The seventh album from this trance/industrial/soundtrack group is another killer. It’s no surprise that Juno Reactor keep getting called upon for film scores. The music can be sublime and it can be intense, although intense seems to work better.
Cuts six and seven on this CD in particular, “City of the Sinful” and “Tanta Pena,” seem written for a screenplay. Their music has little in common with Tangerine Dream, but the texture, the phrasing, the entire sound reminds me of the soundtrack to Thief, a 1981 crime noir film which starred James Caan, and was directed by Michael Mann, and which also had an excellent score.
Once I got it in my mind about the film score, I could easily picture each of the cuts fitting in with a film, particularly the pacing of a film where you have action, drama, romance, pathos, regret, and, of course, some mishap and mayhem. It fits perfectly.
Juno Reactor is already a quite popular group, and I think they’re due for a big increase in fans, particularly since they’re touring in support of this CD. It's the first time in seven years they’ve been on the road. In addition to their US dates, they’ll be appearing in another dozen countries including all three in North America, as well as Europe and Asia. Ben Watkins, the group’s founder, has also solidified his base in Japan with last year’s appearance at the ginormous Fuji Rock Festival, and with the two Manga films he scored. He began to explore his world view of music as far back as 1997, with his initial collaboration with a South African act, and this CD further enhances his World Music credentials with the array of intercontinental musicians he’s lined up.
Watkins chooses to surround himself with the type of musicians which fit his current ideas of music that he’s working on, but the entourage seems to be getting progressively larger. As he himself said, he’s thinking of taking a scythe to the other members, since he seems to continually add personnel. In a recent interview he indicated the broadening of his style may “piss off some people, but maybe my attitude with this whole album — with Juno in general — is that I want to open the doors and not shut them down.” This to me indicates he’s still growing. But later in that same interview, he stated, “I think there's one album left in my head and that's it, and I think I now have the tools to go out there with a laptop and do the last album I need to make.” I’ve asked his record label, Metropolis Records, for an interview, so I hope I can clear this up.
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