Review Summary: A late evening relaxing listen.
Ambient music was always an essential part of Moby’s creative output. Although he became renowned mainly for his techno/dance music hits, each full length retreated at some point into an introspective corner, featuring melancholic, late night type instrumental pieces. During the last decade, the respective genre took a more prominent role in his catalog, as he would usually drop an ambient album in between main projects. Whether piano, guitar or synth based, Moby learned early in his career to focus on the tones and feelings he wanted to transmit to the listener. Despite being compiled and released by his then record label, Instinct, his 1993 thematically named LP helped introduce this side to his fans early on.
Future Quiet, however, is miles away from that era sonically, like most of his current work.
This is the first time Moby actively promotes an ambient release and to support it, he added a few reworked versions of previously available tunes. The most popular of them is “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die”, the 1995 collaboration with Mimi Goese, which more recently was featured in various Stranger Things seasons. He re-recorded the song with Jacob Lusk, who has a beautiful voice too. The resulting version sounds pristine, still, it doesn’t surpass the less produced, harsher (in this context) vibe of the original. Nevertheless, Lusk did a fine job evoking the lyrics’ delicate yet desolate sentiments. Meanwhile, “Estrella del Mar” is a reworked version of “Stella Maris” off 2011’s
Destroyed. Shedding part of the haunting, nocturnal atmosphere of the original, the variant here feels more settled, the piano chords offering it a chamber music touch. A similar sonic process was applied to “Precious Mind” from his previous LP,
Always Centered at Night, although the initial version is just as good, if not better overall. A more representative single for
Future Quiet is “This Was Never Meant for Us”, the only moment here where Moby takes the lead vocals. His discreet voice fits the melancholic piano leads and violins around them.
The majority of
Future Quiet retreats into piano-meets-strings territory, focusing on an often nostalgic, but ultimately relaxing listen. “Mott St 1992” is the only track which opts for a more complex arrangement. At times, augmented by a trip hop beat, the synthesizers and bass line enrich the tune, turning it into a more familiar chill out number you would hear on a regular Moby LP. The rest are mostly solo piano ditties, where, as the title implies, silence plays an essential role in the songwriting. “Ruhe” & “Mono No Aware” come across as classical type cuts, whereas “Le Vide” brings out some immersive ambient pads to accompany the main note progression. Moreover, the sparseness of “Tallinn” and “The Opposite of Fear” could as well represent the hypnagogic state, as the fade in and outs create a rather hallucinatory effect. Overall, the album achieves its goal, unfolding a soulful listen with just about enough songs with vocals to keep you attentive throughout as well. It is also a nice change of pace for those who follow Moby’s more recent releases, but worth checking for anyone who is into ambient music too.
