Moby – Destroyed Remixed

I haven't followed much of Moby's post-2000 career, but when I saw DESTROYED REMIX, I was curious enough to pick it up. And it's not a bad package overall, despite some questionable segues between tracks on the Big Room disc. The Holy Ghost!'s take on "Blue Moon" sounds as if it's channeling Peter Hook, though the dissonance as it leads into Arno Cost's more commercial mix of "Lie Down In Darkness" is a bit jarring. But John Lord Fonda's mix of "Sevastopol" is deper and more soothing, while maintaining the beats. The electro and string of Bassjackers' mix of "Lie Down In Darkness" bring the energy back up, and Ferry Corsten is there with "After" to keep it up. But it's Sasha who really delivers the goods with "Victoria Lucas," a humming, hypnotic track. Paul Van Dyk works his usual trance magic on "Lie Down In Darkness," while Gregor Tresher gives that same track a more spare, twinkling feel. Kleerup lets loose the electro breaks on "The Right Thing," which leads (awkwardly again) into the growling beats of Tommy Trash's version of "After." The Small Room disc starts promisingly enough with a Photek's dark throbbing take on "Lie Down in Darkness" (Ben Hoo delivers a more swirling version later) which switches uncomfortably into Yeasayer's blip and drone "The Day." The deep funk of The Dø's "The Right Thing" hits just right spot, while David Lynch offers a stripped-down version on "The Poison Tree." Moby himself offers the meditative "Rockets" and the blissful "Stella Maris" before "All Sides Gone" drifts out. All in all, I think the second disc shows somewhat more personality, though the first disc is obviously set at getting the feet moving. Still, this is destruction you can get behind.

I was a bit disappointed when I found my preordered copy of this album in the mail, since the packaging is a bit dull. After the various versions of the original "Destroyed" album had featured such beautifully designed cover art, I was expecting to see another bulk of Moby's travel photos on this one, but there isn't even a booklet or song credits featured on the cover. So there isn't much reason to buy this instead of the version, which features additional full length mixes of all the tracks included.

Anyway, apart from the packaging, this album is kind of a mixed affair music-wise. The division into a dance-friendlier, more commercial "Big Room" disc and an experimental "Small Room" disc for home listening and chill-out makes sense and the mix is executed well, even though the second disc is not really mixed - there is no beatmatching, just seguing, but that is OK for this kind of music.

Most of the mixes have been available before on the singles, but are released in physical form for the first time. The only new additions are the mixes by Holy Ghost! and System Divine (David Lynch's version of "The Poison Tree" had until then only been released on a limited edition 12") plus the new track "All Sides Gone".

The "Big Room" mix starts of well with Holy Ghost's synthpop take on "Blue Moon", which sounds a lot like New Order's "True Faith". The next track though is the first in a series of teeth grinding moments: Arno Cost's mix of "Lie Down In Darkness" is pure generic commercial trance that reminds us why this style of music has been dead for more than a decade now. The same goes for Paul Van Dyk's and Basto!'s contributions. The Basto! mix of "The Day" is indeed the lowest point on the whole album - this song about drug addiction and impending death is set to a cheesy, uplifting melody, making the whole mix sound like a very, very bad joke.

All the other mixes on the first CD range between decent and rather good, but all in all, the whole mix, which moves between trance and "electro house", doesn't really set off. The standout moments come from John Lord Fonda and Sasha, who deliver hypnotic, enhanced versions of "Sevastopol" and "Victoria Lucas", while staying close to the original versions, and Kleerup, who transforms "The Right Thing" into a hybrid between breakbeat and progressive house.

Disc 2, "Small Room", stays in the downtempo area and is a nice CD to play in the background while relaxing. The tracks that stand out are Yeasayer's quirky synthpop / neo-new wave take on "The Day" and David Lynch's dark, slowly stomping "The Poison Tree" remake. I don't understand though why "Rockets", "The Broken Places" and "Stella Maris" are included in their original, unremixed album versions. There were enough remixes on the singles that would have fit the "Small Room" formula and could have been included instead, such as the Ben Hoo mix of "Lie Down In Darkness", the J.Viewz mix of "The Day" or the iamamiwhoami remix of "After".

Still, the nicest thing about the second disc is the inclusion of "All Sides Gone", a 30+ minute repetitive ambient track that takes one back to old Moby Ambient releases such as "Underwater" or "Little Idiot", where he would just take a simple melody and let it go on and on forever.

So all in all, I'd recommend this CD really only for Moby fans, but everyone else should rather get the MP3 version and pick out the mixes they like, because chances are you won't like everything on this release.