Juno Reactor ‎– Transmissions

Not like Juno Reactor really needs any introduction. Odds are if you're a fan of trance music, or any kind of electronic music for that matter then you've heard the name, if not the sound. Transmissions was one of the first successful (goa) trance albums ever. The only other trance artist in that year that could come to blows with Juno was X-Dream (whom also released their debut album that same year). I haven't had this album since 1993.. heck I was too young to even appreciate music back then, but I can only imagine how massive a CD like this must have been back then. The sci-fi elements must have blown people's minds. The CD seems to carry a theme of space and more in particular, the moon. The voice samples, cover art and track titles do a good job of that. The music itself is a very primitive form of trance, which involves a lot of acid beats. But then again, I guess I shouldn't call this primitive because it blows a lot of today's trance right out of the water with ease. This is the kind of album thats timeless and will never grow old. From the blade sounding beats in Laughing Gas to the guitar in 10,000 Miles and then the possible Contact with aliens in track 4... this album has it all. If you're interested in seeing where goa began, a big piece of it is right here in this album.

The first full length album by Juno Reactor.

Juno Reactor with the driving force of the musical genius of Ben Watkins were one of the first acts to pave the way for what later became labelled as “Goa” or “Psychedelic” trance. Although this album is considered one of the very first albums of this kind of trance, I frankly say that i.m.h.o. only some tracks on this album can be truly defined as (early) Psy-Goa trance. Most of the tracks here are just trance with a good dose of acidic 303 sound.

The opening track “High Energy Protons” is one of the band’s most famous tracks. If you ask me this is what I consider a definition of (early) Goa-trance. This track doesn’t sound dated, unlike the rest of this album which unfortunately sounds a little too dated penalised maybe by the use of excessive 303. “Contact” seems my favourite track here, with a very distinct melody and with its repeating vocal “contact” will haunt you from the first listening. “Acid Moon” is, as the name says, an extremely acidic track. Simple, repetitive, no melody, but great. “10,000 Miles” features some nice guitar riffs, and “Laughing Gas” is another early track by Juno Reactor which was released as a single too.

Album closes with the chilled pure ambient track “Landing”

An essential Trance album which should be on everyone’s shelves.

When this was released, us afficianados of techno called this music "progressive techno". Now it would very unfortunately be regarded as "trance". A milestone work of art, this album really turned my ears when I first heard it. The production is deep and varied, among the best ever in techno. Juno Reactor later achieved a great deal of notoriety when his work was included in the Mortal Kombat soundtrack in 1996, but by then the Juno Reactor formula had changed. This album is so much better than what most people have heard by Ben Watkins. I very strongly recommend giving this one a listen because of all the hundreds of releases I've heard since by hundreds of others, none have ever sounded so fresh. This was a monumental work of art. Tops in my books. Check it out!