Electronic-pop polymath Moby returns with his 15th album, Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt on March 2 (via Mute Records). He recently teased the record with the nocturnal soul groover "Like a Motherless Child," but he provides a more panoramic view of what to expect through his playlist of the albums key influences. Judging from the tracklist, brace yourself for a record that slides along the continuum spanning African proto-disco (Manu Dibangos "Soul Makossa"), cinematic 70s funk (Gil Scott-Heron, Baby Huey), rhythmic post-punk (ESG, Liquid Liquid, Talking Heads), brooding New Wave (Simple Minds), and Ethio-jazz (Mulatu Astatke), with the ghost of the Thin White Duke wafting through the proceedings. But independent of its source album, the playlist also doubles as Mobys fantasy setlist had he been old enough to DJ at Danceteria circa 1981.
