Moby - Ambient (1993)

Posted By: Designol

Date: Nov. 10, 2024

Like so much of Moby's earliest work, this isn't so much an album as a compilation via his original label, Instinct. Ambient influences in techno were all the rage in 1993 in terms of press and coverage (though jungle would swiftly eclipse both it and the progressive house genre), so it's no surprise Instinct wanted some of that action, right down to the says-it-all title. Motivations aside, Ambient is an enjoyable collection of experiments; if Aphex Twin's monumental Selected Ambient Works releases eclipse it in terms of both quality and sheer inventiveness, Moby's own efforts in the field are often quite pleasing. Those familiar with such later efforts as "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" and "The Rain Falls and rhe Sky Shudders" can find their partial roots here, though the compositions are generally more formal and less-immediately noteworthy than what came next. Songs like the piano/string synth "J Breas" and the even more self-descriptive "Piano & String" are agreeably moody and pretty, but not particularly noteworthy beyond that. More entrancing efforts can be found with "Myopia" and its bubbling swells of liquid bass, the quietly threatening drones and flanged rhythms on "Bad Days," and the high-pitched squeaks and tones that make up the rising-and-falling loops on the brief, barely minute-long "Sound." "My Beautiful Blue Sky" starts the collection on the best note possible, a haunting cascade of orchestration leading into a non-4/4 tribal beat that could easily rank with prime Future Sound of London. More than a few cuts use beats in a more immediate if still understated way, though instead of progressive house's often bathetic shrugs, the likes of "Heaven" and the extremely low-key groove "House of Blue Leaves" sparkle with a crisp, bright energy, making for a useful contrast to the gentler washes.

Review by Ned Raggett, Allmusic.com

Moby at Allmusic
Moby at Wiki

Tracklist:

01. My Beautiful Blue Sky (05:20)
02. Heaven (08:14)
03. Tongues (05:37)
04. J Breas (02:45)
05. Myopia (04:46)
06. House of Blue Leaves (06:21)
07. Bad Days (02:25)
08. Piano & String (01:34)
09. Sound (01:09)
10. Dog (07:32)
11. 80 (02:05)
12. Lean On Me (03:52)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 11. February 2013, 16:45

Moby / Ambient

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-224BB Adapter: 4 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\FLAC\FLAC frontend.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.33 | 5:20.45 | 33 | 24077
2 | 5:21.03 | 8:16.17 | 24078 | 61294
3 | 13:37.20 | 5:37.63 | 61295 | 86632
4 | 19:15.08 | 2:47.05 | 86633 | 99162
5 | 22:02.13 | 4:46.50 | 99163 | 120662
6 | 26:48.63 | 6:21.20 | 120663 | 149257
7 | 33:10.08 | 2:27.20 | 149258 | 160302
8 | 35:37.28 | 1:35.45 | 160303 | 167472
9 | 37:12.73 | 1:11.07 | 167473 | 172804
10 | 38:24.05 | 7:35.18 | 172805 | 206947
11 | 45:59.23 | 2:05.72 | 206948 | 216394
12 | 48:05.20 | 3:52.65 | 216395 | 233859

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\Ambient (ATLASCD 002) (1993)\Moby - Ambient.wav

Peak level 94.5 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 4BCC2F0B
Copy CRC 4BCC2F0B
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [388091E8] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [CCEDDAD5] (AR v1)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [8DA1669E] (AR v1)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [59438108] (AR v1)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [3E765A8A] (AR v1)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [20A4017F] (AR v1)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [191F87EA] (AR v1)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [94C273C9] (AR v1)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [3B7A30EF] (AR v1)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [9F0EDBB4] (AR v1)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [F78C0510] (AR v1)
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [B68064B1] (AR v1)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum DF5C3E8F7CF46EC4782ECDA690D3C5230B1A997E3295412F137E1E7A4AC77B4D ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-05-11 15:20:12

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Moby / Ambient
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 -0.52 dB -13.94 dB 5:21 01-My beautiful blue sky
DR9 -1.31 dB -11.49 dB 8:16 02-Heaven
DR13 -0.52 dB -14.92 dB 5:38 03-Tongues
DR12 -1.82 dB -16.06 dB 2:47 04-J Breas
DR8 -0.52 dB -9.62 dB 4:47 05-Myopia
DR14 -0.88 dB -16.03 dB 6:21 06-House of blue leaves
DR11 -0.52 dB -13.70 dB 2:27 07-Bad days
DR14 -0.52 dB -17.22 dB 1:36 08-Piano & string
DR8 -0.49 dB -12.06 dB 1:11 09-Sound
DR12 -0.52 dB -13.61 dB 7:35 10-Dog
DR6 -2.79 dB -11.92 dB 2:06 11-80
DR8 -6.47 dB -17.02 dB 3:53 12-Lean on me
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR10

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 665 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser

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