Juno Reactor – Transmissions

I never got this at the time, but listening back to it 30 years later, I am amazed at how well it has kept, a real classic. A blueprint for a whole scene, seldom bettered.

Incredible album from start to finish , just amazing. Will be timeless even in 50 years.

I the first time I heard this was a friend of mine playing the cd in late 93 as we hung out on the weekend on his smallholding outside of town. He said that he did not like it much, but I thinking that it was not only the most spiritual techno (my only term at that time to describe this kind of music) that I had so far heard, but also a lot tougher than many other techno albums. It was also prepared to be emotionally open and expansive in a way that lots of other techno was not. The cover also struck me as almost like the cover you might find on a prog rock album, or something from Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream. I couldn't forget this album, and sought it out and other music of this "tough spiritual techno" ilk. Little did I know that this was set to be an epic journey. Today this remains my favourite Juno Reactor album. By far. I have all, or close to all, their music, but this is by far the best to my ears. I find it the most coherent, hypnotic and ethereal work by this artist, and one of the best sounding too (perhaps because it is relatively simple in structure and design). It also played a significant role in the development of Goa trance, coming so early on in the genre and hence influencing many musicians. ~*~

Definitely my favorite album of Juno Reactors nascent days. Really more of a curious artifact to the early years of Acid-trance, and it evokes a humid neon tinged dream world that artists the likes of The Orb were doing. May sound dated today but I still have a soft spot for this album.

For some reason I keep coming back to this album. I've heard most albums worth listening to in the category "Goa-trance"/proto-psytrance since I first heard Astral Projection 16 years ago. And there surely are more complex, well-produced and perfected golden era-Goa out there. Yet this album touch me deeper than anything else. Perhaps it's because there is no clichée to be found. It's just true and very innovative psychedelic dance music. Extremely hypnotic music that takes me far into microcosmos at any given time. My favourite is "The Heavens" - a tracks most people seem to overlook. Deep, dark yet colorful travel music from the beyond. Thank you Ben Watkins for the legacy!

I only wanted to have something playing while I was busy. I heard High Energy Protons. I stopped whatever I was doing and listened carefully. I was amazed.
As expected of Ben Watkins.

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 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. “” seems my favourite track here, with a very distinct melody and with its repeating vocal “” 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.