What is this song? (disturbing video, cool music)

Cafe Society
1

Looking for a song ID, but don’t want the video’s description viewable in mouseover, so I’m adding some space here.

One two three…

I was reading various articles about the horrific act of waterboarding, and eventually came across Christopher Hitchen’s article “Believe Me, It’s Torture” which led me to a video of him being given a demonstration (with a safe word and dead man’s switch device so he wasn’t in real danger). Strangely enough, the people putting on the demonstration started some music and turned it up loud. I liked it, and I would like to know what the music and who the singer is. Hitchens mentions it offhand as a “New Age” thing but it’s not.

Part of this is being angry at the thought that interrogators might actually use this or other good music while they’re torturing. Bad enough to torture, that’s utterly despicable, but to play good music at the same time? That’s something right out of A Clockwork Orange.

Torture in any form is horrifying, and I know this seems shallow, but I want to know what the music is anyway. This is a few months old, so I’m sure they know about it by now, and I want to find out if they’ve written anything about how it feels to have your music used during a torture demonstration.

2

I couldn’t get enough lyrics off my first two listens to google it properly. Annoyingly, there is no fast forward or pause controls on the video. I think New Age-y Techno is a reasonable description.

3

I guess that “y” would work for someone who isn’t too familiar with New Age, but to anyone who’s been unfortunate enough to be exposed to a lot of actual New Age music, that’s like saying the song is Country-y Techno. (i.e. does not compute).

Now, waterboarding with ACTUAL New Age music, that would be real torture. I had to listen to that crap when I worked at a massage therapy place. I wanted to scream and cry and claw my eyes out. I mean, freakin’ Enya was too far out for them. That’s the only thing I don’t miss about that job.
Edit to add, thanks for listening and giving it a shot though.

4

A lot of people hear any of a number of electronica styles and immediately go to “New Age” in their minds. That song (sorry, didn’t recognise it) sounds like various “chillout” types of electronica (or trance or something else, I’m not very fluent). It reminded me of Moodswings until I heard the voice, although I’ve only ever heard Moodfood, so it may be something else by them. If nothing else, if you liked that you might like this.

I’ve got a buddy who is a lot more into the kind of music that (video music) sounds like. I’ll try to get him to listen and see if he knows, but it may be a while before I see him. Good luck.

5

I couldn’t make much out either, just “what you need” and “it’s just a question survival.” :frowning: I’m fairly certain it’s someone I’ve heard other songs by, but that doesn’t help much. It reminds me of Over the Rhine and Renfry, with a little Evanescence or Lacuna Coil mixed in…

6

It’s “Gravity of Love” by Enigma, from the album The Screen Behind the Mirror. I’ve always been rather fond of it, if only because it’s the song where they finally caved in and used samples from “O Fortuna” :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Bravo, jainsafel. It was starting to bother me. I liked the song, but now that you mention it, I guess I liked the “O Fortuna” parts best of all. Oh well.

Country-y Techno: Cotton Eye Joe.

Waterboard with actual New Age music? Not even Dick Cheney would authorize that. That’s SICK!

8

Oooh, I hadn’t been in Cafe Society for a couple of days. Sorry it took me so long to say…

Ah! THANKS!! I’m so not surprised to find out it’s Enigma. I love Enigma, I’d even played them on my radio show, but of course that would be an Enigma album I don’t have (shame on me)! And even though I didn’t mention it, I also knew I’d heard the voice before, and I was right! It’s Ruth-Ann Boyle from the band Olive, and I have both of their albums! :smack: :smack: I don’t have her solo album (yet) though.

The version in the OP video is one of the re-mixes listed on the song’s Wikipedia page, either the “Judgement Day Club Mix” or the “Dark Vocal Club Mix,” so I wonder which one. Here’s the video version. Interesting that the Vanity Fair/Hitchens video isn’t mentioned on the song’s Wikipedia page. They’ve got to know about it. Maybe they don’t want it mentioned. Sheesh, who’d want their music used in a torture demonstration?!

I know Enigma’s actually a couple of guys, Michael Cretu and Andru Donalds, but they use a lot of female guest vocalists, which I love (I only played female vocals on my radio show). One of my fondest dreams is that one day, they’ll discover HTR and use her voice intertwined with their music.

closes eyes and drifts off, dreaming of Enigma and That Voice, together

cries because it will never happen

:smack: self for using IRC-speak like a dork.

Oh, thanks for the link to the Chrissie Hynde video DfrntBreign! That was very cool. I was an old Pretenders fan but hadn’t kept up with anything recent. That was surprising!

elfkin477, I love Over the Rhine. I’ve seen them live several times and have met Karin Bergquist after the shows a couple of time. I haven’t kept up with them either, damn. Thanks for making me go to YouTube and spend a lot of time watching Over The Rhine videos (after watching a bunch of Enigma videos).