Juno Reactor - Shango

[Guest Le Lotus Bleu]

This album has a tracklist more various than Bible of Dreams (too much tribal

influences). So it results diversity AND quality. All tracks are interesting.

The only bad thin like in Bible of dreams is the running time of the album (too

short), just 62 minutes.There's place for some 2 or 3 tracks more.

rating :7,5/10

[Guest blufunk[at]mail[dot]com]

Jesus!! i can't believe some of the negative reviews on this page! This album

is IMHO one of the most innovative i've heard.. doesn't just innovate on one

particular thing either - this album has so much variety.. Bloody heaps..

Stuff to dance to, stuff to freakin meditate on.. and this stuff is bloody

beautiful.. Nitrogen Part 2 gets me dancing my balls off, then the last two

tracks are like meditation stuff. It's just amazing the wide spectrum of music

JR is capable of writing... And yes it does also have some of the darkest shit

i've heard.. reaaaal dark bass sounds only JR are capable of. um and they even

do soundtrack style during second half of 3. Stop complaining about the genre!

This isn't 'GOA TRANCE' this is 'JUNO REACTOR' and JR forced themselves to be

GOA TRANCE till they died, they wouldn't be freakin artists. Alot of people

are just not used to this new direction and that's normal, but some of us do

see the beauty they've created and the unreal pioneering and innovation

they've achieved.. They've explored all these wonderful new areas of music and

pulled it off with finesse. Well done JR! 9/10

[Guest kidro102[at]hotmail[dot]com]

This is not the juno that I once knew they have strayed too far from thier

roots with the exception of masters of the universe and nitrogen2 which are

10/10 tracks the album gets a 6.5/10

[seraph]

Simply great !

10/10

[Guest xdream[at]email[dot]com]

it's NICE!!!! it's TOO NICE!!! l o l GREAT!!!

 

www.x-dream.up.co.il

[freak51]

Another track just 'switched itself on' for me: #6, Nitrogen Part One. Slower

(120ish BPM), breakbeats with a japanese-sounding string and some sort of dark

fuzzed-out oily wet mastication engine underneath. The timing is perfect for

sets with breakbeats in, or for transition in/out of broken beats.

[Guest 6drag[at]acncanada[dot]net]

Not bad, but a little TOO experimental. Pistolero, Killer, absolutely KILLER!!!

everything else on this album is a little too chill for my taste. Also, Waaay

too much world beat influence here, i mean, don't get me wrong, it SO worked

on 'bible of dreams' but here, it's like shpongle meets bill laswell meets

brian eno meets Fela Kuti meets Antibalas and an orchestra of ravi shankars!!!

waay too artsy. not enough beats.

[Guest the other demented clown]

PISTOLERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest blue_star]

I ADORE THIS ALBUM!!!

SIMPLE FANTASTIC...

[psychotronic]

BaDiMo!!!!!

[Guest DJMikeM]

Its ok, but I dont get why they have really great songs like Masters of The

Universe and Pistolero and all the rest leave you waiting for more, but none

of it comes too you. It's an ok album

[Guest martin]

most of the tracks are good but PISTOLERO & Masters Of The UNIVERSE are

soooooooooooooooooo f-----g great

i give it 0910

[Guest [Anonymous]]

The bad thing you are ravers..just becose u don't appreciate other music...just

your faking trance music....this album is gud...

[Guest [Anonymous]]

This is a very different sound than other trance, very expirimental. Even if

the style doesnt fit your taste you can at least appriciate this album in an

artistic sense. I think this is great. It should be listened to as an entire

work of art, not just for the individual songs. Very beautiful music. 8/10

[spaceliner]

excellent producion and fantastic tracks...insects kills...juno did it

again.....stay tribal...9/10

[Guest Weird Planet Earth]

Hmmm, it is a good album but no where near Bible Of Dreams which i love. They

used soft synths and you can really tell by the sounds, just doesn't really

compare to hardware. I like it a lot, but is something only for special

occasions, not for regular spins

[seraph]

Extremely good album...It is very different and has various ethnic

collages...PISTOLERO is a spanish trance twister and one of the best on

album...HULELAM is more African oriented and INSECTS are absolutely stunning,

another one of the best...BADIMO is more darker and primal, and then comes one

of the best JUNO REACTOR songs ever - MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE...What a track

!NITROGEN 1 and 2 are both amazing songs and SOLARIS is one of the best

ambiental works of all time.....SONG FOR ANCESTORS is another perfect

song...It has one of the best female vocals that I have ever heard....10.5/10

[cryion]

I pretty like that album. even though its not really psytrance, which doesnt

mean it isnt psychedelic. psychedelic means also mystic, in a way dark and

many other things. its not 303 or something else that makes psytrance

psychedelic. its the meaning of the music. Shango has that psychedelic, mystic

feeling.

nr1: great buildup, sounds very spanic, great track.

nr2: dont really like that one! although nice influences.

nr3: dark

nr4: dark too

nr5: very nice, probably the most psychedelic piece on that cd. very fast.

nr6: dont know what to say about! ambientish, nice parts in it.

nr7: better than part1 imo, i like that dark atmosphere which is given through

the string.

nr8: calls Flute Fruit by Shpongle in my mind, just that this one is longer.

beautiful one.

nr9: since i prefer ambient with nice vocals this one is an absolute hit.

perfect for closedown of the album. overall a very nice sequel which earns a

8.5 out of 10

Boom Shankar

[Guest Davidtolsn]

all right... this is just bad. fuck this cd. it is a sorry effort, and the only

reasonably catchy song is pistelero which isn't even goa. it is pseudotribal

and pseudointelligent. different than other juno cds and a lot worse. very

boring and annoying at times. 1/10

[Guest Nalin]

This is bad and its also good. It depends on how you want to perceive it. It

also depends on how narrow you are. If you want to find the good in it, if you

want to stretch your mind and open up to something different, if you want to

add diversity and completeness to your trance rotation, then get the album

[Jon Cocco]

JUNO REACTOR - SHANGO

2000

 

 

Track listing:

 

01. 06'13" Pistolero - A-

02. 04'00" Hule Lam - B-

03. 06'18" Insects - A-

04. 07'13" Badimo - B+

05. 06'05" Masters Of The Universe - A-

06. 08'33" Nitrogen Part 1 - B+

07. 06'25" Nitrogen Part 2 - B

08. 08'57" Solaris - B+

09. 08'09" Song For Ancestors - A

 

Wow people.. No reviews or words on this forum since 2003??

 

I listened to this entire album again on my headphones without distractions and you know what? This is an awesome album. If you are a Juno Reactor fan, you must have it. The only track I don't find good is track 2, Hule Lam. I generally love their tribal trance but the overall sound produced here is weaker, far less catchy than others I've heard by JR. That aside, this is a great album loaded with Wthnic/World influence, both light and dark, anger and beauty. I don't care that this album isn't dance floor psy/goa trance focased or lacking in super dance floor killers. How about experimental killers?? That's right. Shango is creative, innovative, intelligent, cleverly composed, inspirational, at times powerful, and catchy for the most part throughout. It's as if the opening song, the beginning is as a metaphor for the less aware (robbing banks, crazy cowboy-ish lifestyle and attitude-theme) and gets darker and more provocative into the middle tracks before turning around somewhere at tracks 5-7. It is at this point that the album, Shango, as if a character, become more meditative, heavenly, beautiful, and floating.

 

Shango seems to go from being a wild, crazy horse... down the dark self/ego need-to-experience-path. It then seems to turn around and enter the state of shedding these elements that hold us down from releasing our inner-self from all the distractions in life. This is just my interpretation. The album seems develop and move toward peace the more it progresses. Towards enlightenment. There is a very human/animal side to this album and spiritual aspect or side to it all it's own. Just listen to it! I love Juno Reactor. I love how they go from beautiful and dreamlike to wild, badass darkness and back again! Talk about artists who tread that fine line between light and dark. I also love how organic sounding their trible sounds (drums, yells, chants) appear to be. While I enjoyed Labyrinth very much and consider it one of 2004's best, Labyrinth became a little too much like well orchestrated movie music at times. I still loved that album and I find something even more experimental and elegant about Shango. This is one of 2000's top best.

 

In conclusion, time goes by and people forget greatness. They forget exactly how they felt towards something they once thought was great. Time goes by and most memories fade even more. People forget other experiences that may have once been special to them. I see some people throughout this thread judging this album relative to psytrance albums. Open your minds! Some peoples mind-sets were different from certain expectations which alter how you look at things as objectively as possible (It's not psychedelic enough??, Of course it isn't. Shango isn't psytrance!) This perception doesn't mean you're garanteed to like the album either of course. Tastes differ even when the general consensus of something is superb. Even I was at first unsure about several tracks here, track 2 the first one I disliked right away. I always found that track not nearly as enjoyable as the others. Regardless, this is a superb album. Some people will consider it an underrated masterpiece while others will say it's weird, different, good, bad. You're all right relative to what you believe in the moment, for you. In the end, everything serves a purpose and it's cool to kickass. Shango isnt dependent on being like other albums. It has a mind of it's own in a sense. It isn't dependent on one style or sub-genre. It isn't goa and it isn't exactly psy either. And yet artists that helped create what would later be referred to as goa/psytrance managed to create something with so much rhythm, style, creativity, and substance -- and still kick ass. I own all of Juno Reactors albums and have spent much time exploring deep into their sound, their energy present throughout their music. This is one of their most mature, thoughtful, and inventive albums whether you like it or not. It's one of those albums that will always stand on its own, unless I'm lacking knowledge or awareness to currently know otherwise. Shango is great, maybe a classic for various reasons. All that aside, it's just fun to listen to!

 

 

A-

[w_lizzard]

Simply great !

10/10

Speechless, Breathless, Emotional.

A prayer.

Song For Ancestors.

Juno 'Respectful' Reactor.

[Bahamut]

Ugh... I was reading the old comments..and now I don't feel like posting a small review anymore. Some of these guys were really a bunch of clueless raver kids.

[Mindphilux]

Badimo bores me to death... but the rest of the tracks here are top notch

[Ormion]

I think it's time to say a few words about this album.

 

This is one of the first Psy(?) album I bought, I have listened to it like a million times, but I still don't like it at all.

 

Pistolero still sounds to me exactly like the first time. My thoughts were ''interesting but too mainstream''. I even bet that one day this track would be in a newschool western movie and guess what, some years later it appeared in Once Upon A Time In Mexico. It's a cool track, but sounds extremelly commercial to my ears and the main giutar melody still annoys me. Don't like.

Hulelam is simply boring IMO.

Insects is one of the best of the albums, dark and abstract, yet nothing exciting.

Badimo is indeed very dark, it grew on me a lot, but again nothing to be excited about it.

Masters Of The Universe was the track I liked the most in his album. Unfortunately it grew old for me. I believe it's as mainstream as Pistolero, but that's not the point. The point is that today I found the track to be very simple. Catchy indeed, but that's all.

Both Nitrogen are very boring for me. I still can't remember a thing about them.

Solaris is a track I used to hate, but today is my favorite of the album. Especially the first half is very soothing and trippy with great flute.

And Song For Ancestors. Well, at first I disliked it, then I liked it a lot, now I dislike it again. The track is indeed good, but those female vocals are maybe the worst I've ever heard. The moment she laughs makes me wanna kill myself. If the vocals were missing then I would still like it.

 

Shango for me is one of this classic albums that I never appreciated, ever after 8 years of listening, so my rating is the same with my first one 3/10.