Juno Reactor - The Zwara EP

Juno Reactor, with Ben Watkins as the main actor, is for sure one of my absolute favourite groups of all groups there are of all kinds of music. The last few years they have become wellknown in the movie industry after making music for several movies, included the Matrix movies.... Now they are out with a new CD single only in Japan. Here we get a taste of their latest album and some of the music we have got in the Matrix movies...

First out is the track called Zwara. This is a typical Juno Reactor track, which fits perfect for those who listen to rock music and those who likes experimental psytrance. A totally massive track, with a pretty dark vibe and quite a lot of vocals. A lot of tribal drums too, done by Gocoo, who collaborates on several tracks with Juno Reactor. Good taste of the album...

Track two is a short little track lasting for about a minute. This is a track that appears on the Matrix Reloaded. This has mostly drums, done by Gocoo. Very dark and tribal. The third track we get here is the classic Komit track. This track was originally released on the Bible Of Dreams album on Blue Room Released in 1997. Here we get a slightly different version than the original. This version also appeared on the Matrix Reloaded movie, but not on the soundtrack. A fantastic track, but I think the original version is slightly better. The fourth and last track on this CD single is another classic called Guardian Angel. This one was originally released on the wonderful album called Beyond The Infinite on Blue Room Released in 1995, and it still doesn't sound old!!! The reason why they have put this track on this CD single is that it was used in a Japanese TV programme called Technolyze. A fantastic track!

It is always nice to hear some new Juno Reactor music, and what we get here is great music. But, if you have got their previous albums, there is actually only one interesting track (Zwara) on this CD single. But, it is nice to have in the Juno Reactor collection, so you should probably start hunting for this one.

While I love Juno Reactor to death, I must admit I have mixed feelings about this e.p. Perhaps a better name could have been "the Matrix leftovers" since that is were the majority of these tracks are from. More over in terms of original content, Zwara (Sleepwalker) is about the only thing this cd has to offer, with two of the tracks being older Juno classics and the other "new" track being only a minute long.

"Zwara" is the reason Juno Reactor fans will buy this single. At 7:31, we again see Ben Watkins teaming up with some traditional Japanese taiko drummers, some ethnic vocal action and some nice, almost Bible Of Dreams style, Juno Reactor action. Compared to the Hotaka single, released just prior to Ben Watkins involvement in the Matrix films), I find Zwara to be a much better track and more in tune with the Juno Reactor I know and love.

"Teahouse" features some excellent taiko drumming, however the track is a mere 1:04) but features very little Juno Reactor input out side of a couple synth swells here and there. Basically its just a brief piece from the film that Juno Reactor helped put together. Very nice for its minute duration, but not much beyond that.

The new short mix of "Komit" (coming in at 4:43) was also for Matrix film. Sure its a great song, but I'll take the longer and better original version. This track might as well have been labeled "radio edit" since that what it was. Guardian Angel is yet another old classic grabbed for the single. Sure its a classic, but there is nothing new here and I already have the single for it as well as the album it was on so its appearance here yet again is a bit mystery (not to mention it sounds a bit dated drum-wise coming after the previous three tracks).

The end result - This seems to be a case of "we have a very nice track we wanna release here, but we don't have much else to release with it". Zwara is definately a good track, and Teahouse is nice having, but both should have appeared on a single with at least a couple other new tracks. Komit and Guardian Angel just seems tacked on to fill up the disc and thus one is left feeling a bit disappointed after a promising start.