series: Zen Connection country of origin: Australia style(s): Ethno lounge, nu jazz, world beat, ambient dub essential compilations: Zen Connection (2002, One World Music) Zen Connection 2 (2003, One World Music) Zen Connection 3 (2004, One World Music) Eco Zen (2005, One World Music) Zen Connection 4 (2006, One World Music) Eco Zen 2 (2008, One World Music)

Heard of the Buddha Bar albums? No doubt. Forked out the mounds of cash it takes to actually buy one? If you think that double the normal 2-CD price for an album based on a pretentious, overrated bar in Paris is outrageous then here's the perfect alternative.

The 2-CD set Zen Connection is the first in an affordable and highly credible series from Australian-based label One World Music of what could loosely be termed "global beats". Based around a loose spiritual theme, the album offers a wide cross-section of both Australian and international artists including LTJ Bukem, The Gotan Project and Zen flute master Riley Lee. Compiler Leigh Wood has very carefully put together a mix of spicy world melodies, trippy breaks, hazy dub and new age prettiness that unquestionably echoes the Buddha Bar albums but is a better proposition all round. It’s more adventurous and relies less on the slick soft pop and Latin clichés that its French cousin often falls back on.

Zen Connection 2 may be less immediately likable than its predecessor but has a comparable breadth and depth across two CD's and is also recommended. Zen Connection 3 and Zen Connection 4 are both outstanding. New tracks from pioneers of the genre like Loop Guru, Nitan Sawhney and Banco de Gaia sit next to some stunning music from newcomers like Stef (Australia), Kaya Project (UK) and dub producer Ott (UK). Once again compiler Leigh Wood shows a sharp ear for tracks both intelligent and accessible. You'll hear neither cheesy muzak or avant-garde indulgence; just quality downtempo sounds with global flavours bathed in a spine-tingling ambience. While there have been no more volumes released since 2006, Zen Connection is perhaps the decade's most consistently fine series of compilations in the downtempo world-beat style.

The Eco Zen series is essentially the same vibe except that Wood is now sharing compiling duties with Big Chill DJ/producer Ben Mynott. An excess of English vocals and familiar song structures on Disc One of Eco Zen won't engage fussier ambient listeners to any significant depth, but Disc Two makes the album a must-have. It's a sublime collection of global beats, sensual lounge and ethno ambience from around the world that's equal to anything previously in the series. UK band Digitonal offers "93 Years On", a brilliant piece of eerie twilight lounge music with spine-tingling saxophone wails. Flipside's beatless combination of a warm Balearic synth and plucked guitar phrases is very simple and very beautiful. And world music alchemist Adham Shaikh shows how loose and organic a good electronic producer can be with the trippy groove of "Sabadhi", a track based on one-chord but dressed in complex improvisations. Eco Zen 2 maintains the quality of its predecessor, dipping a little more into both ambient dub and the world of The Big Chill to unearth gems like Atlantean's dubby "Cosmonaut" and Tom Middleton's tender and exquisitely melodic "Yearning".

Also from One World Music and highly recommended are the first two volumes in the Elysian Vibes series (released 2004 and 2005). Both are well above-average collections of smooth jazzy breaks, exotic lounge, lazy Latin shuffles and Balearic chill.

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