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

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