Bliss

You just know that somewhere in a lab they’ve been trying to invent something that would allow for the second coming of Enigma. Instrumental music your grandmother might like, but with just the tiniest bit of an edge, so the hipsters have something to listen to also — basically Esquivel for 2005, but massively popular. That seems to be what Bliss were going for here on this reissue of their debut album. No matter how you dress it up, this is easy listening music. Take ethereal/ethnic singing and synth pads, dress them up with drum machines and tablas and crap, and add great heaping gobs of reverb. You’d swear I was talking about that Enigma album that all the secretaries bought, wouldn’t you? The one difference would be this album has more violins, but in spirit it’s really the same album. Baz Luhrmann is going to discover these guys and have them score a sequel to Moulin Rouge, I just know it.