RAPOON, I am led to believe, is the work of a former member of ZOVIET FRANCE, which kinda wins the project immediate kudos before we even attempt to describe the music! This album takes Asian music as it's rhythmic leaping off point and creates a seductive ambience over the top. It's amazing how prejudiced people who don't necessarily consider themselves Racists are towards this style of music. I don't refer to you, reader - if you have searched MJ this far you've gotta be open minded about music! But try playing it to the chaps at work, or even your family and see what I mean. Of course not all cultures are so closed-minded as we Anglo-Saxons, but most people I think wouldn't tell the difference between this and the muzak at your local curry emporium!But then it's their loss. Like all great ambient music, this has a great lulling effect - you could listen to it while chilling out waiting for sleep to come. The drumming - in soft tones rather than hard hitting ones - does nothing to intrude on the passive mood. The overall atmosphere does not really change throughout the recording making it a cool, pacifying atmosphere while having the madcap tempo which would be very easy to dance to. It doesn't have the dark mood of people like MUSLIMGAUZE nor does it pretend to be as dangerous - this brings a traditional form of music very much into the 20th Century.This is a album for those of us who wish to dream of a mystical East. It has all the elements you'd expect, but paints a gossamer diaphanous drifting veil of mood over the top. Other than some moody loops and psychoacoustic dimensions, it sounds authentic - hardly a trace of crude electronics or sampling. Whether this is how it was recorded I don't know, but the end result is an easy listening, pastel-coloured album which sits nicely next to such atmosphere-weavers as VIDNA OBMANA.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.