Upon finishing the astonishing Move EP, Moby set his sights on a full-length album, his first for a major label (Elektra). Having promised its release in the spring of 1994 (roughly six months after Move's release), he began working on tracks. The perfectionist in him began putting in more and more time, though, and so the first thing we the general public heard was a song called Hymn. "Song" might not be accurate, of course, since (see the discography above) there are about 750 mixes of it available, not to mention the one that finally made the album.
Now I have to make an admission here: when I saw the import upon its release I immediately asked to hear it. Unfortunately I picked the "alt.quiet.version", which as you probably knew is 34 minutes of subsonic bass and muted atmosphere. So I was rather disappointed, since Moby was this dance guy whose previous music I had loved so much -- you certainly couldn't dance to THIS. So I forgot all about Hymn until a year later, when I caught wind that Everything is Wrong was to be released. I bought the album and loved it (that's another review) and began going back and buying the remixes for the various songs on the album. I bought both the "This Is My Dream" and "alt.quiet" versions, took them home and was blown away.
Put simply, Hymn (This is My Dream) is a whole new kind of music for Moby: it is more traditionally a "song" than most of his earlier output (gorgeous structure), and it is also a prime example of him at his nakedly emotional best. What gets me about Moby -- what I come back to again & again, what I listen to him so much for -- is that sense of a man baring his soul... with synthesizers and sequencers and drum machines and (in this case) sampled choirs. It's beautiful. It sounds like mass in paradise. (And I don't even go to church.) It makes me believe. At the very least, it makes me understand that Moby believes. And while I'm not a techhead by any stretch of the imagination, my ears tell me that he's using very angular-sounding strings (the type that are often used in "stab" patterns) but playing them melodically, which adds a nervous, keening edge to the music. When he throws in a spoken "This is my dream" every so often, he's confirming what we already suspect from listening: he's making an early-morning elegy, for when the Saturday night rave ends and the sun comes up and suddenly the stained glass windows have light flowing through them. One form of worship into another. (I just realized that you could look at this song, this whole EP, as the Sunday morning sunrise after the dark Saturday night of Move. Just a thought, which is why I write reviews.)
You all know the "House of Suffering" mix of All That I Need is to Be Loved, and you all have your own opinions of it, so I won't say a lot other than I think the guitars capture the turmoil of the lyric even better than the synths of the "MV" one do. And Laurent Garnier's "Wake Up" mix of Hymn is beautiful, if inconclusive (right in line with his spinning style -- I recently had the pleasure to hear him at the Showbox Theater in Seattle; wonderful). But what I'm getting to here is the "European Edit", which is IMHO the absolute single greatest piece of music Moby has ever made. (Yet.)
You can dance to (some of) it, but it's not exactly meant to be danced to: it's a journey. Now usually when I hear a description like "it's a journey" attached to a piece of music I run for the hills, but this justifies it absolutely. Doing away with the spoken bits from "This is My Dream", the beat (when it comes in two mintues into the track) sounds more like a vibrating tympani, and rightly so, because this is one of the most blatantly orchestral pieces in the Moby catalog. What results is a grand, sweeping sound, like the soundtrack to a biblical storm. (My superlatives are a little much sometimes, but I swear that's what I'm hearing.) For six minutes he skies go red, everything gets bigger and more awe-inspiring, the dawn breaks...and then the sun comes up. "DAdadadadadadada DAdadadadadadada DAHdadadadadadada DAHdadadadadadada"...it's a piano! A beautiful, simple, eminently moving piano playing a rather simple line, repeated, with strings from earlier in the track reprised on top, finally with the piano falling out and the strings fading slowly.
With Hymn (European Edit), Moby, in a single track, put together everything he had been reaching for, everything he'd aspired to with both his dance music and his ambient excursions. It sums up his music up perfectly: this is what I am, and this is where I'm going. It is a stunning, awesome statement. And of course it would have upended Everything Is Wrong had he included this particular cut: it contains the breadth of vision necessary to spawn an album of that magnitude, but unless he'd cut God Moving Over the Face of the Waters and When It's Cold I'd Like to Die and replaced them with this there's no way it could have fit comfortably on that album. But it fits perfectly on this 4-track EP that stands tall with anything else he has ever recorded.
Oh, and that "alt.quiet.version"? It's beautiful. If you like that kind of stuff go get it. :-)
| Artist | Title | Format | Rating[out of 10] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moby | "Hymn" | CD Single | 8.5 |
| It's very hard to put into text the emotion that this song carries. A fusion of strings, choir-like vocals, beats, and keyboards, Moby composes (and I do mean that in every sense of the word) a song that is a welter of emotion. The "This Is My Dream" version is the more danceable mix on the CD, while the "European" edit is mellower, but no less amazing. This disc also debuted the now legendary "House Of Suffering" mix of All That I Need Is To Be Loved, showing that whether Moby picks up a guitar or a keyboard, he's able to craft a song that's most likely going to be full of manic energy and emotion. The only downer on this disc is the remix by Laurent Garnier.... compared to the other two versions, it's just not on par. An import that's definitley worth the effort to order. | |||
| Artist | Title | Format | Rating[out of 10] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moby | "Hymn (alt.quiet.version)" | CD Single | 9 |
| Only one track on this CD. And with reason, it's over a half-hour long. Turn off all the lights, draw the blinds, make sure no one else is at home, and put this on. I'm amazed at the persistence of vision that was required to make a song that is this long, and so amazingly intricate. If you're looking for a dance music release, look elsewhere. If you're looking to tap into Moby's well of emotion, pick up this import disc. | |||
HYMN promo
US 12" w/l promo, Elektra, ED 5695
NOTE: These are great tracks! It's a shame Elektra didn't
release a _Hymn_ single in the US. BTW, does anybody
know if there was a US promo CD?
A1 5:58 Hymn (Menacing Mix)
A2 7:21 Hymn (Dirty Hypo Mix)
B1 5:57 Hymn (Lucky Orgasm Mix)
B2 7:08 Hymn (I Believe)
HYMN promo [1994]
UK 12" promo, Mute, PL12MUTE161
A 8:43 Hymn (Laurent's Wake Up Mix) [Laurent Garnier]
B1 7:02 Hymn (European Mix)
B2 7:21 Hymn (Dirty Hypo)
HYMN [1994]
UK 12", Mute, 12MUTE161
A1 4:41 Hymn (This Is My Dream Extended Mix)
A2 8:43 Hymn (Laurent's Wake Up) [Laurent Garnier]
B1 5:49 Hymn (Upriver)
B2 7:21 Hymn (Dirty Hypo)
HYMN [1994]
UK limited edition 12", Mute, L12MUTE161
A1 5:57 Hymn (Menacing)
A2 7:02 Hymn (European Mix)
B1 5:57 Hymn (Lucky Orgasm)
B2 7:08 Hymn (I Believe)
HYMN {#1} (24:10) [1994]
UK CD, Mute, CDMUTE161
BE CD, Mute/Indisc, SABAM 2100955
1 3:45 Hymn (This Is My Dream)
2 2:45 All That I Need Is To Be Loved (H.O.S. Mix)
3 8:57 Hymn (European Edit)
4 8:43 Hymn (Laurent's Wake Up) [Laurent Garnier]
HYMN.ALT.QUIET.VERSION {#2} (33:43) [1994]
UK CD, Mute, LCDMUTE161
CD, Mute/Intercord, MUTE INT 826.632 (LCDMUTE 161)
NOTE: This a very powerful, prayerful ambient track.
1 33:45 Hymn.alt.quiet.version
HYMN (27:29) [1994]
GE CD, Mute/Intercord, MUTE INT 826.630 (CDMUTE161)
1 3:43 Hymn (This Is My Dream 7" Version)
2 8:56 Hymn (European Edit)
3 8:43 Hymn (Laurent's Wake Up) [Laurent Garnier]
4 6:03 Hymn (Lucky Orgasm)
HYMN (33:25) [1994]
GE CD, Mute/Intercord, MUTE INT 826.631 (MUTE161)
NOTE: These excellent mixes are not available on the regular
UK CD single. If you like _Hymn_, try to find this!
1 7:02 Hymn (European Mix)
2 5:57 Hymn (Menacing)
3 7:08 Hymn (I Believe)
4 7:21 Hymn (Dirty Hypo)
5 5:49 Hymn (Upriver)