Enigma - "Return To Innocence"

They played Enigma at every dungeon I ever played in back in the day. Just sayin'.

That said, have you ever thought about what an album titled "Sadeness" implies?

It’s my S&M music

Some hop head New Age (but money-grabbing), hippy sampled monasteries’ and indigenous people’s work without permission to make a quick buck. Bit like Fat Boy Slim did.

It’s chill-out druggy rubbish.

I loved Enigma when I was growing up. It’s what turned me on to ambient and downtempo electronic music. The first album was huge, largely because Sadeness was completely unlike anything that had hit the charts before. I don’t think it’s their best album though. I prefer the third, “La Roi est Mort Vive Le Roi”…which feels like it’s very own world of sound, and is quite a journey. The project is mainly the work of one guy, Michael Cretu, although he often collaborated with other producers and had guest vocalists. He’s a talented producer and something of a hermit who rarely releases any music now.

Best track from the most recent album in 2016 with a rather awesome performance by guest vocalist duo Aquilo

I worked with an ex-Rajneesh spiritually awakened VERY HOT man who played Enigma. He showed up one day on his day off in bicycle shorts. I would be more accurate if I said his dick was wearing the bicycle shorts. Holy mother FUCK! If the fire dept. ever ran out of hoses... never mind. I need to find my fainting couch just thinking of it... GROSS GOTT (where was I? Did I sing the ballad yet?)!

My god. Back when I was straight (in college) my girlfriend couldn't get "in the mood" unless enigma was playing while we fucked! Women are so exhausting.

All it took for my roommate Rob, to get "in the mood" was the sound of the electric can opener! I'd turn around and he'd be standing there, naked, with a hard on!

Mmmm, living with Rob was fun.

Return to Innocence was played on heavy rotation on pop stations in the '90s and it's not really strange at all when you consider music at the time. It was not like music today.

This was my coming-of-age era and so I am admittedly biased, but pop music today is extremely homogenous compared with that of the '90s, which may be the most diverse music era ever. Enigma, Madonna, Britney Spears, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, the Goo Goo Dolls, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Vanilla Ice, Hole, Bush, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Hootie and the Blowfish, that "Mmm mmm mmm mmm" song and "Mmbop," Nsync and the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette, Joan Osborne, Melissa Etheridge, Bon Jovi, Enya, En Vogue, the Macarena, Duncan Sheik, Amber, Corona, Eminem, No Doubt, Suzanne Vega, Cher, The Verve, Barnaked Ladies, Counting Crows, Vanessa Williams, Garbage, Fiona Apple, Montell Jordan, Dee-Lite, Moby and so many more were ALL played on the same pop music stations.

Today, there are few different sounds in music and little diversity among voice types and vocal styles. Lyrics are generally mindless and unchallenging.

During the time Return to Innocence was a big hit, it fit in perfectly with the pop music landscape because there were no real borders around what pop music was supposed to sound like. There was no Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande who set a single standard for what all other singers emulate as there is now.

I imagine Sadness was quite controversial. I think I read some stations refused to play it?

Hey something is on the ether. I've been listening to this song lately. It suddenly popped up in my thoughts.

Anyway I remember it being thought of as a Native American chant song. It was featured in some 90s movie with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Tim Allen and Farrah Fawcett that had a Native American theme. The real history is interesting and the chanting singers are Asian.

"The Amis is the largest indigenous minority group among the twelve officially recognized aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Most of the Amis people reside in the eastern valleys that lie between the two coastal cities, Hualien and Taitung. The Amis are well known for their sophisticated multipart singing styles.

During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the official song, “Return to Innocence,” included a sample of an Amis song with beautiful sonorous voices singing in the background. “Return to Innocence” was published by Enigma, a label of the Romanian-German producer Michael Cretu.1 The song reached millions of viewers and listeners worldwide. However, while people around the world were watching the Olympic Games, they had no idea that the song, “Return to Innocence,” was originally performed by an indigenous elderly couple from Taiwan."

People who kind of wanted to be Goths in the 1990s, but weren't ready to fully commit, listened to Enigma.

For the longest time, I thought "Return to Innocence" was a Native American powwow chant sung by actual Native Americans.

It didn't seem odd at the time. I wore that cassette out and then went to college and didn't think of it again for 25 years.