

Delerium – Karma

Silence

Enchanted

Duende

Euphoria (Firefly)

Til the End of Time

Heaven’s Earth (Click image for Amazon.com)



This is a classic.

Taking cues from an erotic electronica genre pioneered by Enigma and Deep Forest in the early 90s, with their album “Karma” Delerium forged a darker ethnic tribal sound. This album kicked off the genre of electronic worldbeat. There are a million knock-offs now, but when this came out, there was nothing like it. Despite all the imitation, and years of advancing technology, this still holds up as a serious contender for best electronic worldbeat album ever. Dark, erotic, ethereal, atmospheric, with driving grooves that keep it all still accessible.

“Karma” spawned a sleeper megahit with Sarah McLachlan’s signing featured on “Silence”. I noticed that the track and consequently Delerium got massively recognized a few years and a couple albums later, when “Silence” remixes became club hits. I only picked this cd up in 1997 because I was into dark industrial at the time and this was one of the many side projects of the underground metal industrial band Front Line Assembly, which is the duo of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. This cd was a shock to the fans of their underground industrial side, way too poppy and commercial. Consequently, Delerium fans were in for a major shock if they looked for other work by this duo.

You’ll have to go back to 1997 to remember how exciting this new sound was, but the album hasn’t lost its awesomeness. This is a classic that will persist. You just can’t deny that this is a brilliant and beautiful album.

[Videos after the break]



Here’s a cool remix of Silence from Paul Oakenfold over some night driving footage



Tiesto’s remix of Silence got super popular



This is probably my favorite dance remix of Silence, by Niels Van Gogh and Thomas Gold



Oh and this is a phenomenal remix of Heaven’s Earth (a great song that didn’t actually appear on the original pressing of Karma)

Heaven’s Earth feat. Kristy Thirsk (Key South ReMix)