Moby reveals Last Night, contributes to Southland Tales

Since suddenly Moby has announced a pile of things recently, the best way to sum up his activities seems to be a wide-sweeping, all-purpose Moby update. First, and perhaps most important to his fans, is that Moby let slip the name of his next album, Last Night to NME. Whittled down from 400 tracks, the album will be Moby's first full-length album since 2005's Hotel. According to the bald one himself, "It's much more electronic and dance-oriented than my last three records," and includes, "some techno songs that sound like buildings falling down." Well, cool. So long as those falling buildings have a sweet bass line, that could be a huge hit at the clubs next year.

Clubs including the Hiro Ballroom in NYC where Moby is hosting his own club nights. Moby will be DJing there himself on these evenings, dubbed "Degenerates," and will be joined this Thursday for the inagural event by The Juan MacLean, Stretch Armstrong and Alex Frankel. "When I was growing up in Manhattan in the early 80's you could go dancing anywhere: area, fallout shelter, danceteria, etc.," Moby writes on his website. "Now in 2007 your options for a degenerate night out dancing in Manhattan are more limited. with this in mind, I wanted to start a fun and dirty and eclectic night of dance music, called 'Degenerates.' Hopefully on the night people will somehow be inspired by the name."

For those wondering what will be happening to 380 of those prospective tracks Moby was working on, we've got a bit of a hunch. He just released the "Moby Gratis" program, where filmmakers can use his tracks for free on any non-profit or non-commercial film. Or, should they need them for a low budget independent feature, he's offering cheap licenses with the profits donated to charity. Anyone involved in making independent film can tell you how much of a pain music licensing can be, so it's great to see an artist supporting other art forms like this.

But that's not the only way that Moby's been working with the world of film lately. In fact, the soon-to-be-actually-released Southland Tales will feature a score by the eletronica mastermind. He'll also be speaking at the South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival at a talk called, suitably enough, "A Conversation with Moby," about his work on films (e.g. the Bourne franchise and Michael Mann movies), and probably the gratis project as well.

Whew, that's a lot. But the Moby that this reporter's been listening to most, though, has been linked to another visual art form. The Bioshock EP was a tie-in with the collector's edition version of the game, featuring remixes of three tracks from the game by Moby and Oscar the Punk. Ok, not exactly breaking news like the rest, but a remix of Billie Holiday by Moby is something that fans shouldn't miss out on. It should help tide you over until spring 2008 when his next real album hits the shelves.

Related links:
MobyGratis.com
Moby.com
Paste's review of Hotel

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