Juno Reactor - The Mutant Theatre (Metropolis)

[Blubber]

JUNO REACTOR

THE MUTANT THEATRE

2018

METROPOLIS

 

## Heavy-Metal-Robots in a Psy-Circus ##

 

1. Return of the Pistolero

2. Our World

3. Let's Turn On

4. Dakota

5. Alien

6. The Sky is Blue the Sky is Black

7. Showtime

8. Voyager 304

9. Tannhauser Gate

 

 

The Mutant Theatre is Juno Reactor's ninth album and while most of the recent output of our beloved oldschoolers sucked pretty bad, Ben Watkins, the main brain behind this project, seems to be one of the few last psy-man standing. JR is not only one of our pioneers in the psychedelic scene, JR is also wellknown in the rest of the world, JR music is on radios, cinemas and partys - JR is a trademark. So, normally from that point everything goes down. Not so here...

The album starts off with a lengthy remix of the famous Pistolero track. I liked the original, mostly because of its innovativeness, but the melodies can get annoying quite fast. Nothing different with the remix here, all the main parts of the original appear rearranged in a 11minute monster. Bodyshaking for sure, a surprising start into the Mutant Theatre, but to be honest, this comes as a cheap trick to generate some buzz around the Juno homeboys.

The next 6 tracks are all typical Juno CyberPsy, showcasing the broad musical spectrum and unique feeling for cinematic trance Ben Watkins and his brew still hold. We get euphoric tribal chants, indian cyber drums, razorsharp scifi-effects, heavenly rolling mutant moves, alienesque retro basses, futuristic laserleads ...man... this is so fucking good, it's unbelievable that an oldschooler still has the receipt: stay true, go neo and hit hard. So much power in the tracks, very enjoyable and diverse, and with Let's Turn On we have another true sing-along hit. Michele Adamson's wise lyrics combined with a pure Electro-Retro-Trance-Bouncer, this could be warped right out of the 80's. A highlight of the album, especially for the masses. I'm pretty sure this rocked plenty dancefloors this summer.

The last two tracks go relaxed, remembering us that Ben is also a downtempo mastermind. I prefer most of the experimental and slower tracks in Juno's discography, here it is Voyager 304 that stands out with its incredible grooviness and funky house.

 

What else to say? You can't go wrong with a Juno Reactor album! 25 years and still alive, still inventive, still creative, thanks for so many good memories, amazing musical moments, thanks for not selling off but staying psychedelic - PEACE

 

Official Website

Bandcamp

 

[Manuser]

Thanks, wanted to review this but got lazy lately. It's a very solid album, as often with Juno Reactor, lots of variety throughout the tracks. I actually did not think Voyager 304 was that good but enjoyed most of the rest. I have tons of respect for these guys, in each album they released you can clearly hear different styles, they don't want their albums to sound too homogeneous, and it always sounds modern in a good way.
Another recommended album from JR, one of my favorite psy-trance albums this year.  

[Mergi]

This is a really good album and I was lucky that master Starkraver actually brought it to my attention as I've been quite literally out of the loops regarding any JR material since about 6 years back. I never got the CD and actually only bought the vinyl.

Return of the Pistolero and Voyager 304 has so far been the most stand out tracks on the album. Pistolero brought back with a vengeance and clocking in at about 10 minutes it is clearly something I will use the next time I'm in the mood to mix some psy/goa records. Voyager 304 is a really neat deep acidic ambient techno thing, really good stuff for the likes of me who are a sucker for cross genre tracks.

Overall the album is well balanced psytrance that works my ears rather smoothly.

[Urban]

Return of the Pistolero track is sick!

 

Decent album overall but their last great album was Labyrinth imho.