Start with the artist line on Defected's new Natural Blues. Defected and Apple Music list the single as Moby, Jacob Lusk, BLOND:ISH and Kiko Franco. Apple Music and Qobuz both give a release date of Friday 14 August 2026.
Lusk is the new name: a vocalist, credited on the front of a record whose vocal WhoSampled and Wikipedia trace to a sample.
The voice underneath
Both sites say the vocal on the original Natural Blues, from Moby's 1999 album Play, samples Vera Hall's "Trouble So Hard," a 1937 recording collected by Alan Lomax. Both report the Play track's credits as Moby, Vera Hall and Alan Lomax. Those are secondary sources, not release metadata.
Laid end to end, the chain they describe runs from a 1937 field recording to a 1999 sample to a named singer on a 2026 Defected release.
Not a debut
The club side of this is not new either. In 2025, Moby, BLOND:ISH and Kiko Franco released a Defected version. Defected says it went to No. 1 on Beatport's House chart and passed 10 million streams across digital services.
What changed for 2026 started on a stage. Defected says the studio version grew out of Lusk performing with Moby at Coachella. Lusk told the label: "Who knew that 10 minutes on stage with him at Coachella would completely change my life? I'm so grateful to be able to release this special moment to the world."
What the credits now say
Qobuz's release metadata lists Vera Hall, Alan Lomax and Richard Hall as composer and lyricist on both cuts. It lists Moby, BLOND:ISH and Kiko Franco as producers and programmers, while Lusk appears as a main artist. Those credits do not say whether Hall's 1937 recording is still audible in the new mix alongside Lusk.
Defected now explains one more piece. The label says "TECIE" links this version of Natural Blues to an upcoming film of the same name, but says the acronym's meaning will not be revealed until November. The artist and songwriting lines already answer the more important questions: the 2026 record names Lusk on the front and retains Hall and Lomax in the composition credits.
