The passing fancies and capricious changes in taste that mark electronic dance music make it very hard for most musicians to sustain a career. Buck the trends, and you'll never get noticed; settle into the style du jour, and you may as well put a "sell-by" date on your albums.
Few are the bands that have started and stayed one step ahead of the trends; fewer still are those that have kept it up for a decade, so give it up for Juno Reactor. This month sees the release of "Odyssey," a best-of compilation marking a four-album/10-year career. It's a sharp showcase revealing a group constantly pushing its sound, and -- in what is the sign of a truly great group -- all their best tracks couldn't even fit on it.
"I think you've just got to try and follow your psyche and what excites you at the time, and trust in it," says Ben Watkins, the member at the core of Juno's ever-changing lineup. A few minutes earlier, Watkins had been sitting intently in front of some speakers in a Universal conference room, blasting out the slashing riffs of the new Juno single, "Hotaka."