Juno Reactor – The Mutant Theatre

Sometimes people should try to cast their expectations aside. Taken by itself this is a great album. Why compare to what the artist or the scene created a quarter century ago? An artist has the freedom to create what they feel like. And fans shouldn't corner them in a framework defined by what they did in the past. Without comparison to anything else, suppose this was the first psytrance album ever heard, this is a formidable album from start till end. It has great grooves and melodies and bulks with pleasant samples and chants. It never bores because there is constant energetic variation. I like it even more than some of the old Juno Reactor albums. And the production quality of the music is stunning + the pressing and vinyl mastering is perfect. Glad I bought it!

one of the best juno reaktor for the party flavor on the floor... alien and return of the pistolero 2 are by far the best

For me this is the weakest Juno album so far. It is more dancefloor orientated and more in the style of full on psytrance than any other releases by the band. There are predictable breakdowns, build ups, 16th note bass, as on "Dakota", for instance. Whilst this formulaic kitsch is most obvious in the rhythm section, it is also apparent elsewhere. There are some nice Juno "world music" melodies and ideas here and there: I like the haunted fairground melody in "Alien", for example, but the female vocals in this track are really cheesy and the predictable build up is just irritating. I dunno, I guess I just don't much like full on psytrance.

For me the most telling track is "Let's Turn On", surely a knowing nod to Doof's classic track and album of that name from the 90s. This is so markedly superior to Juno Reactor's track it is almost a joke; the comparison is all in favour of the Goa of twenty + years ago and Juno's intertextual reference begins to look wishful, almost embarrassing. Need I say more?

Having said this, the recording is very good quality and so is the flawless pressing. The sound is overall very good.

I wonder if Ben can come up with anything more interesting and less obviously market orientated next time? ~*~

Ben Watkins continues his journey as Juno Reactor with the new live performance concept, Mutant Theater, also the title of his latest studio album. As a JR junkie I got both the vinyl and CD, and rather than go into the boring technical details of the two mediums, I'd rather talk about the music and concept presented here. First of all, this is - by far - JR's most dancefloor-oriented album to date. Every track, minus Voyager 304 and the CD-only track Tannha Gate, is pretty much full-on psy-trance, but in Ben's unique genre-mashing style. My one criticism with his form of psy-trance on Mutant Theater is it's almost like he has ADD when composing - right when things start to get into a seriously good groove, he changes it up drastically, either in an extended breakdown or a completely different direction. A great example of this is the track Alien - this starts off sounding like the strongest track on the album, a very Koxbox or X-Dream-style evil, psychedelic dancefloor destroyer - but right as you're getting into it, the tone completely changes into something less sinister, female vocals come in, strings, etc. I have always appreciated Ben's creativity and I know he doesn't like being super repetitive, but sometimes I feel certain kinds of music need repetition to get you into that tranced out mode. Ironically, it's only the chilled techno track Voyager 304 that keeps the same consistent vibe throughout the track - unsurprisingly, it's my favorite track on this album, a kind of psychedelic techno that would mix perfectly with the more recent stuff from Eat Static and AstroPilot.

My criticism aside, sonically this is a great sounding album, very full and lush production where everything feels very meticulously arranged and EQ'ed. Plenty of past JR themes that make an appearance here, like the industrial-influenced synth riffs, spooky melodies and effects, and the variety of vocals and instruments that prevent this from being just another psy-trance album. All of that is here and Ben does a great job as always of incorporating vasty different sounds and ideas into his tracks. I just wish that he'd let some of his grooves go on longer and not try to do too much all the time. I'm reminded of the famous line from Amadeus... "Too many notes!" Ha. Anyways, because of the excellent production, and a few standout tracks including Voyager 304, Mutant Theater still gets a solid 4/5 from me.