A rare artifact from the formative years of electronic music pioneer Moby has surfaced at auction, providing a rare glimpse into the artist's early days on the late-1980s New York club circuit.
Consigned by musician and actress Dylan Hundley through music platform Wax Poetics, the handmade cassette dates to 1987–1988—a period when a young Moby was handing out homemade tapes at Manhattan venues to secure DJ bookings.
Artwork and Playback Mechanics
The physical cassette serves as a unique piece of music history, featuring custom artwork and hand-written playback instructions applied directly by Moby before he achieved international stardom:
- Hand-Drawn J-Card: The tape's inlay card is illustrated entirely in blue and red ballpoint pen, featuring drawings of turntables, a mixer, and surrounding hand-drawn doodles.
- The Playback Directive: Moby explicitly marked the cassette with written instructions, designating one side as "THIS SIDE" and the reverse as "NOT THIS SIDE."
- Curated Track Selection: Despite the label warning, the side designated to be skipped contains an early Moby DJ mix weaving house, new wave, R&B, and spoken-word samples, incorporating elements from artists including Adonis, The Specials, Syndicate Sound Labs, and New Order.
Provenance and Market Context
Hundley retained the tape for nearly four decades after receiving it in person from Moby at a Tribeca club night during the late '80s.
The lot forms part of Wax Poetics' Rare Tapes & Records auction running through October 8, 2026. Bidding on the item opened alongside early releases from Eminem and Depeche Mode, highlighting the growing market for non-digital music artifacts from late-20th-century electronic and hip-hop cultures.
"I was just a kid myself, so I wasn't hiring DJs," consignor Dylan Hundley noted in the auction listing. "But I was really charmed... Nobody had ever given me a cassette like that before."
The sale is limited strictly to the physical cassette object, transferring no underlying copyright, publishing, or digital distribution rights to the buyer.
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