Enigma - Seven Lives Many Faces

Like the whole of 90s and 00s electronica never happened…

Michael Cretu, the studio head behind the 40 million- selling Enigma, worked with Boney M in the 70s, Mike Oldfield in the 80s and Jam & Spoon in the 90s, launching Enigma in 1990 and laughing all the way to the bank ever since. His key audience – central European to the core – snaps up the albums he puts out every couple of years and will presumably do the same with Enigma’s seventh (note the title).

What they’re getting is 12 tracks made up of massive swathes of synth gloop, backed with pseudo hip-hop beats and spoken word samples. On The Same Parents Cretu applies a bit of social commentary, getting a youthful female to inquire in pious tones why there is so much strife in the world; the title track is a load of orchestral Sturm und Drang; and La Puerta Del Cielo sounds like one of those 100% Celtic Panpipe Moods CDs you see at garden centres for £2.99. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what the people who bought those 40 million Enigma albums bought them for.

EMI | tbc

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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