Industrial music, as it emerged in the 1980s, has very often carried with it an unpleasant whiff of fascism: jackboot beats, faintly German accents (often affected),
Wagnerian choral snippets, sometimes explicitly Nazi-derived stage costumes.
Ben Watkins, recording with a shifting cast of collaborators as
Juno Reactor, has generally skirted these tendencies, in part by working with a broad stylistic palette that includes elements of trip-hop, world music, and trance; in fact, although his releases are often found in the "Industrial" bin, his music has always fit that category rather poorly. The remix artists invited to provide new interpretations of
Juno Reactor tracks for this collection reflect
Watkins' catholicity of taste: there are mixes by
MIDIval PunditZ,
Perfect Stranger,
Bombay Dub Orchestra, and
Uber Tmar, among others, and although the rhythms do tend to coalesce around a certain jackboot-house theme (and there are occasional appearances by a rather Teutonic-sounding choir), there's quite a bit of rhythmic and textural variety. Highlights include
Bombay Dub Orchestra's Middle Eastern-funk-reggae take on "Pistolero,"
Thomas P. Karni's hard and spare treatment of "Zwara," and the cool but jittery
MIDIval PunditZ mix of "Navras." Less interesting are
Dino Psaras' blocky and predictable mix on "Guardian Angel" and
Perfect Stranger's tedious industrial-house take on "Rotorblade." This collection will be welcomed by established fans, but may not be the best introduction to
Juno Reactor for newcomers. ~ Rick Anderson
