History Music / Enigma

** Certain samples, such as a distinctive horn motif, Irene Papas' distinctive heavy breathing from Aphrodite's Child's song "∞", drumming from LedZeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and several guitar licks, have become an intricate part of Enigma's sound palette. When these sounds disappeared altogether from ''A posteriori'', there was a sizable amount of concern from fans.

The debut album ''MCMXC a.D'' created great controversy in Europe for combining breathy vocals about the Creator/MarquisDeSade, bondage and {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, alongside its extensive sampling – itself a hot button issue at the time in North America. Cretu credited himself as Curly M.C. on the album to maintain anonymity, but the subsequent lawsuits revealed Cretu's identity, alongside his wife's. Nonetheless, ''MCMXC a.D.'' and its followup ''the CROSS of Changes'' were large successes for fans of worldbeat and ethnic electronica. Enigma's greatest critical success was ''The Screen Behind the Mirror'', showcasing a mature and distinctive musical palette, but did not sell as well as his first two albums. Enigma has been on hiatus since their seventh album, 2008's ''Seven Lives, Many Faces''.

* ''The Screen Behind the Mirror'' (2000)

* ''A posteriori'' (2006)
* ''Seven Lives, Many Faces'' (2008)

Enigma appeared in 1991 with the appropriately named album ''MCMXC a.D'' (okay, it came out a year or so late) with the strange, spacy single "Sadeness", which combined breathy vocals in French with Gregorian chant. Nobody really knew who exactly Enigma was (the writer credit on the album was "Curly MC"), but eventually word leaked out that the producer of the "project" (it's never referred to as a band) was expatriate Romanian record producer Michael Cretu, and the seductive voice was his then-wife Sandra. Although the first two albums (the second, ''The Cross of Changes'', had a big hit in "Return to Innocence", as well as "Age of Loneliness" on the soundtrack of the otherwise forgettable erotic thriller/stalker flick ''Film/{{Sliver}}'') were the most anyone really heard from Cretu, Enigma has continued on to the present day; in fact, most people will probably remember "Sadeness" as "that Gregorian Chant song", but the total of seven albums (as well as two greatest hits collections, a box set, and a reissue of the first album with remixes of its most popular songs) is far less known.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheesy mix of breezy instrumentals, hip hop beats, wanky HairMetal guitar solos, lyrics written with the intelligence and [[PainfulRhyme rhyming abilities]] of a five-year old learning English, and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

* FunWithAcronyms: The title of the 2001 greatest hits collection, '''''L'''ove, '''S'''ensuality, '''D'''evotion.''

* IntercourseWithYou: Played with. The lyrics are seldom explicit, but Sandra Cretu's vocals on the early albums involve a lot of suggestive heavy breathing and bedroom voice.
** However, it's interesting to note that the breathing was actually sampled from "Infinity" by Aphrodite's Child, so the "suggestive heavy breathing" is actually by Irene Papas.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The quiet, spacey brass lick that opens and closes all of the albums tells you that you're listening to an Enigma album.
* MoneyDearBoy: Cretu was very quick to capitalize on his success, although it probably made him that much more of a target for the ensuing copyright lawsuits. The greatest hits album even got its own K-Tel/Time-Life style TV ad campaign.

** Another infamous one is ''Return to Innocence'' that sampled Difang's ''Jubilant Drinking Song'', a Taiwanese aboriginal chant that was often mistaken as Native American origin.

* {{Yandere}}: What else could "I Love You, I'll Kill You" possibly be about? It seems to be sung in second person as a warning to the victim; much SanitySlippage applies.

* GenreShift: Their albums in the 90s are focused on Gregorian chants and religious-dance hybrid songs. Come 2000s and their songs are now toward "sophisticated pop/dance" songs.

* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Mea Culpa" is a monologue by a submissive woman giving herself up very aggressively to her master. (If you don't know much about BDSM, no, this is not a contradiction.) And "Sadeness", the song that started it all, is about the Creator/MarquisDeSade.
* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Music/{{Aphrodites Child}} and the infamous Gregorian chant.

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Music/{{Aphrodite's Child}} and the infamous Gregorian chant.

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chant.

Enigma appeared in 1991 with the appropriately named album ''MCMXC a.D'' (okay, it came out a year or so late) with the strange, spacy single "Sadeness", which combined breathy vocals in French with Gregorian chant. Nobody really knew who exactly Enigma was (the writer credit on the album was "Curly MC"), but eventually word leaked out that the producer of the "project" (it's never referred to as a band) was expatriate Romanian record producer Michael Cretu, and the seductive voice was his then-wife Sandra. Although the first two albums (the second, ''The Cross of Changes'', had a big hit in "Return to Innocence", as well as "Age of Loneliness" on the soundtrack of the otherwise forgettable erotic thriller/stalker flick {{Sliver}}) were the most anyone really heard from Cretu, Enigma has continued on to the present day; in fact, most people will probably remember "Sadeness" as "that Gregorian Chant song", but the total of seven albums (as well as two greatest hits collections, a box set, and a reissue of the first album with remixes of its most popular songs) is far less known.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The title of the 2001 greatest hits collection, '''''L'''ove, '''S'''ensuality, '''D'''evotion.''

* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Mea Culpa" is a monologue by a submissive woman giving herself up very aggressively to her master. (If you don't know much about BDSM, no, this is not a contradiction.) And "Sadeness", the song that started it all, is about the MarquisDeSade.

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chant.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheesy mix of breezy instrumentals, hip hop beats, wanky HairMetal guitar solos, lyrics written with the intelligence and [[PainfulRhyme rhyming abilities]] of a five-year old, and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheesy mix of breezy instrumentals, hip hop beats, wanky HairMetal guitar solos and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, and the infamous Gregorian chant.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheesy mix of breezy instrumentals, hip hop beats, HairMetal guitar solos and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheezy mix of breezy instrumentals and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

Enigma appeared in 1991 with the appropriately named album ''MCMXC a.D'' (okay, it came out a year or so late) with the strange, spacy single "Sadeness", which combined breathy vocals in French with Gregorian chant. Nobody really knew who exactly Enigma was (the writer credit on the album was "Curly MC"), but eventually word leaked out that the producer of the "project" (it's never referred to as a band) was expatriate Romanian record producer Michael Cretu, and the seductive voice was his then-wife Sandra. Although the first two albums (the second, ''The Cross of Changes'', had a big hit in "Return to Innocence", as well as "Age of Loneliness" on the soundtrack of the otherwise forgettable erotic thriller/stalker flick {{Sliver}}) were the most anyone really heard from Cretu, Enigma has continued on to the present day; in fact, most people will probably remember "Sadeness" as "that Gregorian Chant song".

* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Mea Culpa" is a monologue by a submissive woman giving herself up very aggressively to her master. (If you don't know much about BDSM, no, this is not a contradiction.)

* {{Yandere}}: What else could "I Love You, I'll Kill You" possibly be about? (It seems to be sung in second person as a warning to the victim.)

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, and the infamous Gregorian chant.

Enigma is an unapologetically cheezy mix of breezy instrumentals and New Agey vocals, best known for unsubtly sexual uses of religious imagery. Accordingly, it makes for very popular sex music, as well as being one of those bands that critics love to hate, or at least think they're supposed to hate; the staff review for ''MCMXC a.D.'' on the [=iTunes=] store reads like someone trying and failing miserably to pretend they don't like it.

Enigma appeared in 1991 with the appropriately named album ''MCMXC a.D'' (okay, it came out a year or so late) with the strange, spacy single "Sadeness", which combined breathy vocals in French with Gregorian chant. Nobody really knew who exactly Enigma was (the writer credit on the album was "Curly MC"), but eventually word leaked out that the producer of the "project" (it's never referred to as a band) was expatriate Romanian record producer Michael Cretu, and the seductive voice was his then-wife Sandra. Although the first two albums (the second, ''The Cross of Changes'', had a big hit in "Return to Innocence", as well as "Age of Loneliness" on the soundtrack of the otherwise forgettable erotic thriller/stalker flick {{Sliver}}) were the most anyone really heard from Cretu, Enigma has continued on to the present day; in fact, most people will probably remember "Sadeness" as "that Gregorian Chant song".