Matrix: Revolutions

[Caustic]

Matrix: Revolutions - Don Davis, Juno Reactor

Track one. Don Davis. Main theme. Fuck you. We've heard it twice already. Tired of it. You're a two trick pony. The first trick is blurting trumpets, which you've done thoroughly, twice, already. The second trick comes up in...

Tracks two and three. You have Juno Reactor at your side. A fine trick indeed. When you let Ben Watkins work his magic, that is. See, when the parts which aren't Ben Watkins are playing, you can tell. Because it sounds like everything else you've done for the prior Matrix films. But once you allow that hard techno to break through, once Watkins strides into the open, quality rears its bright, shiny head and things are gorgeous. The pieces are short, no more than 6 minutes put together, and less than half of that is directly influenced by Juno Reactor, so I can't call these anything more than "pretty good," but I enjoy them.

Track four. Some group called Pale 3 doing some dark, broody song. Whatever. At least it's not Don Davis.

Tracks five through fifteen. Here's the problem. These are all Don Davis, and these are all minor, boring, insignificant variations of the standard Matrix theme. Some of the songs don't have any really audible sound for a minute or two. I don't know if this is Davis' idea of "build-up" or simply his concept of "pissing people right the fuck off." Whatever it is, it's certainly pissing me right the fuck off. Oh, he'll try to be cute by throwing in some vocals here or an extra trumpet blast there, but all in all, skipping through the tracks, they're shit. I'll sit down and listen to them, because I own the disc and am curious as to what I own, but I don't expect anything to change, other than "shit" being modified with some adjectives, including "warm," "festering," and "abominable." Asshole.

Track sixteen. This is the one standout track, Navras, which is credited as Juno Reactor vs. Don Davis. I like that. I enjoy knowing that my favorite musical artist is beating down the most repetitious man in the film score industry. And Mr. Watkins wins, solidly. This is what I expect of Juno Reactor: an expansive track based around the backing electronics of Beyond the Infinite and the percussion of Shango while building upon all of this with fresh vocals, ranging from chanting to an almost Native American sound, and a random piano in the background, banging out music as if controlled by a man possessed by some sort of piano music banging demon. Leisurely, clocking in at just over 9 minutes, the piece has multiple crescendoes and decrescendoes as it follows an ebb and tide of vocals against electronics. There's a hint that Don Davis may have made suggestions to Ben Watkins at some point, which, wonderfully, Watkins moderated down into hints of Davis' score, accomodated by a trumpet here or a melody there. When all is said and done, this is Juno Reactor. Perhaps not the apex of Juno Reactor, but very carefully crafted and an audible orgasm for fans of dark trance. Beautiful.

[junkie christ]

i should go back and check out the last track then, because about halfway thru it i came to the conclusion it was a giant crap-fest sans tracks 2-3. i made my friend take it out of the cd player WAY before it got to sixteen.
hello kazaa......