Moby draws a bold line straight from the Mississippi Delta to the South Bronx, connecting the dots of black music in a search for the roots of his electronic craft. In the early '90s, aficionados realized that electronic music reconciled American hip hop with English acid house, while drawing from elements as diverse as Jamaican dub and German disco. But supposedly it had nothing to do with blues and soul and rock 'n' roll.
American music includes disco, rap, techno and house alongside older idioms.
On his cunningly crafted CD, the restless techno composer cleverly constructs a bridge between electronic dance music and the black Southern styles that form the basis of most American rock and pop. Within a few years of his historic sessions for Alan Lomax, Muddy Waters had moved from the Stovall, Miss., cotton plantation to Chicago, one man among millions to make the great black migration north. Working the day shift and making music by night, Waters learned to amplify his mesmerizing blues to make them heard above the din of the city. There, playing the taprooms of Chicago's South Side, he set the stage for the 40- year primacy of the electric guitar and the hegemony of rock. Oddly enough, this is where Moby comes in.