Enigma: Age Of Loneliness
By Gavin Stok, August 29, 1994
Reference: EMI 8925722
Packaging: Digipak [single only released in this packaging in Australia]
Track Listing: As per UK release #1
1. Radio Edit 4:14
2. Clubby Radio Edit 3:31
3. Enigmatic Club Mix 6:23
4. Jam & Spoon Remix 6:28 [same as on Carly's Song CD single]
5. Album Version 5:19
COVER:
White background with what appears to be a poster from the early 20th
century. The poster contains a picture of what seems to be a cross
between a skinny Santa Claus and a wizard with a collection of
children's toys, some in a form of basket with writing on it which I
can't read or interpret. At the bottom of the poster is a new Enigma
logo and the single title. In the corners of the poster are diamonds
with the figure 7 which trivia buffs (Hi Joar!) may relate to being the
7th track on the album. Finally in the background of the picture are a
tree, sand, and a stone wall with an opening. Overall it is good to see
some new cover art and yet another new Enigma logo!
CD:
More new art which is good to see. The CD is red with the same logo as on
the cover in black and white along with mythical figures depicting major
astronomical 'star clusters', Orion and Canis Minor of which were
the only ones I identified (maybe it's not astronomy at all - I could be
wrong!). All these shapes and names are in the same sort of surroundings
as on the CD of The CROSS of Changes, that being some form of calendar
or astrological dial.
REVIEW:
Age of Loneliness has not grasped me as much as the EYES of Truth did.
While it has a decent number of tracks (5), 3 are not of interest to Enigma
fans - who needs a radio edit when you get the full version of the track
anyway, and why want to listen to the album version if you already own the
album?? On top of this the Enigmatic Club Mix did not grab me as much as the
Gotterdammerung Mix of the EYES of Truth did, as explained later. Regardless,
this release is a worthwhile one since Age of Loneliness is a good track and
may encourage more people to listen to the music of Enigma (and initial chart
details from the UK are proving this). Track-by-track:
1. Radio Edit
My distate in radio edits has been stated many times - I just don't like them
on singles! To give credit, however, the radio edit has been mixed well for
this track, with there being no obvious parts where I cringed at an obvious cut
out of certain segments of a track (which normally occurs for me!). My only
surprise in this track was what seemed to be a Gregorian chant in the
background at around 1:15 - this didn't link with the album version of the
track at all and is rather faint to hear.
2. Clubby Radio Edit
*sigh* Another radio edit I will undoubtedly skip whenever I play this single
since it is simply a shortened form of track 3 with nothing new added. In the
case with this track, both the more melodic parts and the non-club-beat parts
of track 3 were removed. If track 3 got repetitive or boring in parts, I may
have been able to justify this track, but since track 3 delivers fairly well
overall, it is not the case this time. In summary, this track is good for the
die-hards who want a 'hard and fast' track from start to end, but will not
attract most.
3. Enigmatic Club Mix
This was the only real track I bought the single for! As per the past few
Enigma singles, the track starts of slowly and atmospherically with no beat
(almost seems as if they'll link them later on, doesn't it?! *grin*).... In the
first minute there is the chant along with the atmosphere, some airplane
samples, and this S.O.S. (morse code) like sound (I don't know morse code so
haven't investigated any possible secret messages!)..... After this the beat
kicks (which includes this morse code sound) in with some more airplane sounds
and in kicks some moaning and the new 'melody'. Two minutes and the chant is
reintroduced followed by some more melodic type music with the beat at medium
volume. Three minutes and there's some sample fiddling that occurs (the song is
full of these little one-off samples)....the beat kicks back in, some vocals
are sung, and the chant is then repeated again. Enter 4:15 and there's a
new sample introduced - sampled off Yello's Baby album no doubt (an album I
fully recommend by the way) and some more Gregorian chants jumping from speaker
to speaker (but definitely not as profound as on Culture Beat's album version
of Anything which I love). The rest of the track is pretty much a repeat of
segments of the first few minutes with this new Yello sample and the Gregorian
chants, although there is also a guitar-like sample introduced as well which is
sampled from a famous song/band which I cannot recall.
All in all this mix is good but not brilliant. To me it was more of an
experiment with sounds than anything else, and this is shown by lots of one-off
samples and sound tricks. The problem with this is that it makes the song sound
fancy, but it doesn't make the song sound structured. For me, the
Gotterdammerung Mix of the EYES of Truth was incredibly well structured as
well as introducing some nice sound tricks and new samples - it was bombastic
at just the right time and used the right tricks to give the atmosphere during
both beat-segments and non-beat-segments. The Enigmatic Club Mix of Age of
Loneliness however, just seems to be some segments of the track with little
samples and new melodies thrown together. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad
track, but it is not a track which grabs me and holds me for the entire 6
minutes regardless of its lack of repetition.
4. Jam & Spoon Remix
I have had this track for a long time (having owned Carly's Song since late
'93) and can assure you that it is a remix of Carly's Song and not Age of
Loneliness (see the FAQ for the differences between these 2 tracks). It begins
brilliantly, with lots of echo on both the piano and the chant, giving the
listener an ambient sort of feel for the song. Around the 45 second mark, the
main beat kicks in, which is percussion and not dance beat. It is at 1:25 that
another sample is added on top of the percussion, but you are still not hearing
a dance beat in the true sense of the word - more a sense of electronics over
percussion with chants to boot (it's hard to explain!!). This mix also has the
use of a new panflute sample which Jam & Spoon use effectively throughout the
whole single. I find this song a tiny bit too repetitve for my liking, with 2
minutes or so of it simply being a repeat of other segments of the track. It is
not until 4 minutes into the track that we find a major change with the
electronics changing and those Gregorian chants being introduced to jump from
channel to channel (not as fast as on the Enigmatic Club Mix), in my view being
used more effectively than track 3. Then it's off to a repeated segment again
before the song ends.
All in all this is a good track but it would have been much better if it was
shorter since the repetition becomes annoying after awhile. Regardless, Jam &
Spoon, of recent Right in the Night and Find Me fame, have proven that they
are great remixers of other people's tracks and did an admirable job on this
track.
5. Album Version
This has already been covered in other documents.
Updated September 4, 1994 by Joar Grimstvedt joarg@hsr.no