Juno Reactor

Juno Reactor are a goa trance music group, often known for their tribal influences, consisting of Ben Watkins and Mike Macguire. At one point, the group also included other members, including Johann Bley, Stephen Holweck, and Jens Waldenback.

History

The Missile Project

Juno Reactor was formed initially in 1990 by Ben Watkins and Stephen Holweck as an experimental ambient project to record soundtrack to accompany a sculptural art installation and performance project by the sculpture artist (and Watkins' girlfriend) Norma Fletcher called "The Missile Project". The centerpiece of the project was a a 70-foot replica of a decommissioned missile nicknamed "Juno Reactor" which they rolled around London while playing their music to raise awareness about nuclear war. According to Watkins, " was blue concrete. And it looked like a dinosaur tail. And a smoke came out of it." http://www.specialradio.net/juno_reactor/inter.shtml The project took over a month to complete, however the exhibition lasted only several hours as London police arrived to break up the missile and arrested all members of the project. The music was eventually released as Juno Reactor's second album, Luciana.

Related Topics:
1990 - Ambient - Girlfriend - Norma Fletcher - Missile - London - Nuclear war - London police

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1993 and beyond

In 1993, Juno Reactor released their first single, "Laughing Gas", on NovaMute. This was soon followed by their debut album, Transmissions. This release was considered a huge success and is considered to be one of the first albums in the goa trance genre. Later, the band released their above mentioned Luciana album on Alex Patterson's (The Orb) Inter-Modo label. Juno Reactor left NovaMute and Inter-Modo in 1995 and signed to UK's Blue Room Released label to release Guardian Angel single. Their album Beyond the Infinite was released in 1996.

Related Topics:
1993 - NovaMute - Goa trance - Alex Patterson - The Orb - Inter-Modo - 1995 - UK - Blue Room Released - 1996

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The 1997 release on Wax Trax! Records/TVT Records, Bible of Dreams, was Juno Reactor's fourth album. It had a sound much different from the previous albums and moved away from the traditonal dance beats by implementing tribal influences. Watkins collaborated with Amampondo, Nelson Mandela's favorite traditional South African percussion act, on the single "Conga fury". Ben Watkins and Amampondo went on a five week tour of the U.S., doing the opening for Moby.

Related Topics:
1997 - Wax Trax! Records - TVT Records - Amampondo - Nelson Mandela - South African - Moby

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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 done in a collaboration with guitarist Steve Stevens (Billy Idol). The song opened up an entirely new direction for Juno Reactor. This same track was also featured in the trailer for the movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico. In the fall of 2002, Juno Reactor released new single titled "Hotaka". It was in a Japanese studio overlooking Mt. Fuji. "Hotaka" once again featured Steve Stephens on guitar, and included traditional Taiko drummers, Gocoo. In 2003, the Odyssey 1992-2002 album was released as a compilation of the best Juno Reactor tracks of the past decade.

Related Topics:
2000 - Metropolis Records - Steve Stevens - Billy Idol - Once Upon a Time in Mexico - 2002 - Mt. Fuji - Taiko - Gocoo - 2003

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

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