Thunder gods and space masters

>> Locking on target with Juno Reactor's Ben Watkins

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Although they're acknowledged as important figures in the early days of trance, Juno Reactor's latest CD has little to do with the E-Z journeys to other planets the genre ascribes to. Shango does have its milder moments of tablas and bansuris, but those tracks are too deep and delicate for the rave environment. Other tracks, though, tear it up with a ferocious, even violent intensity.

"'Masters of the Universe,'" says central member Ben Watkins, "was written specifically around the time of Kosovo, almost as an anthem for this attitude, the arrogance of the West. Whether it was right or wrong, there's that arrogance--'Hey, we're the international police and we will do this, this and this.' It's almost weapons-testing over some other person's country, seeing whether you hit the target or not. 'Masters' has that feeling, right-on politics mixed with complete tragedy. Whether it's a Serbian child or an Albanian child that gets blown up by some fucking bomb, I think it's criminal.

"When war starts, as they say, the first casualty is truth. Sometimes it's just very painful to watch. We see it from the other side of the television set and it's become so sterile. The newscaster reads about so and so many people being killed or this bomb going wrong, but there's no emotion to it. We watch through this computerized heat-seeking missile or whatever. It's grim, it's grim. Somehow it's supposed to make war okay."

Locked and loaded

Following the theme of media reductionism and distanced, technologized war, the tune has a video-game feel to it, to balance the sorrowful Henryk Gorecki sample that pins it down. No surprise, given Watkin's musical contributions to not only Playstation but also the Mortal Kombat movie. He's also had Juno tracks licensed for Lost in Space and Virtuosity.

"The first original score I composed was for this film called Beowulf--which isn't a particularly good film," he says, acknowledging that star Christophe Lambert should have been a warning sign. "Really puts the dampers on the arty side of it, dunnit? But it was great fun to do, because I've never been through that process of working on what's, I suppose, a major film. It was great to do three or four cues a day, write, record and mix them--bang, bang, bang."

Speaking of bang-bang-bang, album opener "Pistolero" comes off like a spaghetti-western theme with dope breaks. "It's more like Tarantino's gangs, guns and glorification of weaponry, actually, all that sort of stuff, but the tongue-in-cheek aspect of it as well. I'd met Steve [Stevens, former Billy Idol guitarist] in L.A. when we were on tour with Moby. He was bang into this whole sort of acoustic, classical Spanish thing. He plays it like a rock guy would play flamenco, which I liked better than trying to get someone who plays really great but purist flamenco. I'd also had this sample about robbing banks and machine gun sounds that I'd really wanted to use for some time, so it sort of made sense."

Beating 'round the bushmen

Watkin's secret weapon for Juno Reactor, though, is suggested in the album's title--"Shango's the Nigerian god of thunder, and also the patron saint of percussionists." Which would mean that South African unit Amampondo, who contribute to several amazing tracks on the disc and will be joining Watkins on stage here, fall under Shango's divine jurisdiction.

"I was producing a Zulu band in South Africa in '94, '95," recalls Watkins, "and Amampondo were in the same studio as us. I got them in to do hand percussion and congas and things like that. Then I'd gone up to the borders of Namibia and Botswana to film and record the bush people. When I got back, I bumped into Mabi [Thobejane, of Amampondo] and asked, 'Hey, you're a bushman, aren't you?' He said he was, and he started telling all about the story of the bush people, their mythology, and it really got me hooked.

"It suddenly became really apparent that what I was missing, in electronic music, was what these guys had to offer. And when we got the Moby tour, I thought, I cannot go out with my German drummer, bashing away all through the arrangements, depending on what hairstyle he has," referring to hirsute former sidekick Johann Bley.

"Amampondo were exactly what I was looking for: a cross between performing, theatre and circus, almost. The energy they bring to the table is beyond anything I could ever have asked for, of anyone. Touring with them is a joy, and on stage they wear all their feathered hats and warpaint and traditional clothes. It's like a festival of dance and drumming. But just being with them is a pleasure. They make me really appreciate the present moment--I look at their faces and think, 'God, I love this moment. This may be the best thing I ever do in my life.'"

With the Orb's Alex Paterson, Messenger, A.D.A.M and Smiling Buddha at Delerium 3 on Saturday, Dec. 2, $30--$40. Location info: 204-4666 or www.peabrain.org/delerium