Enigma - A Posteriori (Liberty/EMI)

Despite reaching his sixth album as Enigma, no review of Micheal Cretu’s ambient/pop crossover ever fails to mention his inaugural hit, 1990’s Sadness Part 1. But at least this reviewer can start by saying how I couldn’t stand it! The chant/beats mash-up, the female vocal… I found nothing original or exciting in it at all. What I did love, was his minor 1993 hit Return To Innocence (like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan meets Public Enemy) and 1996’s even more minor album Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (one of the few enjoyable dance albums released that year).

This one is much less varied than any previous effort. Cretu has got some great Euphoria-style sounds going on, but little else. I can’t decide whether it’s all blissfully chilled out, or just lacklustre. Most tracks are instrumental and few - save for the finale, Goodbye Milky Way - lack the emotional charge that Cretu has always managed to add into the ambience.

As an aside, this is the first promo CD I’ve seen with the individual reviewer’s name printed both on the cover and actual disc, which means that music piracy is about to meet a new, major hurdle and that the nabbing of moral-free reviewers is about to become quite a spectator sport for eBay-watchers!