Although Dreamfish's discography includes only two titles, the group is deeply linked to the resurgence of post-rave ambient music and the birth of one of the genre's most important and prolific labels, Fax. The combined project of Fax label impresario Pete Namlook and new-ambient guru Mixmaster Morris (who also records under the name Irresistible Force), Dreamfish's first and most significant CD was released in 1993. Dreamfish was among the first entirely beatless releases to appear on Fax (which prior to its reincarnation as an ambient label was known for releasing melodic hard trance), and joined the Orb's U.F. Orb, the KLF's Chill Out, and Irresistible Force's Flying High in announcing an important new strain of environmental electronic music. (It remains among Fax's finest moments.) Taking its name from a tropical fish known and consumed for its psychedelic properties, the album's four tracks are probably among the closest approximations of that experience you're likely to find. Buoyed along by warm, lush waves of analog synth and spare bits of percussion (high-hats, subtle, bell-like clave figures), tracks such as "School of Fish" and "Fishology" became immediate chill room staples. Namlook and Morris finally revisited the Dreamfish project in 1996, although for a number of reasons (not all of them entirely their fault; ambient as a whole sounded nowhere near as fresh as it had several years earlier) the somewhat ill-conceived Dreamfish 2 failed to scale the heights -- or is that depths -- occupied by its predecessor. The original Dreamfish was reissued by the Rising High label shortly after its first appearance, and the CD remains in print via Fax's Ambient World sublabel. ~ Sean Cooper