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Porcelain: A Memoir

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Porcelain: A Memoir
Moby's face on a black background
Cover to the hardcover edition
AuthorMoby
Audio read byMoby
LanguageEnglish
Subject
GenreMemoir
Set in1990s New York City
PublisherPenguin Press
Publication date
17 May 2016 (2016-05-17)
Publication placeUnited States
Media type
Pages416
ISBN978-1-59420-642-9 (hardcover first edition)
OCLC919858692
782.42166092
Followed byThen It Fell Apart 
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Porcelain: A Memoir is a 2016 memoir by American house musician Moby. Covering his youth in the 1970s until his worldwide success in the late 1990s with Play, the book also discusses the author's spiritual struggles as a Christian, initial avoidance of and eventual recreational drug use,[1] and interest in animal rights and veganism. The book has been met favorably by critics. He had plans for a future volume covering the following decade, which he eventually released in 2019 under the title Then It Fell Apart.[2][3]

Plot

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Chapters are centered around short stories, which Moby modeled after the sort of casual conversations that he would have at a bar, intending each one to end with a defined punch line.[4][2] The book opens in 1976 with the author as a youth living with his mother in Darien and Stratford, Connecticut. After discussing some of his foundational memories of popular music, including Led Zeppelin and disco,[5] the book jumps ahead to 1989, after he has been living in an abandoned factory for two years. He eventually ends up doing regular gigs DJing at New York house clubs such as Limelight and Mars and begins recording his first songs as Voodoo Child. The book follows his personal relationships and recording career as he tours internationally in the mid 1990s and eventually becomes famous with the release of Play in 1999.

Reception

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The book has received positive reviews from critics and authors. Rock critic Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune called the book "exceptional and incisive".[4] The New York Journal of Books review by Paul LaRosa calls Moby a "shrewd, thoughtful, and insightful" author and ends, "This memoir has plenty of charm and if you grew up in the ’90s, this one’s for you. If not, well, it’s not THAT charming."[6]

Music from Porcelain

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Music from Porcelain
Mixtape by
Moby and various artists
Released17 May 2016 (2016-05-17)
RecordedVarious
StudioVarious
Genre
Language
  • English
  • instrumental
LabelLittle Idiot
Because Music
ProducerVarious
CompilerMoby
Moby chronology
Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep.
(2016) 		Music from Porcelain
(2016) 		These Systems Are Failing
(2016)

To coincide with the release of the book, Moby assembled a compilation of songs he recorded during the period the book covers as well as a mixtape of others' music.

Track listing

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Moby music
  1. "Mobility"
  2. "Go!" (woodtick mix)
  3. "Ah Ah"
  4. "Next Is the E"
  5. "Rock the House"
  6. "Thousand"
  7. "Feeling So Real"
  8. "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters"
  9. "Come On Baby"
  10. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver"
  11. "Honey"
  12. "Natural Blues"
  13. "Bodyrock"
  14. "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"
  15. "Porcelain"
More music
  1. Raze – "Break 4 Love"
  2. 808 State – "Pacific State"
  3. A Tribe Called Quest – "Scenario"
  4. Precious – "Definition of a Track"
  5. Jungle Brothers – "I’ll House You"
  6. Audio 2 – "Top Billing"
  7. Aly-us – "Follow Me"
  8. Big Daddy Kane – "Raw"
  9. Darryl McDaniels – "Pause"
  10. Joey Beltram – "Energy Flash"
  11. T.99 – "Anasthesia" (Out of History mix)
  12. Dream Frequency – "Feel So Real"
  13. Jaydee – "Plastic Dreams"
  14. Strafe – "Set It Off"

References

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  1. ^ Connelly, Sherryl (May 7, 2016). "Moby Dishes on Music Stardom, Debauchery and Finding God in Porcelain, a Whale of a Memoir". New York Daily News.
  2. ^ a b Sawyer, Miranda (May 21, 2016). "Moby: 'There Were Bags of Drugs, I Was Having Sex with a Stranger'". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Empire, Kitty (May 21, 2019). "Then It Fell Apart by Moby review – sex, drugs and self-loathing". The Guardian. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Kot, Greg (May 11, 2016). "Moby's Porcelain Memoir Is Exceptional and Incisive". Chicago Tribune.
  5. ^ Leight, Elias (May 17, 2016). "10 Things We Learned from Moby's Hedonistic Memoir About Early DJ Years". Rolling Stone.
  6. ^ LaRosa, Paul (May 16, 2016). "A Book Review by Paul LaRosa: Porcelain: A Memoir". The New York Journal of Books.
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