Rediscovering Juno Reactor
May 27th, 2008 by Alex
You’ve heard Juno Reactor, you just don’t realize it.
I first heard them in college, mostly the early goa-inspired mixes. I say “they” because Juno Reactor is the child of Ben Watkins, with a constantly changing set of musicians and accompanying artists. The albums or live shows wouldn’t be possible without the supporting folks, but I believe the efforts are still led by Watkins.
I recently borrowed two more recent albums (Shango and Labyrinth) from a coworker and gave them a listen. They’re both incredibly good, but very difficult to describe. It’s electronic. It’s orchestral. It sounds… epic. Definitely not classical like the scores of Hans Zimmer or John Williams, but moving in the same way. Many of the tracks have a steady drums and bass feel to it and are fused with vocalists and samples. It’s a fusion of all of these things. It’s beautiful.
There’s an interesting short on Ben Watkins featuring some of his recent work on film scores. The AV Foundry has got quite a collection of videos out there, some of which made at the request of Juno Reactor.
It’s cool that they post concert footage to YouTube, such as the following guitar solo by Steve Stevens on Pistolero (which you might recognize from Once Upon a Time in Mexico). The melding of the beat with the guitar is excellent.
A shame Juno Reactor isn’t touring in the U.S. currently. It’d be one hell of an act.
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