In 2002, Fatboy Slim broke records when 250,000 people turned up for his free rave on Brighton’s seafront. 24 years later, four day festival ‘on the beach’ continues the tradition, proving the enduring pull of dance music and Britain's place in it. Moby closed on Sunday with timeless classics from the scene's heyday, but attempts to incorporate newer EDM styles fell flat.
A Californian, Moby made sure to recognise the UK’s stamp on dance music: “you invented rave culture' he tells the crowd, before naming some of his biggest influences Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfield. It was here after all that embraced his sound long before his American counterparts with his first release Go, a free party staple.
Songs from his definitive album Play, made up the most of the setlist. Live singers had the intimidating job of bringing to life the samples that made it so pioneering at the time: ranging from blues icon Bessie Jones in Honey to gospel vocals from the Davis sisters during In this World.
Nadia Duggan and India Carney nearly did them justice, but ultimately they couldn't quite live up to the recorded versions. Moby's vocals on the other hand unsurprisingly sounded just like the real deal.
More detrimental to the originals though were the added euro trance style breakdowns to some songs. Whether an attempt to embrace newer genres or simply to give people on an E something more up tempo to jostle about, it had the opposite effect. The remixes felt more dated and both young and old heads in the crows know just how danceable they are unadulterated.
An acoustic cover of David Bowie’s Heroes started a more emotional section of the evening, scaling the hedonism down to a suitable level for Jane Goodall’s video tribute to animal rights. A moving montage of farm animals then accompanied Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?. It was an expected interlude given Moby’s lifelong commitment to a cause he has tattooed across his arms.
Finishing with a truly unbeatable trifecta of Porcelain, Natural Blues and Feeling so Real, it’s needless to say that Moby is part of the fabric of electronic music as we know it today. Hearing these songs live in any form is a privilege, but at a festival built on Britain's rave legacy, he also proved that some things are better left sacred.
