Moby

Fire up a few seconds of "Go" and most retired ravers will spontaneously combust. Or, at the very least, dance awkwardly, their memories tapped by the track's throbbing techno beat and sweeping Twin Peaks sample. The same club-anthem status applies to the rabid head-rush of "Feeling So Real", but Moby's also a master of ambience ("Hymn" and "God Moving Over The Face of the Waters") and — as Play would prove to millions — a bluesy middle ground between the DJ booth and long-lost field recordings.

Did we mention that Moby's also an aspiring film composer and recovering punk rocker? Well, we'll get to that in our Next Steps.

Moby's classic 1997 compilation, I Like to Score, is exactly what the title suggests: a collection of songs written with a movie in mind. This might be surprising given the bald one's start as the rampaging conductor of rave standards like "Barracuda", "Next Is the e", and "Voodoo Child". At least until you realize that Moby's an ex-punk rocker who's able to pull off just about anything, including a collaboration with Public Enemy (a bombastic "MKLVFKWR").

The pleasant surprises continue in our Deep Cuts, which feature a couple of top-notch remixes.

One of the ways Moby continues to reinvent himself — aside from the constant creative shifts of his massive back catalogue, of course — is through his remixes. He treats "Souvenir" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark with a perfectly judged lightness of touch that enhances the free spirit of the original, while the Manhattan Clique version of "In My Heart" layers on extra levels on the dance-floor euphoria. He's also full of invention in the covers department: check out his buzzsaw guitar version of Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades".

While it may be hard to believe that Moby's been around since the late '80s — what with the career-eclipsing sales of 1999's Play — it'll take only one spin of our playlist to appreciate the considerable growth that's characterized his career. In fact, you might even call him a living legend of electronic music, beginning with his pre-Play days and the boundless genre-jumping of the critically acclaimed Everything Is Wrong, considered one of the most important albums of the '90s. As for what's happened in the decade since Moby's breakthrough, he's attempted everything from old-school hip-hop to melancholic pop, leaving listeners asking, "What can't this chap do?"