Juno Reactor

Juno Reactor
Juno Reactor performing live at Earthcore in December 2008
Background information
Origin	London, United Kingdom
Genres	Electronic Trance Goa trance Industrial Trip Hop World
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Metropolis, NovaMute, Inter-Modo, Blue Room Released
Website	www.JunoReactor.com
Members
Ben Watkins Mike McGuire Stephane Holweck Jens Waldeback Taz Alexander Mabi Thobejane Michael LaDonga Simpiwe Marele Mandala Lande Greg Ellis Paul Jackson Steve Stevens Sugizo Squid Xavier Morell

Juno Reactor is a musical and performing act known for the cinematic fusion of electronic, orchestral, and global music. Central to the project is Ben Watkins and his collaborations with a constantly changing ensemble of musicians from across the world, including percussionist Mabi Thobejane from South Africa, along with countrymen Amampondo, Eduardo Niebla, Steve Stevens, Greg Ellis, Taz Alexander, Ghetto Priest, Sugizo, and recently Yasmin Levy. They also collaborated with composer Don Davis for the musical score of the film The Matrix.

History

Juno Reactor was formed as an art project in 1990. Watkins wanted to collaborate with other artists, producing exciting projects that were not commercially driven. He wanted to create experimental music and non-musical soundtracks that would work with installations, art pieces, and film projects.^{[citation needed]}

Juno Reactor released their first single, "Laughing Gas", in 1993 on the NovaMute label. This was soon followed by their debut album, Transmissions. This release was the first artist album in the genre. Later, the band released Luciana on Alex Paterson's (The Orb) Inter-Modo label. Juno Reactor left NovaMute and Inter-Modo in 1995 and signed with the UK label Blue Room Released to release the single "Guardian Angel". Their album Beyond the Infinite was released in 1995.

The 1997 Wax Trax! Records/TVT Records release Bible of Dreams was Juno Reactor's fourth album. It had a much different sound than the previous albums, and moved away from the traditional dance beats by implementing tribal influences. Watkins collaborated with Amampondo, a traditional South African percussion act, on the single "Conga Fury". Watkins and Amampondo went on a five week tour of the US, doing the opening for Moby. In 1998, Juno Reactor played a live set with Amampondo at Glastonbury Festival. In 1999, the group collaborated with The Creatures on the track "Exterminating Angel", featured on that group's album Anima Animus.

Watkins released the fifth Juno Reactor album, Shango, in 2000. It was the first of his albums on Metropolis Records. The first track from the album, "Pistolero", was a collaboration with Billy Idol's guitarist, Steve Stevens. The track was featured during the trailer for the movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico, as well as in the film itself.^{[citation needed]} In the fall of 2002, Juno Reactor released a new single titled "Hotaka". It was recorded in a Japanese studio overlooking Mt. Fuji. "Hotaka" featured Stevens on guitar, and included traditional Taiko drummers Gocoo. In 2003, the album Odyssey 1992–2002 was released as a compilation of the best Juno Reactor tracks of the decade.

The sixth Juno Reactor album, Labyrinth, was released in October 2004, and featured Watkins' work from the Matrix films. The album once again featured the tribal influences present in their music through tracks like "Conquistador II".

In 2006, Watkins was hired to compose an orchestral score for Brave Story, a Japanese anime feature film. Sony Japan released the soundtrack, which was recorded at the Slovak Radio Concert Hall in Slovakia with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. The album was written by "Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor".

In 2008 Ben Watkins collaborated with anime director Koji Morimoto for Genius Party Beyond, an anthology of short animated films from Studio 4°C.

Juno Reactor's album Gods & Monsters was released in March 2008, and featured the introduction of Ghetto Priest and Sugizo into the Juno Reactor fold, along with Eduardo Niebla, Xavier Morel, and Yasmin Levy. In 2009, the band toured with drummer Budgie, of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Appearances in media

Movies and television

Juno Reactor produced and wrote Traci Lords's American hit "Control". As an instrumental it was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Mortal Kombat. It was used in the fight between Liu Kang and Reptile. The group also appeared on the soundtrack to the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, with the track "Conga Fury".

Later, Ben Watkins in collaboration with Don Davis, spent 6 months In LA working with Don Davis and the Wachowski Brothers for the Matrix series of films and video games. Ben Watkins Scored to picture over an hour of Music, finalizing in the colossus of "Navras" a masterpiece of electronic - world music and full orchestra Animatrix also featured pre-existing tracks "Masters Of The Universe" (in Kid's Story) and "Conga Fury (Animatrix Remix)" (in Final Flight of the Osiris).

Brave Story also saw Ben Watkins Score his first full orchestra feature, released in Japan where it was the no1 film for 6 weeks.

Many other tracks have been sync'd into films some are listed below. Their single "Guardian Angel" was featured as the opening theme of the anime series Texhnolyze. "Guardian Angel" was also featured in the movie Drive, starring Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison. Other Juno Reactor tracks appear on movies such as Eraser, Virtuosity, Lost In Space, the 1999 film Beowulf, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.^{[citation needed]} Juno Reactor soundtracks have also been played during baseball, basketball, and gridiron football games, and the Japanese Grand Prix.

Ben Watkins is now working on Iron Sky with Laibach www.ironsky.net as well as Bunraku Both will be released sometime in 2011.

Video games

Their work appears in the PlayStation game Jet Moto 3, PlayStation 2's Frequency, and the Xbox game Mad Dash Racing. Juno Reactor also scored the PlayStation 2 game The Mark of Kri.

Juno Reactor also has a song in the game Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4. "Masters of the Universe", from the album Shango, was briefly heard during the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie trailer. The trailer for Secuestro Express includes an excerpt from the song "War Dogs" off of the Labyrinth album. Also from Labyrinth, the song "Mutant Message" is featured in the Legion trailer.

Discography

Full-length albums

• Transmissions (NovaMute Records 1993)
• Luciana (Inter-Modo 1994) (61-minute track originally recorded for The Missile Project traveling art installation)
• Beyond the Infinite (Blue Room Released 1995)
• Bible of Dreams (Blue Room Released 1997)
• Shango (Metropolis Records 2000)
• Labyrinth (Metropolis Records, Universal Music 2004)
• Gods & Monsters (Metropolis Records 2008)
• Inside the Reactor (Metropolis Records 2011)

Singles and EPs

• Laughing Gas (1993)
• High Energy Protons (1994)
• Guardian Angel (1995)
• Samurai (1996)
• Conga Fury (1996)
• Jungle High (1997)
• God Is God (1997)
• GOD IS GOD!! (Front 242 Mixes) (1997)
• Pistolero (Blue Room Released 2000)
• Nitrogen (2000) - 2 tracks taken from "Shango"
• Masters of the Universe (2001)
• Hotaka (2002)
• The Zwara EP (2003)
• Song to the Siren (2009)
• Fear Not (with Laibach, 2009)

Live recordings and compilation albums

• Odyssey 1992–2002
• Shango Tour 2001 Tokyo (Live In Tokyo) (2002)

External links

• JunoReactor.com - Juno Reactor official website
• Juno Reactor at the Open Directory Project
• Interview with Ben Watkins by Special Radio
• Extensive Juno Reactor discography at Discogs
• Juno Reactor on Last.fm, a social music profiling service