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Friday 19 December 2014

Forgotten Classic: A Blast from the Past: "Enigma - Return to Innocence"

It's been a long while since I've posted on here....I know.....but I have an hour lunch break and I'm struggling to keep myself amused, so this will prove a welcome distraction. I've decided to do a weekly (where possible) feature whereby I delve into the archives to bring to you, what I deem to be, unappreciated, forgotten pieces of music that may or may not have achieved their potential in the charts. Hopefully you'll discover tracks that you never knew existed, and realise that there's a hell of a lot of amazing music out there from the past that's waiting to be discovered.

This week I present to you a track by a German new age musical project that achieved great success during the 90s, selling over 100 million records in the process. The group I am talking about is Enigma, who first shot to success in 1990 (the year I was born!) with the hypnotic "Sadeness (Part 1)", which brought together the odd combination of Gregorian chants and dance beats, reaching number 1 in 24 countries in the process. However, the track "Return to Innocence" is my topic of discussion today. Released as the lead single from their 1994 sophomore album "The Cross of Changes", the track reached number 1 in over 10 countries while hitting the top 5 in both the UK and USA. "Return to Innocence" blends industrial beats sampled from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" with a sampled tribal chant from native Taiwanese Amis people, along with a breathy vocal from German singer Angel X. For me, "Return to Innocence" is one of my favourite pieces of music to listen to; it takes me to another place with it's feel-good lyrics, euphoric melody, ambient synths and hypnotic chanting. I'd love to hear what you think about this track, so leave a comment below :) Enjoy!

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