Celebrate Moby’s Birthday With This Performance of Play Hits and Johnny Cash Covers

Moby is one of the most pivotal figures in electronic dance music, and he turns 54 years old today (Sept. 11). Even though he drew criticism from techno diehards, his 1999 album Play brought his postmodern electronica to the masses, especially abroad. Play highlights like “Porcelain” have over 100 million Spotify streams, while “Natural Blues” and “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad” have surpassed the 50 million mark.

In December of 2011, Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall) performed at the second annual Moogfest in Asheville, N.C., where he also taped a live session for Daytrotter at Echo Mountain studio. Moby performed two Johnny Cash covers (“Will The Circle Be Unbroken” and “Ring of Fire”), acoustic versions of Play’s “Porcelain” and “Natural Blues” and other cuts from 1996’s Animal Rights and 2006’s Hotel.

Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller perfectly captures the raw, rootsy quality of this Moby session:

Moby sounds as if he’s been to the hallowed crossroads of Robert Johnson and visited the gas station in West Virginia where it was realized that Hank Williams was dead in the back of his Cadillac. He sounds like he’s got a dozen fires burning within, smoking him out.

Listen to Moby’s 2011 Daytrotter session below, and you can download the full session via NoiseTrade here.