Juno Reactor

Origins: U.K.
Styles: Ethno techno, world industrial, techno, ambient-dark
Discography: 2015 – The Golden Sun Remixed
2013 – The Golden Sun of the Great East
2011 – Inside the Reactor (remix album)
2008 – Gods and Monsters
2004 – Labyrinth
2003 – Zwara
2002 – Hotaka (more)
Web Site: ReactorLeak.com
Ben Watkins has been the constant force behind this definitive electronica project that has featured many talented musicians. Juno Reactor is the thinking person’s electronic band, artistic and progressive, avoiding the idiosyncratic clichés that plague most electronic music. Though romanticized by some as being the creators of “goa trance,” Juno Reactor left behind repetitive electronic loop music early on and evolved a more dynamic and eclectic techno-trance sound. Watkins has emphasized live musicianship and human emotion, which has given Juno Reactor an organic feel missing from most electronic music.

juno reactorJuno Reactor was one of the first electronica acts to embrace world fusion. Their fourth album, Bible of Dreams, had World influences that range from the African percussion of Amampondo (Nelson Mandela’s favorite traditional South African percussion act) on the song “Congo Fury” to heavy Middle Eastern influences on the song “God is God”. The latter is perhaps the epitome of ethno techno, and the Juno Reactor turned to Spanish influences in their fourth album Pistolero. On their fifth album, Shango, they returned to heavy Japanese themes that they first explored in their 1996 single “Samurai,” and picked up again in the Taiko drumming of 2002’s “Hotaka.”

Juno Reactor is probably one of the most overlooked ethno techno world fusion acts out there, yet their work has been used in everything from film scores like “Mortal Kombat,” “Virtuosity,” and “Lost in Space” to sporting events like grid iron football, basketball, and even the Japanese Grand Prix.

Full Discography

2015 – The Golden Sun Remixed
2013 – The Golden Sun of the Great East
2011 – Inside the Reactor (remix album)
2008 – Gods and Monsters
2004 – Labyrinth
2003 – Zwara
2002 – Odyssey 1992-2002
2002 – Hotaka
2001 – Masters of the Universe
2000 – Nitrogen (Part 1 & 2)
2000 – Shango
1999 – Pistolero
1997 – Bible of Dreams
2012 – God is God (single)
1996 – Beyond the Infinite
1994 – Luciano
1993 – Transmissions

Ben Watkins - Juno Reactor

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