Juno Reactor – Imagination, Use It As A Weapon, the legendary soundscapes of the electronic music pioneers, 1993–2000. Five classic albums newly mastered in one set: Transmissions, Luciana, Beyond the Infinite, Bible of Dreams and Shango.
Includes a print signed by frontman Ben Watkins and music featured in the films Mortal Kombat Annihilation, The Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Composer, producer, musician and performer Ben Watkins is an essential innovator of modern electronic music and a pioneer of Trance. Over the course of nearly 30 years, Watkins has created a unique driving fusion of electronica, orchestral and global music e xecuted on an epic & symphonic scale. As well as releasing a string of influential albums as Juno Reactor, Watkins’ tracks have been placed in numerous high-profile feature films, television programmes and computer games and Ben Watkins composed large sections of the original score for the films ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘The Matrix Revolutions’, as well as composing the entire orchestral score for Japanese anime feature film ‘Brave Story’.
Juno Reactor was formed as an art project in 1990. Ben Watkins wanted to collaborate with other artists, producing exciting projects that were not commercially driven. He wanted to create experimental music and non-musical soundtracks that would work with installations, art pieces, and film projects.
Juno Reactor released their first single, “Laughing Gas”, in 1993 on the NovaMute label. This was soon followed by their debut album, Transmissions. Later, the band released Luciana on Alex Paterson’s (The Orb) Inter-Modo label. Juno Reactor left NovaMute and Inter-Modo in 1995 and signed with the UK label Blue Room to release the single “Guardian Angel”. Their album Beyond the Infinite was released in 1995. The 1997 Blue Room released Bible of Dreams which was Juno Reactor’s fourth album. It had a very different sound from the group’s previous albums, and moved away from the traditional dance beats by implementing tribal influences. Watkins collaborated with Amampondo, a traditional South African percussion act, on the single “Conga Fury“.
Watkins and Amampondo went on a five-week tour of the US, opening for Moby. In 1998, Juno Reactor played a live set with Amampondo at Glastonbury Festival. 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 a collaboration with Billy Idol’s guitarist, Steve Stevens. The track was featured during the trailer for the movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico, as well as in the film itself.
Juno Reactor’s stunning live performances are global, Burning Man (USA), Glastonbury (UK), Roskilde (Denmark), Fuji Rock (Japan), The Glade (UK), Boom (Portugal), Ozora (Hungary), Summer Sonic (Japan) BoomTown Fair (UK), and many more.
