The Golden Sun of the Great East [CD]

The Golden Sun of the Great East, the eighth Juno Reactor album, hones the exotic mix of surging trance beats, cinematic vision, and lustrous world music flavors that characterized it's predecessors, from propulsive turbo-opener Final Frontier to evocative satellite serenade finale Playing With Fire and it's panoramic chorale of synths, strings, and haunting voices. In between, tracks such as Invisible, Guillotine, and Trans Siberian surge on mammoth waves of sparkling riffs, turbulent drums, and diva vocals, all directed by Watkins unique sense of drama. While Tempest and Zombie introduce darker atmospherics, Shine and To Byculla hop off the pounding-beats express to deliver a subtler strain of exotic, emotional flow. Studded with future classics, the album seems built for a stratospheric live show.