used his blog aerojarre to offer personal insight into his life and also to talk about highlights of his 2008 tour.

Readers got to see where Jarre went in 2008 and meet the people that Jarre met. Readers got to share Jarre’s excitement about things like trying out a new instrument and the story of how a street musician in Budapest got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to jam with Jarre. 

When people were upset that YouTube was removing Jarre fan videos because of copyright infringement, Jarre made a video response and posted it on his blog, stating that he was sorry about the situation and that he personally approved of the idea of fans sharing their takes on his music. 

Jarre is the oldest electronic musician on this list, but the way he used his blog and new media in 2008 shows that age is no hindrance for artists wanting to make intelligent use of the Internet. 

Moby has been blogging a long time, Of the electronic musicians included in this list, he tends to use his blog in the most personal way.

In 2009, Moby did use his blog to promote his new album and a project that offers free music licenses for indie filmmakers. And he used it to engage his fans with a user-generated video contest. 

But the main point of Moby’s blog is to share his take on the world.

That means Moby’s blog often featured mini-essays on his liberal-leaning concerns, ranging from his work on the board of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function to net neutrality to the environment to the 2008 election. It also offered tiny views into his life, ranging from the movies he like to things that he saw on the street.

Moby’s postings are frequent, chatty, unfiltered and uncapitalized, which complements his artsy everyman personae. 

Whether or not you are a fan of Moby’s music, you can’t ignore the way he’s used blogging and Internet media to express himself and to promote his music. 

David Byrne is not the most obvious choice for this list.

While his solo work and work with Brian Eno in the 80’s was seminal electronic pop, his more recent albums have focused more on traditional song craftsmanship and less on experimentation.

Much of his work, though, is as experimental and electronic as ever. His Playing The Building was an electroacoustic installation that let visitors to play a building as a musical instrument, through the interface of a hacked organ. And his recent colloboration on Julio, a robotic vocalist, challenges our concepts of what is human.

“Like many animals, humans sing for pleasure, for sex, for attention, to express pain, to relieve angst and to join and participate in a social group,” writes Byrne. “All of these urges seem, if not uniquely human, at least not at all machine like. To see machines mimic these aspects of human life, is to watch some part of our imagined souls being appropriated.”

Byrne’s blog offers some of the most interesting and intelligent writing coming from any electronic musician. 

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Propa list without mentioning the journal of Charissa Saverio, aka DJ Rap.

Ever wish that you could get gear tips and insider industry info from an uber-hot superstar DJ/producer/model? 

Then you’ll want to check out Saverio’s Propa Journal. It’s a basic blog and Saverio doesn’t update it very frequently – but when she does, she offers her take on what it takes to succeed as a DJ. 

In her first post of the year, Saverio offered her take on DJ equipment:

Decks: Although I still own the one and only pair of turntables I’ve ever bought, SL-1200’s the Pioneer CDJ-1000 or DVJ-1000 is my weapon of choice. I simply LOVE Pioneer. [yes I love vinyl, no I haven't abandoned it. but you try carrying 20 20lb. crates to Ibiza only to find the crates nicked when you get there!] So CD’s are what I spin.

Mixer: Now, I’m really fussy about this shit. It HAS to be a Pioneer-800 for me. I don’t care what anyone else says, it’s the best. For me the effects, are stellar. The Pioneer-600 sounded a little too woody and muffled, if you like, often there were feedback problems.

Monitors: In my home studio I use the M-Audio BX5’s and the 10-inch sub that goes with it. I find they are incredibly accurate and really translate well to the dancefloor. I also use a pair of NS-10’s which help me with what I call the “car radio mix test.” In other words, if it sounds good in my car, it sounds good anywhere. For my mains, when I’m writing and producing I just got a hold of a pair of VXT-8’s which have a MASSIVE sound.

Headphones: I only ever use Sony-MDRV700DJ’s. They’re solid. And I haven’t gone deaf yet.

In a more recent post, Saverio offers her perspective getting played by DJ’s:

Make sure you print a label on your CD with all the relevant contact info. Pictures of yourself on the CD are a bad idea (I’m not kidding, I get those too) unless of course you look like Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Ryan Reynolds… ok you get the picture!

A note (preferably typed on a letterhead) with a BRIEF explanation of who you are (this is why a small bio is a good idea) and why you think this label is right for your music. That’s right, you have to think about where you feel your music fits… no good sending drum and bass to a house label like Subliminal or Impropa Talent, when you know it needs to go to Propa Talent! lol…

Don’t spend all your time gushing how great you think the label/DJ is.

Ok – that’s my take on five great electronic musician’s blogs of 2008. Let me know what you think in the comments. And, if you know of an electronic musician’s blog that was better than these in 2008, leave a link!

Tapulous has introduced a new version of Tap Tap Revenge, a popular music game for the iPhone, that targets fans of electronica and dance music – the $4.99 Tap Tap Dance (App Store Link).

The Tap Tap Dance soundtrack features:

• Technologic by Daft Punk
• Zdarlight by Digitalism
• Phantom Pt II (Soulwax Remix) by Justice
• Stratosphere by Junkie XL
• Disco Lies (Remix) by Moby
• Midnight Madness by The Chemical Brothers
• Goldrush by Tiesto
• Compressor by Soul Magic Orchestro (Exclusive)
• Where’s Your Head At by Basement Jaxx
• Daylight (Exclusive Morgan Page Remix) by Sunny Levine