Destroyed Remixed is an album that demands your time. Spanning 23 tracks across two-hour-long continuous mixes, even a singular pause dismantles Moby‘s tightly crafted arrangements. The break between discs serves as intermission–a time to share one’s thoughts, then prepare for the work’s second part. The album’s two sections, Big Room and Small Room, seamlessly showcase the number of directions producers have taken Destroyed, but Moby’s minimal ambient aesthetic tests anyone’s ability to listen through conclusion.
Big Room is Destroyed‘s logical leap from the bedroom to the club. The reworks avoid the context associated with the original and turn Moby’s moody melodies into a series of progressive house and trance tracks. The tempo is set with the Holy Ghost! remix of “Blue Moon”, which trades the original’s SONAR synths for a more refined chillwave vibe. The Arno Cost rework of “Lie Down in Darkness” pushes the track to an uplifting house intensity, completing the shift from a desolate, nighttime production to energizing live mix status.
Mid-mix, Big Room settles into a melodic-techno vibe courtesy of reworks by System Divine (“The Low Hum”), Sasha (“Victoria Lucas”), and Paul van Dyk (“Lay Down in Darkness”). Each producer retains the emotions of the original track but creates a pulsating momentum–which Moby failed to do on the original cuts–by pushing the tempo and adding otherworldly effects.
The pace slows, and experimentation is emphasized during Small Room. As the name suggests, Photek’s remix of “Lie Down in Darkess” and Yeasayer’s 8-bit-infused take on “The Day” are more suited for underground hangouts than massive international dance clubs. Of course, David Lynch pushes to the surreal, with a haunting rework of the bluesy “The Poison Tree”.
Small Room leads to the epic conclusion of “All Sides Gone”. At 30 minutes, the new track wraps you in its minimal chordal comfort but never moves toward any destination–a problem that continues to follow Moby through the plateau of his career. As a DJ, Moby crafts a mesmerizing tracklist on the remix LP, but he almost loses the audience with his own self-indulgent production style.
Essential Tracks: “The Low Hum” (System Divine Remix), “Lie Down in Darkness” (Photek Remix), and “The Day” (Yeasayer Remix)