Electronic duo Bob Moses play a potent hybrid of house music and lyrical pop centered on Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie. Emerging in 2012 with a series of well-received EPs, the duo earned commercial and critical accolades, including a Grammy nomination for the single "Tearing Me Up," off their 2015 debut Days Gone By.
Born and bred in Brooklyn, New York but with roots in Vancouver, Canada, the history of electronic duo Bob Moses is as curious as the cool house music outfit's name. Members Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie knew one another from the Vancouver high school they both attended, and were drawn to each other thanks to a shared love of pop-punk bands like Rancid and Green Day. Adulthood found them both in Brooklyn, with Vallance recording Berlin-styled techno while Howie worked in the realm of the singer/songwriter. Both felt musically stuck and hungered for something new, a problem solved by the simple union of their styles, which created something cool and decidedly "post-club." Named after the urban planner who designed the modern New York City, they became Bob Moses and joined the Scissor & Thread label in 2012 with the EP Hand to Hold. The Far from the Tree EP followed on the label in 2013, and a year later the group released the First to Cry EP on Domino. In 2015, the label gathered up all the duo's early EPs for the compilation All in All and also released their debut album, Days Gone By. The single "Tearing Me Up" earned them a pair of Grammy nominations, winning for Best Remixed Recording (Non-Classical) with RAC. The buzz surrounding "Tearing Me Up" carried them into the next year, with appearances on television shows and a special edition re-release of Days Gone By. In 2018, they issued their sophomore full-length, Battle Lines, featuring the single "Heaven Only Knows." A 2019 Unplugged EP preceded 2020's Desire, which included a collaboration with ZHU as its title track. ~ David Jeffries