Beyond the Infinite

Whether you believed Goa trance was the LSD-inspired wave of the future or just another bastardization of third-world culture, Juno Reactor has been plunging forward as if they don't care how close the genre could come to disaster. This might be a good time for the band to get a devil's advocate implanted inside their heads. Beyond the Infinite offers more of the east meets west dance sentiments thrown together in a surprisingly tiresome manner and its overall feeling of flipped-out exclusivity damages any of the band's mighty aspirations. "Silver" can have all the sitar friendliness to satisfy those prone to psychedelics, "Magnetic" nods along to the twirling excesses of an outdated pre-jungle beat, yet these efforts make the sober listener simply feel left out of a loop. It doesn't make things easier that the band has yet to choose which path to take. In "Samurai," for example (the track used in promoting Arnold Schwarzenegger's Eraser), there is more of a Photek-like, oriental focus on techno-trance operations than ever before. Which is an interesting new attempt; even though it feels stilted, confused, and just an excuse to steal the keyboards from the Cure's "A Forest." With its mystified sense of native adoration and tiring execution, Beyond the Infinite is an album signifying a band at a crossroads. They've now exposed about five musical directions to take, and it might take less (or more) drugs to show which path is the correct one. ~ Dean Carlson