artist: Puff Dragon country of origin: UK/Japan style(s): Ambient trance, psy-chill, ambient dub, lounge essential releases: Sazanami (2005, Dakini Records)

Puff Dragon aka Steve Goods is a Welsh native living in Tokyo whose use of oriental elements on this album is so clever and integrated you could well miss them, if not for the obviously Zen theme of the CD's cover art. Sazanami remains the only Puff Dragon album ever released by Goods. At this stage of his career he had already made a few well-received progressive psy-trance albums and the production prowess he honed on those projects serves him superbly on this downtempo debut.

The album is worth owning for the blinding first three tracks alone. Each is rhythmically different from the another but all are united by a powerful, epic undertow. That quality defines the very best psy-ambient beats; its not just head music, its also emotional music in the profoundest sense.

Starting with the euphoric title track we get flying, spinning melodies riding a solid breakbeat and evolving with an almost minimalist sense of repetition. Next comes "Qi Gong" which, were it stripped of everything but its beat, would be basic Jamaican dub...except it's not. Based around a phrase plucked from a Japanese kantong it develops into a surging, exotic dub monster - a wailing vocal, a choir, and growling bass chords beneath that sound like early Jean Michel-Jarre. Play it very, very loud. Thirdly comes a piece of 4/4 prog trance in slow motion. "Chinese Radio" has a thunderous rock drum groove - not unlike Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" - and a repeating one-note arpeggio played off against snippets of a Chinese folk melody played on hammer dulcimer. And a spoken mantra you can't get out of your head: "...perception... reality... perception... reality". It's actually a slightly inferior mix of a stunning track that appeared on the Ultimae Records compilation Fahrenheit Project part 4 a few years earlier but its power and brilliant simplicity remains.

If the remainder of the album doesn't reach the same heights, its still an enjoyable ride through psychedelic lounge music and panoramic sounds with subtle Far Eastern touches. If you want proof that the psy-trance scene has given us some of the best downtempo beats of any era or genre, Sazanami's highlights are all the evidence you need.

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