Rock: Way to go if giving Moby the big flick

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Moby, that master of Zen electro-pop, blew through town last week repeating his mantras. The one that gets us every time is: "I just want to make music that can act as a soundtrack to people's lives."

Not only does that raise a Zen question - if your life is a movie, can you hear what's on the soundtrack? Because actors don't, do they? - it also causes another worry. Do you want Moby's dull new album acting as a soundtrack to your waking hours, especially when that supposed personal backing track mutates into a designer ad jingle and tries to sell you stuff you can't afford?

Sorry for the digression. The reason for mentioning him is here are two albums that may fit the bill: music for people disappointed by Moby's new album.

Private Press might be the second solo album from cult figure DJ Shadow - Californian Josh Davis, who with Mo'Wax label boss James Lavelle released a forgettable effort under the UNKLE moniker - but it's nothing to be afraid of.

It's a sample-powered downbeat affair, a fine example of hip-hop as melancholy mood music.

It starts out with a track that was part of the soundtrack to somebody's life - a scratchy old recorded letter from a mother to a family member which sounds oddly foreboding as an intro to the 11 tracks.

Along the way it rifles through an attic of found sounds, vocals and grooves building into something that never stays in the same place for long.

While Shadow fires up his turntable scratching on the likes of the relatively frenetic Walkie Talkie, overall this tends towards the hazy.

Some of the voices which emerged from the fog can be an acquired taste. The sampled vocal talking about the joy-of-mix-tapes on Right Thing/GDMFSOB swerves this briefly into Fatboy Slim territory and the monologue on Mashin' On the Motorway creates a worrying new genre - boy racer rap.

But when contrasted with the likes of the eerie Giving Up the Ghost, the ska-inflections of the closing You Can't Go Home Again, or the sci-fi dub-stutter of Monosylabik, Private Press turns into something mind-boggling. It comes with plenty of chilled moments, but never dull ones.

Like Shadow's UNKLE album Psyence Fiction, the second offering from Faultline - London musician-producer David Kosten - relies for much of its impact on its famous friend voices. Unlike UNKLE, it works.

That's mainly because the tracks, which feature Coldplay's Chris Martin, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, newcomer Jacob Golden, and REM's Michael Stipe, rise above their guest-spot status into electro-ballad gems.

That's especially true of Martin on his two tracks, particularly the first Where is My Boy, a gutsy, bittersweet, affecting number which captures Martin's voice in a more intimate light than anything his band has done. He also figures on the closing and title track - a quieter number which suggests what might happen to Coldplay if a) their musical gear got stolen and b) they got Brian Eno as producer.

Elsewhere, Coyne turns into a one-man Beach Boys choir on The Colossal Gray Sunshine, and Stipe croons 60s folk tune Greenfields (originally by The Brothers Four) over a shimmering backing.

In between comes Kosten's equally elegant mix of sometimes strenuous slow beats, cascading electronics and disarming sonic weirdness.

It's a down-in-the-mouth affair you can only hope is the soundtrack to someone else's life - but it's a great album.

DJ SHADOW (Herald rating: * * * * )

The Private Press

(Island)


FAULTLINE (Herald rating: * * * * )

Your Love Means Everything

(Blanco Y Negro)