Illumination
Here's what the liner notes say: "Where the world of fantasy and reality merge into one, Lesiem open the heavens and paint the starry filled skies [sic] with the sensualness of operatic voices, worldbeat grooves, new age melodies and electronica elements creating a musical genre they call Mystic-Pop." Here's what you'll say: "Whoa, this sounds exactly like Enigma!" (Except for one track, "Diva," about which you'll say, "Whoa, that guy sounds exactly like a bad Peter Gabriel imitator!") And the fact is, if you like Enigma you'll enjoy this album quite a bit. The beats are funky without being especially intoxicating or aggressive; the choral bits, some of which are quite nice, are beautifully sung by the Berliner Vokalensemble Carl Maria von Weber; the lyrics are...well, better to concentrate on the music. The more serious and portentous it tries to be, the more it makes you want to giggle, and the Peter Gabriel ripoff that is "Diva" is more than just bad -- it's kind of infuriating. But as pseudospiritual mood music goes, this stuff is perfectly functional.