Juno Reactor have long been one of the go-to acts for fusing the orchestral with the electronic.
For their eighth album they have created a full-throttle, kaleidoscopic vision of the far east that shies away from the carefully considered techno-cinema formula they perfected with their brilliant work on the Matrix soundtrack.
In its place they have opted for an in-your-face trance vs world-music hybrid.
It’s an obvious detour for Juno Reactor’s head honcho Ben Watkins who has regularly flirted with the exotic over his lengthy career, but it’s a deviation that proves to be an overindulgent one.
Make it twenty minutes into The Golden Sun Of The Great East and you’ve heard just two tracks of in-your-face eastern influenced trance, and it’s not about to let up any time soon.
The formula does eventually birth one great track in the cutthroat centrepiece “Trans Siberian”, but this is sandwiched between about 45 minutes of very similar sounding, monotonous process work that could have been left on the cutting room floor (or used for a Mortal Kombat Soundtrack).
The record’s tail end gets more interesting thanks to the reserved textural techno of “Zombie” and the choral beauty of “Playing With Fire”, but it is so diluted by the bombardment of all that came before it you’re too exhausted to care.
The Golden Sun Of The Great East is yet another Juno Reactor release that showcases too much and dilutes their considerable talents in the process.
