In today's world of corporate teen rock and stale pop, innovative musicians are at a premium. This is especially true in the world of electronic music, which has become dominated by sequencing and DJ obsession. For the last decade, raves and clubs across America have witnessed the growth of electronic music from its underground origins in Detroit and Chicago to the thriving pop music scene. While Fat Boy Slim and Crystal Method find their music selling cars, and mainstream artists such as Madonna restyle themselves with tracks like "Ray of Light," Juno Reactor continues to remain true to their music while producing ground-breaking tracks year after year.

Reactor is one of England's greatest musical exports (not to take anything away from that Beatles band of some years back). They represent the cutting edge of ambient music, creating surreal landscapes using electronic sequencing with a blend of live instrumentation. This mix of computer-generated beats and live grooves allows them to create albums of living art-complete musical orchestrations that take the listener on hallucinatory journeys of emotional intensity.

The band's roots can be traced to the driving force of Ben Watkins, who founded the group and has been recording music for over a decade, working with such pioneers as Alex Paterson of Orb.

Watkins' early work eventually led to the release Reactor's first album, Transmissions, in 1993. Since then, the band's released five albums, revealing their latest creation, Shango, this fall. Watkins and Paterson met while working with the group Apollo XI. They collaborated on Shango, and Paterson is currently touring with Reactor through North America.

Unlike other groups associated with electronic music, Reactor's evolution has incorporated more live instrumentation while relying less on the studio. Since they've moved away from studio production, concentrating more on creating a live show, they've developed an organic feel to their rhythms. On their last tour they teamed up with African percussionists Amamampondo. Reactor continues to bring such cultural influences into their live music, intentionally moving away from DJ-dominated acts.

In an interview with Creative Control Digizine, Watkins described the balance of electronic and live music. "It's more like what do you get the most feedback or energy off of. I've heard practically everything a keyboard, or analog keyboard can make," he said. "Samples can go on forever, you can keep on making strange noises out of them. For me it was just more interesting working with like musicians who bring a different energy to it and then manipulating them both. You get the best of both worlds."

Reactor is currently touring North America with their new album, Shango (appropriately named after the Nigerian God of Thunder). The album is about myths and legends- from tribal references, to Celtic mythology, Led Zeppelin and Biosphere. The result is a blend of grooves gathered from around the globe.