Dub - but not with the step. Ok, build yourself up listening to a progressive intro. There's a singular instrumental riff, then a minimal bassline. Then a hint of massively compressed hi-hat, then a synth line, it's layering and layering and layering then...ah. This isn't THAT sort of dub. This is true electronic Dub, the sort that plays in a bar but never in a club. Stick in a Bootsy Collins funk slap and we'd be talking business. With stodgy pluck bass, electro organ sounds (lots of that) and in the case of 'Japan Airlines' an Ocarina, you can trust me that synth instrumentals are on the menu, or rather 'carte de jour'.

I've not heard much French electronic Dub before to be honest and maybe my perspective is skewed by my love for Anglo-Caribbean post-grime naaaarstiness, but this entire album seems to bear a white flag in the face of it's prospective competition. But that's ok, and to be honest I dont really know how to pidgeon-hole this work. Chill out to a very safe collection of ZaZen's 5-7min trips down Reggae Lane, minus a single vocal. It's very innocent in it's approach on the whole, with the exception of the intros to 'Inroad' and 'Just Imagine' which lure you into an aggressive sense of security... then it goes all nice again.

On the whole it could seriously do with cutting back on the organ sound - it's on almost every track, in the same key, same octave. Same applies to the flanged pad stabs. 'Self Control' would be well placed as background music to set a relaxed mood, but no one track can be concentrated on for any great length of time which is no great shame if this is intended as a slice of serenity. The album artwork, however, suggests otherwise.

Download 'Self Control'