Juno Reactor Album: “Shango”

Once tantalised by the release of the Flamenco-inspired "Pistolero" single, Juno Reactor fans have had to wait over a year to hear the much-delayed album the single is taken from. But the wait has definitely been worth it: Shango shows that Juno Reactor still produce truly original work.

The album starts upbeat with the fast Spanish guitars of "Pistolero", by now a classic floor-filler. The album moves smoothly on to African drumming on "Hule Lam", a fine example of ethnic trance. The pace slows slightly with the bass-laden but strangely haunting "Insects", mellowing out nicely before picking up for the dark and brooding "Badimo". Towards the end of the track, those with good hearing may pick out some familiar sounds from Juno Reactor's first album, "Transmissions".

Then without much warning you're suddenly launched into "Masters of the Universe", a powerful and at times frantic track. Again a Spanish influence comes to the fore here, with Flamenco / Arabesque chanting and super-fast tom-toms. The track is beautifully paced, moving from impossibly fast to slow, funky syncopation and back again with incredible ease.

The "Nitrogen" tracks mark a change in the flow of the album, connecting the previous adrenaline-laced material to the more ambient and rather mellow tracks that follow. "Nitrogen part 1" takes its inspiration from a more oriental style of music, slightly reminiscent of "Kaguya Hime" on "Bible of Dreams". "Nitrogen part 2" is slightly more upbeat, with an insistent, pulsing rhythm.

"Solaris" is a beautifully crafted super-relaxed Tibetan sound. Nothing is rushed. Slowly Indian drums come in, overlayed with African then Arabic chanting.

The final track "Song for Ancestors" is a little faster, but is still pretty mellow. Long echos, strings, and a thin female voice over the top make this an amazingly relaxing tune to bring you down gently on.

This album is unique in blending such diverse styles of music; only "Banco de Gaia" comes close in terms of breadth. This album has a harder, darker edge than Banco's "Igizeh", but if you like one you'll probably like the other.

After listening to Shango several times, I have mixed feelings. Juno Reactor has as much expanded on the sonic and thematic motifs that they began to earnestly focus on in Bible of Dreams as they have left them behind. The almost too smoothly organic pulses of their last album are gone--replaced by a mix of furiously energetic and vivid rhythms as well as eeriely cold ambientish tracks. If one part of the album is a desert tribe whirling in fury around a campfire, another is the sounds of that same desert, cold, dark, and alien at night. Shango takes the tribal aspects of Bible of Dreams's sound and, instead of letting them merely color the songs and give them character, Juno Reactor lets them *become* the song. And, so far, I think with mixed results. Some of the best Juno Reactor tunes ever are on this album: Pistolero and Masters of the Universe are an amazing synthesis of the energetically dramatic 'epics' of early Juno Reactor (Feel the Universe, Labyrinth, Rotorblade, Samurai, High Energy Protons, etc) mixed with the cooly dark organic feel of Conga Fury and Children of the Night on Bible of Dreams. Song for Ancestors is a beautifully haunting piece that falls outside of traditional electronica, reminding more of Dead Can Dance than The Crystal Method or KoxBox. Both Solaris and the two segments of Nitrogen are, for the most part, slow and creepy. Not bad at all but again, I *occasionally* wonder if I'm listening to Synaesthesia or Aphex Twin rather than Juno Reactor. (Songs like Landing, Magnetic {for the faster sections of Nitrogen}, and Acid Moon? put out earlier by Juno Reactor are worth mentioning as comparison). Finally, there's Badimo (or Aroimo as Amazon.com calls it for some reason), which annoys me slightly. The song is heavy, percussive, and deep sounding, with a crazed voice chanting 'Badimo, etc' throughout it. So far, I don't feel they did enough with this song...I kept expecting something to happen. To an extent, I felt the same way with Solaris and Insects. This is likely to do with expectations of Juno Reactor (one expects some kick to their songs). But taken as purely what they are, Badimo, Insects, and Solaris are not bad all all. But these songs, like the song 'Shark' are a far cry from the style of songs off Beyond the Infinite or Transmissions. Juno Reactor is definitely evolving at composing yet I'm ambivalent as to I feel about this. If we continue to get songs like Pistolero and Masters of the Universe, and they refine their worthy but perhaps undeveloped efforts in songs like Nitrogen 1+2, I'll be with them for a long time to come. If we get more like Badimo and Shark...well, we'll see.

From the first gorgeous guitar note on the song Pistolero to the sonic landscapes of Song for Ancestors I was completely won over by this cd. I originally heard of Juno Reactor way back in 4th grade because of a song they did for Mortal Kombat, but never paid attention to them because I thought it was just another techno band. This sad process of exposure to their music occurred over the past 8 years, and much to my regret I didn't purchase one cd from them until last year. If you've ever watched The Matrix Trilogy, they're in there. The music from the historic Freeway Chase, Burly Brawl, and final battle between smith and neo were all written by Juno Reactor (except for one that was a collaboration). Believe me, you will not regret buying this cd. Pistolero effectively blends the classic guitar sound of spaghetti westerns with psychedelic trance (and yes, they used a live guitarist for the entire thing). Insects is a dramatic and bass heavy song that'll get your head bobbin' before you know it. Masters of the Universe is also known as the song from Kid's Story in Animatrix when he skateboards from the agents. Thankfully the best song on the cd is the one song that can't be bought as a single. Nitrogen Part 1 was simply my favorite song of all time. This may be hard to stomach for some people who can't understand how a song without lyrics can convey any amount of emotion. You may be surprised, not just at how good the song is, but that the song actually transforms in the last few minutes. Trance songs are notorious for being unimaginative loops with a droning bass beat. Nitrogen Part 2 is basically a raver's dream come true. And Song for Ancestors is just beautiful. Warning: this is a new breed of trance that blends live and computer generated music, and it's damn good. There's some very nice ethnic vocal singing mixed in to Masters of the Universe and Song for Ancestors that brings to mind the gorgeous intro to Conga Fury. Another thing I recommend is to listen to this music alone in your room with your eyes closed because these songs actually paint pictures in your mind if you relax enough. Buy this cd now, please. Two other cd's I recommend from them are "Bible and Dreams" and "Beyond the Infinite" (which is out of print, but I was lucky enough to get it from a private dealer).

innovative, super-charged dance/world beats with Steve Stevens cranking on guitar and many other surprises along the way. Yes, synth has merged with world before; but it takes the likes of J.R. to stir the pot just right.

Astoundingly enjoyable work.

I had been anxiously waiting over seven months for Shango to be released, and when I finally got it, I was slightly let down. I was expecting another album in the vein of Bible of Dreams and I had also expected it to be better. In my opinion, Bible of Dreams is an absolute masterpiece...easily the best "electronic" album ever, and it is one of my all-time favorites. So to compare Shango to it was not fair on my part. After a couple more listen-throughs, Shango has emerged as a very unique and fantastic album; it does not have the flow that BOD had, and it is much darker and rougher--that is to say the musical elements in the songs do not blend together with surgical precision all the time-- but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Pistolero and Masters of the Universe are the standout tracks, for both have marvelous beats that grab you and don't let go. Insects and Badimo are very dark songs, the former has a subtle beat that lulls you into a sense of security until it explodes into chaotic bursts of drums, and the latter at times sounds like some sort of pagan ritual soundtrack. Hulelam features the frantic drumming of the African group Amampondo, and while their beats dont always line up with Juno's, it is still a wonder to hear. Nitrogen part 1 is a collaboration with the Orb's Alex Patterson and it has a great beat that makes you bob your head with a fascinating sonic influence that can only be described as "oriental". Nitrogen part 2 is another dark song with intense mechanical beats and loops. The last songs, Solaris and Song for Ancestors are much slower, "comedown songs" I call them. They allow you to reflect on what youve heard and while unspectacular, they are a fitting end for the album. The good sign is that I wish they had replaced one of those with another hard track or two, showing that as long as Juno Reactor continue to evolve and change their sound, while keeping it as infectuous as ever, they will remain my favorite band.