Moby Shares Track and Video “Should Sleep” with J.P. Bimeni

On Wednesday, acclaimed New York City-based electronic musician, producer and activist Moby shared healing, soulful track and video “Should Sleep” with J.P. Bimeni, which is out everywhere now via his brand new label Always Centered At Night. The blissful single pays homage to the 1980s underground dance music scene that took New York City – and the world – by storm. The uncompromising nature of the song doesn’t bend for any algorithm. With emotion as the sole guide for every element of creation, the funky soul of the track seeks out the same ecstatic, healing and deeply grateful feeling that only music, dance and community can make when combined.

Out today, “Should Sleep” embodies the distinct carefree joy that comes with being on a dance floor surrounded by strangers after midnight. Setting the scene of the track’s origin, Moby recalls, “After disco died in the late ’70s, and before house music took the world by storm in the late ’80s, New York was home to an underground dance music scene that was curated and maintained by revered DJs like Larry Levan and David Mancuso. As a punk rocker in the early ’80s, I went out to clubs like Great Gildersleeves and the Ritz to see bands like Black Flag and Bad Brains.” Eventually, Moby found himself discovering new, hidden underground clubs but like the Fallout Shelter, Am/Pm, The Loft, and Paradise Garage, where he was exposed to underground dance music like ESG, Lolleata Holloway, the Peech Boys, People’s Choice, Cheryl Lynn, Manu Dibango, and countless others.

These sounds laid the foundation for the latest work, a track that Moby says transcends one’s background and identity, adding it’s “100% a tribute and an homage to that scene, when Larry Levan and David Mancuso played iconic tracks by loose joints and brass construction and the Peech Boys to an ecstatic audience of straight, gay, Black, white, Asian people, all joined in building nightly churches out of music and sweat.” Moby adds the track, “makes me feel like I’m on the dance floor at David Mancuso’s loft celebrating at midnight with joyful strangers.”

London-based vocalist J.P. Bimeni couldn’t be more thrilled to team up with Moby. Bimeni shares, “With music, I discover more and more that it is permeated with a good kind of magic in so many layers. Music brims with enchanted tentacles through time and space, and to the point, it illustrates this collaboration with Moby–in the music and with the music. It is surreal for me, as I think about the journey I am on, have been on and am now working with Moby (internal scream, over the moon).” With “Should Sleep,” Bimeni adds, “I feel that through this work, there’s simple wisdom, warmth, healing, uplift, breath and steadfastness.”

The track’s accompanying video, directed by Moby and Mike Formanski, shows both J.P. Bimeni and Moby in their elements and happy places: Moby in his home studio, playing a myriad of instruments with his dog pal bagel close by, and J.P. in New Orleans, surrounded by nature as he sings and dances. Like the song, the video was also created independently in two locations, yet it comes together as one, cohesive and vibrant unit.

Watch “Should Sleep” (Official Music Video)

Moby is a multi-platinum-selling, multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, author, and animal rights activist. He has been a vegan and vegan activist for 35 years. He has recently released–and given away for free–his directorial debut Punk Rock Vegan Movie, a passionate and stylistically idiosyncratic look at the ongoing relationship between the worlds of punk rock and animal rights. It includes interviews with some of the biggest names in punk and rock history. Last year, Moby launched his new record label Always Centered at Night, with the aim of doing something uncompromising–to make music that is emotional, atmospheric, and potentially beautiful, showcasing voices from across the world. Since its inception it has featured collaborations with Gaidaa (transit), José James (ache for), Akemi Fox (fall back), serpentwithfeet (on air) and Aynzli Jones (medusa), with collective streams of over 15M across platforms.

Out everywhere now, “Should Sleep,” by Moby and J.P. Bimeni is a mesmerizing groove that recalls the boundless bliss and timeless dance floors of 1980s New York City clubs. The track is just the latest to land on Moby’s own label, Always Centered At Night, with much more in store. Keep up with Moby and the unparalleled label on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s been a stellar debut year for Always Centered at Night, with collective streams hitting 15M across platforms. Moby aims to do something uncompromising – to make music that is emotional, atmospheric, and potentially beautiful, showcasing voices from across the world. With this ethos, the label brought us its debut release medusa, a collaboration between Moby and Grammy-nominated artist and Doja Cat collaborator Aynzli Jones, on air with serpentwithfeet, fall back with rising star Akemi Fox, ache for with José James, a critically acclaimed jazz artist for the hip-hop generation and, most recently, transit with rising Dutch-Sudanese singer Gaidaa.

Multiple releases on ACAN are planned for 2023 and beyond. The label will not be going for a billion streams on Spotify, and there is a constant subtext within the DNA of the label: Moby’s disappointment for what he calls: “our current, fear-driven, algorithmic-based culture.” The label is a new kind of record label that ignores that idea, completely.

Moby is a multi-platinum-selling, multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, author, and animal rights activist.

About Moby

Moby was born Richard Melville Hall, in Harlem, in 1965. His father gave him his nickname, Moby, when he was 10 minutes old, because of his hereditary relationship to Herman Melville. Moby started playing classical music and studying music theory when he was 9 and came of age musically in the punk rock scene in and around New York in the early 80’s. He released his first single, “Go,” in 1991 (listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s best records of all time) and has been making albums ever since. He has sold over 20,000,000 albums worldwide.

About J.P. Bimeni

Burundian-born J.P. Bimeni astonishes with a voice that recalls Otis Redding in his prime whilst resonating with the soul of Africa. A refugee who’s been living in London since the early 2000s, Bimeni’s songs of love and loss, hope and fear deliver with a conviction that comes from the extraordinary experiences life has thrown at him.

For Bimeni, music is a way to survive: “You can’t entertain the pain of your problems all the time – you have to put them away and let something else fill the space where it’s just been pain, worry and terror.”