Enigma

Mcmxc A.D.

Extremely overrated

Review Score:

(4/10)
This album is certainly a landmark of some kind; every Goth-ish alterna-kid in the early 90s (that was me) was familiar with it, and at the time it was pretty unique, being one of the first CDs to introduce the then-nascent genre of "ambient house" to the masses. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a *good* album, and, well, it's not.

The CD opens with the painfully pretentious "The Voice Of Enigma", consisting of spoken word atop floaty synth washes:

"Good evening. This is the voice of Enigma. In the next hour, we will take you with us into another world - into the world of music, spirit, and meditation. Turn off the light, take a deep breath, and relax. Start to move slowly...very slowly. Let the rhythm be your guiding light."

Er, yeah, sure, I'll do that, Ms. Tree Spirit.

The material is *very* repetitive; pretty much every track consists of the same Gregorian chant samples, cheesy synthetic pan flute, and synth ambience, with a different breakbeat. Occasionally some gratuitous French spoken word is thrown in, because, you know, anything in French is automatically sexy *and* artistic.

The music isn't entirely without merit, but it's so cluttered with new age cliché and faux-arty pretension that it's impossible to listen to. Unless you're the sort who likes to sit around reading about astrology and pretending to be spiritual, give it a miss.

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