"return to innocence" || enigma || 1993

Enigma was a revolutionary musical act when it arrived in underground clubs in 1990. The whole project is driven by French producer Michael Cretu, who came up with the idea of placing Gregorian monk chants over downtempo, ambient, tribal house music. As pretentious as that idea sounds, the result is quite fascinating.

Enigma represents, to me, the whole point of electronic music. There are 10,000 producers, deejays, etc. out there in the electronic realm who, quite simply, suck. They think they're original for making one cool loop and then distorting it beyond all recognition, putting some (usually unintelligible) vocals over it, and then getting it pressed onto wax.

To these icemen and icewomen, I say: EPIC FAIL.

I also tell them to go buy an Enigma CD.

Thank you, Michael Cretu, for actually using electronic equipment to make musical art. Thankfully, Enigma is anything but unrecognized by electronic music fans; most fans of modern trance & house music will likely have Enigma in their collections somewhere.

I chose this track today because it's always been a personal favorite. Sure, it was one of their biggest "successes" (I use quotes because it wasn't heard outside clubs or Pure Moods compilations), but I think it was so successful because it was one of their best tracks.

This track is about nature's cruelest impossibility: The inability to go back to one's youth. When you finally figure out one day that you'll never be young again, it's not an easy thing to cope with. It seems as though Enigma has written this track as a way to tell everyone, "Don't worry, it's going to be okay; getting old doesn't mean anything bad."

Stopping the wheels of time is life's inattainable golden ring. The music video for this song demonstrates that very concept; we see what life would look like if time did indeed run backwards. It's one of the most visually intriguing music videos I've ever seen, and I'm very pleased to share it here today.

Listen to (and see) it here.

"heterosexual man" || the odds || 1993

Sometimes in songwriting you just have to be blunt.

This lovely little alt-rock track from Canada's The Odds is a shiny little tune about how the gentleman simply cannot resist himself around ladies, as he is, well, quite heterosexual. It's the antithesis of gay pride. We've all heard some individual of great political import say that there really should be such a thing as "straight pride," and to those forethinkers, I say, "It's been done. Check out this track."

It's really tough not to smile at this song. It's absurd, yet it really makes perfect sense for a song like this to exist. I suppose every girl-crazy guy needs to have a song for his heart, and by golly this is the one.

The real question for me is this: Are they serious? That's the great thing about the way the song is written; it's really impossible to tell if these guys are poking fun at men who are insistent of their desires towards women, or if they are indeed amassed in that group of individuals.

Listen to it here (UPDATE: This is now the original video clip. Enjoy!).

"boom boom (let's go back to my room)" || paul lekakis || 1987

Sex and dance music have always gone hand-in-hand. The pounding rhythms, the titilating synth melodies, and, of course, the lyrics can all be related to the ultimate act of love. While some songs try to mask their adult subject matter, others embrace it and throw it right out onto the dancefloor.

Take today's example. A pounding rhythm that's half Hi-NRG, half Italo-Disco, and 100% sexy. "Let's go back to my room." Why, you ask? "So we can do it all night."

There's definitely no B.S. about this tune. Paul wants to do it, all night, in fact, and he'd like you to accompany him. Lekakis was a perfect choice to sing this song; no one can make the young ladies (and probably lots of young men as well) get into a sexy song faster than a bouncy little well-built blonde guy with a surfer thing going on.

The producers of this track definitely cashed in on the fact that sex sells. They were right, it certainly does, but it clearly can also make one of the greatest dance tracks of its era.

Listen to it here.

"love is on the way" || saigon kick || 1992

Everyone can appreciate a beautiful ballad.

Hair metal was all the rage in the later 80's, and by the early 90's it had become a sort of novelty. However, although we as a mainstream audience kicked away the "hard" side of hair metal, we were still very willing to embrace power ballads.

power ballad (n.)

A rock song, performed by a hair metal band, that's much "softer" in nature than their other songs, and often deals with the heartache of a metal lifestyle.

Florida-based Saigon Kick churned out this gorgeous number right as the 90's were going grunge, which was probably a great time for it to hit MTV and Top 40 radio. The really cool catch? It also fared well with the metalheads' moms. Like I said, everyone can dig a ballad, and when you're an adolescent male, you don't lose any badass points for liking a ballad if it's a power ballad.

The beauty of this track lies in its simplicity. There's nothing more to it than vocals, soft guitar (which in no way overwhelms the voice), and a few cymbal buildups. No drums, no bass, no backup singers, no high production values. Just fantastic singing and soft instrumentation.

Defenders of the hair metal genre like myself could very easily point to this song when confronted by those who don't take this kind of music seriously. There's nothing but pure talent behind this track, and it's tough to argue otherwise.

And, one final note: This song is fun to lie on your bed and listen to in total darkness.

Listen to it here.

"pump it (nice an' hard)" || icy blu || 1991

If there any style of music that makes me unadulteratedly and genuinely nostalgic, it's hip-house.

Songs like this make me long for simpler days. They beam youthful jubilation, and bring to mind images of arcades full of brightly-dressed kids in cutoff jean shorts drinking Big Gulp sodas and shoving tokens into the Mortal Kombat II machine, in hopes of finally dominating Shao Khan. I think of roller rinks, and how they were very much the "place to be" at one time.

OK, back to reality.

Sure, Icy Blu is goofy. But who the hell cares? This music is fun. By the end of the song you're rooting for Icy to go ahead and find a dude that can "pump it, nice and hard." The rest of the disc has a similar feeling of adolescent ridiculousness. Rich kid adolescent ridiculousness. Icy's problems are certainly not high class, which is just more reason to giggle. (A fair warning though: Stay the hell away from "I Wanna Be Your Girl.")

Although the lyrics are charming, the jewel here is clearly the music. Hip-house dance beats are so delicious, and yet they go completely unnoticed by today's masses. The only hip-house artist that most will recognize is Technotronic, who are fantastic in their own right. Hopefully, though, you've learned by now that hip-house was an extremely rich style of music at a point in music history, and rest assured that there will be more of said glory found in later entries.

Listen to it here.

"caroline's a victim" || kate nash || 2007

A song so deliciously ironic that it deserves at least a few moments of everyone's attention.

Kate Nash is annoyed by MySpacers. I certainly hope that I don't need to explain myself in regard to this term; you know exactly who I'm talking about.

"Like, wearing five sweaters and big hoopy earrings with dinosaurs on them while listening to Radiohead cassettes is totally cool, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?"

"Caroline" pokes fun at these folks. Our title heroine is extremely unhappy with her life status. She doesn't understand why she can't make friends with all the other people that dress like she does, even though she makes all these "killa killa killa killa beats" and takes tons of Polaroids of herself. I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends with someone who owns turquoise 7" Netherlands-only pressings of their favorite band's singles (probably without owning a turntable to actually play said singles)?

The beautiful irony of the song is that Nash owes all of her fame to MySpace. After breaking her ankle and winding up in the hospital, she started writing music and created a profile on MySpace, where she caught the eye of Lily Allen. Her first single (a 7" of this song) sold out almost instantly, and she's now one of the UK's rising stars. She hasn't (yet) gotten the attention that she deserves over here.

I have no idea if Nash's future material will live up to "Caroline," as the other songs on the Foundations maxi are a decent cry from it. My hope is that this track goes down in music history as a college-radio classic.

Listen to it here.

"everybody dance" || ta mara & the seen || 1985

Clearly I'm on an electro-funk kick.

This snappy tune typifies the mid-80's Minneapolis sound that I adore oh-so-much. Maybe it's just because I think Minneapolis is such a cool town, but I just don't think a bad musician has ever come out of that town. Prince, of course, would be a prime example, and he is indeed linked to this group.

Ta Mara & The Seen were actually produced by Jesse Johnson, one of Prince's primo dudes and a member of The Time. He worked on this record right around the same time he was initiating his solo career, and it turned out to be a fantastic outlet for his funky creativity.

This song opens with ambient jungle noises, but a synth soon kicks in and flows us right into a downtempo groove. Ta Mara's vocals are flawless, but would Prince hang out with a lady that can't sing? I think not.

My only complaint about this song is that it isn't longer!

I'm off to look for a copy of the 12"...

Listen to it here.