Inside the Reactor

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.