The Game Is On
uneducatedphilistine | Chicago, Illinois, United States | 10/06/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The only two electronica bands whose current music excites me anymore are Autechre and Juno Reactor. They're the only ones who don't have styles that have already played themselves out-Autechre keeps re-inventing their style (they're on their third, now, I think), and Juno Reactor really only came into their own with _Shango_. What draws me to these two is also how antithetical the directions they sketch out for techno are: Autechre demands more contemplation, more rational attention to form, less musical tradition, less dancing, truly cerebral music; whereas Juno Reactor is furiously, even ridiculously dramatic, god-damn Hollywood-ish, demand that one rock in one's chair when not dancing, and don't hesitate to marshal every established emotional cue and rock-based musical trick in the book. Needless to say, after hearing Autechre's very good _Gantz Graf_ EP, I was dying for the Reactor to step up to the plate with the Hotaka single. I want their upcoming albums to be electronica's _Sgt. Pepper_ vs. _Smile_ extravaganza. As of yet, I have not been disappointed. In a way similar to _Gantz Graf_, _Hotaka_ comes from a band trying to take the major advance on their last album and ground it more integrate it with their own instincts and traditions. By and large, the wilder orchestration and more rock-like organization of _Shango_ are here, but alongside, I was surprised to discover, a much more _Beyond the Infinite_-like timbre. We've got a fuzzed-out bouncing trance beat for a base, samples of arcing electricity, choral singers, guitar melodies that have obviously been lifted from a James Bond film, and even Steve Stevens doing that "Biot Messiah" thing on the guitar, Ben Watkins-style (!...). The track pushes the past _Shango_, too: the way the beat comes in waves near the beginning is a organizational step up, and Gocoo provides some wonderfully syncopated shouts that are a nice break from the usual straight trance 4/4.The track isn't a home run: there are more unvaried sixteen-bar reps, a step down from the Fluke-like blitz that some of _Shango_, notably "Pistolero", exhibited. And at eight minutes, the track overstays its welcome. Call it a stand-up triple.I won't bother to review the remixes. They're both pretty okay. The Kloq one works pretty hard to make a standard groovin' trance track out of the whole affair. Whatever. Buy the single if you can't stand the wait. Just don't let reviewers or anyone else convince you that Juno Reactor is too goofy, low-brow, and culturally imperialist or isn't good and intelligent enough to be one of the two best bands in twenty-first century electronica. Game on for Confield II vs. Shango II in 2003?"
