Enigma "Sadeness Part 1"... the song that will never fucking die...

(Sorry I'm all Alex In NYC stylee today...)

"Shah! Team wah!"

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

yes, but ONLY because it matches my sandals.

This is the thread where we spell out pan flute sounds

This was, like, THE "Love Theme From Every Girl's Room All Through College." Its mere mention is still enough to induce moderate arousal (teh chubby!). Oh the NSFW memories...

(Translation:
Let us go forth in peace
In the name of Christ, So be it
.
We shall find the faithful in the
company of angels and children
.
Lift up ye heads o ye glorious gates,
and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
Who is the king of glory?
.
Sade tell me
Sade give me
.
Shall we proceed in peace
In the name of Christ, Amen
.
Sade tell me
what is it that you seek?
The rightness of wrong
The virtue of vice
Sade tell me why the Gospel of evil ?
What is your religion? Where are your faithful?
If you are against God, you are against man
.
Sade tell me why blood for pleasure?
Pleasure without love?
Is there no longer any feeling in man's Faith?
.
Sade are you diabolical or divine?
.
Sade tell me
Hosanna
Sade give me
Hosanna
Sade tell me
Hosanna
Sade give me
Hosanna
.
In the name of Christ, Amen )

(The Sweetest Taboo)

Sade says me that will you look for?
The good by the evil
the virtue by the vice
Sade says me why l'
'Gospel of the evil?
Which is your religion
ouç are your fideçles?
If you are against God, you are against the man.
Sade says me
why the blood for the pleasure?
The pleasure without love.
There has not you it more of feeling in the worship of the man? . Sade are you devilish or divine? .

Sade says me
Hosanna
Sade gives me
Hosanna
Sade says me
Hosanna Sade gives me
Hosanna

PREACH IT SPOOKY ENIGMA CHICK!

A: The good by the evil!

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

My brother would play this a lot when he was 14 and say to me "you know, you just don't have any music that you can really RELAX to".

B-b-b-but Frankie Goes to Hollywood!

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

You clearly don't own the album. Unlike ME.

Haha, for once me and Dan Perry find a common ground. I used to be the proud owner of all three Enigma LPs, but unfortunately I've lost them somewhere.

With or without anal violation?

(xpost: I STILL HAVE ALL THREE OF THEM! Only I haven't listened to them in a dog's age. That may change tonight.)

AAAWWW-AAAYYAAHH-AWWW-AAAAYAAH!

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

"iiiiii-eeeeee-iiiiiiiiiii-iiiiii---iiiiiiiiiii" -- pygmies

enigma = the WORST

OMG "Sadeness" vs. "Work It" MASH-UP!

Sade, dit moi (Hosanna)
It's your fremme neppa venette

(Is this the point where I admit that I like that Deep Forest pygmy single, too?)

No.

Baaaad idea jeans.

In summation, FIE ON YOU, DONUT-E POOPYHEAD.

We were students.

In the song credits, instead of an official song credit, they say "that one famous Enigma song"

I quite like "Sadeness"; but credits where are due.

"Only You" by Praise, anyone??

i just got the 12" of this track. uh, i think i might be in love with this song.

i love this shit mostly due to its presence on my favorite CD ever, "pure moods"

I would do almost anything to hang out with Sophia Loren.

I always liked this song but haven't heard it since about 5 years ago when my witchy ex-gf would play it, but then I never go to new age craft stores, incense booths, cosmetic accessory sections of department stores, or professional massage parlors.

....I just spent ten minutes thinking to myself "yeah this song's ok but I like their other one better".

Only to do a last.fm check and realise I'm thinking of "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest. Oh well!

Cretu's 80s solo output is a lot better though. "The Invisible Man" is a great underrated album.

I am in awe of Susan Douglas.

a couple of guys from Tunisia who wanted to spread islam and rape people

There's a very great chance I lost my virginity while the first Enigma album was playing (it was either that or Nothing's Shocking by Jane's Addiction). I'm not proud of this, by the way.

-- Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, July 9, 2005 5:23 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

I never could tell those two albums apart.

wow!!! this's a pretty monster thread!
i associate Engima's Sadness Pt 1 w/ my own father's 'mid-life crisis', so no positive ideas from it. in fact, it completely inspired me to hate 'new age' anything.

Is a wondstrous thread alright.
Uncannily illuminating.
Like, I didn't even suspect there is a Cretu solo album called "The Invisible Man". And yet I, or perhaps just my innersad I, somewhow expected Geir to post that kind of post that he indeed did post there somewhere upthread.

i do like the album this song is on, it played a key role in my de2velopment into whatever it is i have become

but then I never go to new age craft stores, incense booths, cosmetic accessory sections of department stores, or professional massage parlors.

Yeah, I was gonna say, pretty sure I haven't heard this in at least 10 or 12 years.

I am in awe of Susan Douglas.

Me too, but I had to fix the ending of her story.

Aw' nickn!

i put the extended trance mix up on my blog

"i don't want do anthing only masturbate. do you understand?"
"Oooh, yeah!"

*bum chicka bum chick wah wah*

this song rules if for no other reason than it inspired this thread.

I was seriously waiting for graphic descriptions of hot sapphic love action by the end of Susan Douglas's post.

Her post is yet another reason why I need to get out of America.

did anybody else ever feel like "stretched on your grave" by sinead o'connor was a thorough rip of enigma's style? they should have toured together.

OK, so I heard a later Enigma track recently, "Gravity of Love", and I likes it. Yeah yeah When The Levee Breaks break used again and again and all that, but still. Sorry Dan for sleepin' on the rest of Enigma... or at least that song.

sade can i get your sister email why because she look intersting
-- NAthaniel, Friday, July 8, 2005 12:32 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

LOL

"Sadeness" and "Sour Times" are somewhere on infinite loop forever. In some coffeehouse. Somewhere.

oh god! the sexual connection to this album seems disturbingly pervasive/universal. i had already heard it a couple of times in america but it seemed so cheesy i didn't really pay attention. the first time i really noticed it was my sophomore year in college-I was in Germany over the summer supposedly to study the language/culture at the Goerthe Institute. But I had come down with a massive head cold/infection the moment i landed and since I couldn't get drugs all i wanted to do smoke all day and get/stay drunk. Unfortunately nearly everyone was a pollyanna type and just wanted to go to class and then talk in German afterwards. grrr! (plus a couple of guys from Tunisia who wanted to spread islam and rape people??). I finally found Tatiana and (i can't remember the other girls name) - two really pretty Italian slacker students there to espace their families pretty much and "be on their own AS WOMEN" - whick i assumed meant party. Tatiana was all feminine and contemplative and breathy like all the time. It was like hangin out with Sophia Loren. And she was incredibly tall. I was like the snot-nosed dwarf who held her purse. One night I went to pick up Tatiana from her room so we could go out, just to find her lying there languidly on the bed - with that chanting and "Sah Dit Moi" going on in the background. I was like come ON TAtiana aren't you ready? "ohh Susanna i feel so sad all day and have masterbate mabye 10 time. i don't want do anthing only masturbate. do you understand?" then long breathy sigh -- anyway, it was actually mildly disturbing but moreover i had nothing to say to that so we just sat there listening to the feverish chanting and "sah dit moi" for like an eternity. and that song seems way less cheesy to me now!
-- Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, July 9, 2005 4:10 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ BEST EVER ILM POST

ohh Susanna
I feel sad you see
have masterbate mabye 10 time
please come to sit on my knee

gonna go to europe someday

(plus a couple of guys from Tunisia who wanted to spread islam and rape people??)

Wait, what?

gonna go to europe someday

Before Someday

Two part revive:

Tom Ewing's recent Popular entry

Mark Sinker's further elaborations on the subject.

Read 'em both. I especially commend the latter link to the tune is space, if he happens to read this.

Doot doo DUHDOOOOO

i love this shit mostly due to its presence on my favorite CD ever, "pure moods"

― max, Monday, June 25, 2007 10:30 PM (3 years ago)

This is a post I did not expect.

Since I also don't hang out at incense booths or massage parlours, I never hear this song. When I was 11-12, it sounded weird and hard to make sense of, in a somewhat exciting way, on the top 40 station. Now it sounds like decent chillout.

shd leave to max to poll it but

1. Return To Innocence - Enigma
2. Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) - Enya
3. Sweet Lullaby - Deep Forest
4. Oxygene Part lV - Jean Michele Jarre
5. X-Files Theme (DADO Paranormal Activity Mix) - DJ Dado
6. Tubular Bells Part 1 (Edit) - Mike Oldfield
7. Sadeness - Enigma
8. Adiemus - Adiemus
9. Crockett's Theme - Jan Hammer
10. Theme From 'The Mission' - Ennio Morricone
11. Main Title Theme (The Last Emperor) - David Byrne
12. Wishes Of Happiness & Prosperity - Sacred Spirits
13. Theme From Twin Peaks-Fire Walk With Me - Angelo Badalamenti
14. Makambo - Geoffrey Oryema
15. My Wife With Champagne Shoulders - Mark Isham
16. The Promise - Michael Nyman
17. Lily Was Here - David A. Stewart

This song is still Top 40 in Eastern Europe, it is ubiquitous

oh man i remember pure moods

Mark Sinker's further elaborations on the subject.

Though the yogic flying sentiment of the music is surely "NAFF"
I don't think anybody could debate that the record is a significant technical achievement
Just not as cool in hindsight as The Orb
I mean, even now, I have no idea how Cretu made that record in 1989.

Owen did you catch those links up there? Be interested in your take on Mark's thoughts in particular.

Haha my apologies, that crossposted EXACTLY with your response.

this song
so sexy
yet mystical

I like Mark's writing, I like "The Ethos Of Suture". But I look at music more technically, I guess, and in this article, the synapses Mark sees and the conclusions he draws are one's that interest me, and make for awesome writing, but feel rooted in critique of the past-tense. I listened to Enigma a lot when it came out, both this record and the second record, which was described by my older brother excitedly as being "all about the Indians", lol, and in comparison to other "electronic" music at the time, whether it was Jean-Michel Jarre's MIDI-oriented stuff*, or rap, or The Orb, all of which was on my 12-year-old radar, hesitantly leaving my friends in the reggae section as I slipped over to "New Age", Cretu is a progressive producer. At least, he seemed so at the time. I remember even back then caring "not at all" about the Revelations quotes, the Callas references, the "This Is The Voice Of Enigma" monologue, and instead being smitten with the synth pads, the samples, just the sound of everything. Sentiment aside, and forgiving the inescapability of it, this is some well made music. I cannot say the same about Enya, jeez.

* If you want something that sounds dated, you should listen to "En Attendant Cousteau"

Whoa, that got a little nostalgic, sorry.
But yeah, good article. I just think that decrying the track as "NAFF" is forgetting the landscape at the time.

Re: the panpipes... synth or not synth? I'm pretty sure it's just a flute, and the harmonic-heavy performance is misleading the listener into thinking that it's something "ethnic", and the flute is performed live, but then sampled, probably by an MPC-60, at a low sample rate, which explains why it sounds the way it does.

enya is amazing

Enya is amazing, but not "well made" in the same way. It's economical in the sense that it could be made with a single Radioshack keyboard and a MIDIVerb.

are any of Enigma's records worth owning?

I have MCMXC A.D. and it's decent but if this is as good as it gets...

second one is worth it

lol ok "Return to Innocence" brings back some memories

this sound really died a horrible, horrible death

Until Moby brought it back and made a bajillion dollars off of it.

I love when I open a six-year-old thread and have the same instantaneous response as I apparently did six years ago.

heyyaheyowoahhey

Return to Innocence is amazing

this sound really died a horrible, horrible death

and then, from the ashes rises:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ITY5hGzAM

It seems the indie folks have sort of appropiated some of its feats for chillwave or dronepop or whatever the fuck it's called but I sense new age might have a comeback in the mainstream this year or maybe next. Moby could finally get his second breath of life if he plays his cards right.

Well, that last post is terrifying. I haven't heard Sadeness in the wild in a while.

bugger.

tried to open and read the mark s article linked upthread :

"Error 503 Backend fetch failed
Backend fetch failed

Guru Meditation:
XID: 96950946
"

i have decided that i am now old enough to enjoy enigma.
never used to, but on a chilled out sunday with a glass of wine, their albums totally hit the spot.
oh, and i enjoy this stuff far more than anything i have by enya.

Haha is this entire board on a collective mind-trip back to 1990 right now, or just the 2 of us?

(I’m kind of afraid of what lurks behind the cut on this thread)

some of us never left!

ha.
indeed.
basically, i read the recent pitchfork article re enya, so thought i would give the album i have a spin.
got bored within 4 tracks, then remembered i have a few enigma cds in the archive from my charity shop digs.
and yeah, enjoying them far more than i probably should.

Enya's first four albums are flawless, Watermark is better than Loveless

Freaky Trigger apparently (not) running on a broken Amiga seems appropriate.

ahh, i only have the 6th Enya album in the archive.
guess i need to address such an oversight.

Watermark is the starting point, the the Celts and Shepherd Moons... Amarantine is probably their worst album, it's very dull.

I just put MCMXC on and had almost Pavlovian response within about 20 seconds of The Voice of Enigma...

This whole thing is just so perfect - those horn hits during the second part of Sadeness - what is that reminding me of? Tom’s Diner or something?

I’m just coming over all nostalgic about goth chicks’ candlelit bedrooms in which I have lain, listening to this song - which seems a common refrain on this thread hee hee?

I am pretty sure that our Sys Admin has a thumbnail of this album as his Microsoft avatar (mine is Kraftwerk of course - trying to get through to the IT department is like, what do you want? Technologically pristine Germans of Gregorian Chants?)

LOZl, my phone just tried to autocorrect “Gregorian” to “Grebo”?!?! Knock that off!!!

*LOL not LOZI

ned on engima:

something that shouldn't exist

i keed, i keed.

Enigma less good that Enya, but that's just me....

My parents would listen to their first three albums a lot when I was a kid (presumably the fact that Michael Crețu is Romanian had something to do with it) but I can't remember a single thing about them other than NEW AGE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ib7g_6PywA

hugely enjoyable, but not exactly new age is it ?

I'd never heard that one before but it's pure nostalgia bait nonetheless.

Diminishing returns on Enigma records, but I think 3/4 of Cross of Changes is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18HWWX6yYM

This is really weird and confounded me when I was 10!

sade can i get your sister email why because she look intersting

― NAthaniel, Friday, July 8, 2005 3:32 PM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

OMG, The Voice and The Snake, like do you know how much joy that brought to a 20 y.o. goth who used to sit in the back pews of their mother's church and read Revelations during mass as a teenager.

One of the two Enigma dudes had an entire massive number one hit career before Enigma. He is a very, very wealthy dude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sULN3U1NjlI

Were there really "two Enigma dudes"? I thought Michael Cretu was always the main driving force behind the project, and according to Wikipedia Cornelius was only involved in Enigma from 1993 to 1996.

Cretu himself, of course, also had a fairly successful career before Enigma as a songwriter and keyboard player for the woman whom he'd eventually marry:

https://youtu.be/4jjzu1Z2RZc

The whole point of Enigma for Cretu was keeping the performers and producers behind it obscured, enigmatic if you will. But Cornelius is one of the few participants he's admitted to, and his name is all over their publishing. Also Cornelius' wealth since the 90s far exceeds what German-language pop stars generally have.

I always find it amazing, like the ways in which Euro pop and UK pop intersect, and don't?

Like, I also hang out on a messageboard for a German-language band where at least half the users are German, Austrian, etc. and many, many times, they'll mention someone who is massive, huge, like Cliff Richard-level, even their grandparents know who they are, well-known in German-language markets, but I either think of them as an obscure one-hit-wonder, or I've literally never heard of them.

I'm used to the way that US / UK ideas of who/what was "massive" does not always translate. But it is genuinely eye-opening, discovering how little exposure we get to continental pop, beyond the occasional "summer holiday jam" that somehow makes it across.

Is Peter Schilling a big deal in the German-language market? "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is so cool, I've always wondered why he never made the international charts again.

a Dutch TV programme did an interview with Schilling recently on his big hit and how it impacted his life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJZvD39M_A

His German page on Wikipedia suggests he has about a dozen more albums and multiple other singles (and says that he suffered "burnout" after his international success) so it would seem that he was far more well-known at home.

(I always love when I go to Wiki and the English page is like 3 sentences and the German page has like 20 subsections of information.)

x-post

some of the above is addressed in the interview I linked

Out of curiosity, was there ever a "Sadness Part 2"?

― I Named Veal (nordicskilla), Friday, July 8, 2005 9:36 PM (fifteen years ago)

Question got answered in 2016:

https://youtu.be/HHdylh210Ho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHdylh210Ho

I was listening to an apple radio "lisa gerrard & similar artists" station and the intro to the album was one of the tracks, which kinda highlights how auto-generated "stations" are inevitably gonna fuck up (the first track on MCMXD being a spoken "relax and listen to this album" thing, very of its day)

the specific nostalgia of the techno-dance-electronic music of this era is incredibly rich and also beyond that the record was always a very cool pop record

now playing: the rest of MCMXC in a dark hotel where I've been living for a week

I recently became aware of the Sarah MacLachlan collected dance remixes album, which is not quite that specific nostalgia (in either time or affect), but also not a million miles away. Someone more knowledgeable than me could probably trace some throughlines.

The Sarah McLachlan/Delirium track is the exact vibe of the first Enigma album imo, if many years later

Oh wow you're so right! I think I had only ever heard the epic trance remix of that one, but the original hits

now playing: the rest of MCMXC in a dark hotel where I've been living for a week

A fine approach. And it is a good album. I stand by my old AMG review from the late 90s. (I think that and the Enya reviews I did flummoxed a few folks back then but time has further justified my thoughts.)

Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, dancing nude like Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill.

One of my favorite memories is closing all the shades and playing this album in the dark while my friends and I laid on the carpet of my parents’ family room. No drugs were involved.

Right before Delerium went the full McLachlan there was a song on Semantic Spaces, "Flatlands," that was uhhh a bit more than just "inspired by" that Sadeness sound. Love it, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PABYxXkCJUg

Probably the origin of my love of pan flute/pan pipes in techno