Briefly, Moby

Full Name and Age: Richard Melville Hall, 27.

Reason for Nickname: Descendant of Herman Melville.

Occupation: The (Pale. Slightly Stan led-look mg) Face of Techno. "In really broad terms. I'd say that I make rhythmic, electronic, emotional music that's fairly melodic."

Early Success: Remixing singles by Michael Jackson, the B-52's, Erasure. Pet Shop Boys, and others. Now recording strictly his own stuff: his major-label debut EP. Move (Elektra), is out this month.

Background: Moby is a soft-spoken. Connecticut-bred college dropout who played in hard-core bands.

Transforming Job: Becoming a club D.J. ("I found myself responding emotionally to bombastic disco passages.")

Good Dancer? "If I wasn't such an uptight white guy."

Resides: Illegally, in a cramped downtown-Manhattan industrial space littered with paperbacks, old socks, plants, recording equipment (he works there), a Bible (he's devout), and empty gallon containers of water (he has no running water). "I may move to a place with a bathroom."

Enjoys Contemplating: "The nature of human existence. We're only concerned with consciousness, yet we're made up of billions and billions of cells. What's going on there?"

Ever Read Moby Dick? "The most I've got through is twothirds. I like some of his other books, though."

G.K.