Moby, Juno Reactor Work Across Genres

Electronic dance music veterans Moby and Juno Reactor showed during Frequency night at the Hollywood Athletic Club on Friday that they know a secret: The best of this music is not about synthesizers but synthesis.

Crossing between various techno and rock styles the last few years, Moby (Richard Melville Hall) has risked being neither fish nor fowl. On this night, however, the New Yorker achieved a full integration of the elements.

The mix ranged from straight-ahead dance pulsers to flat-out guitar punk, powered by the live fire of his accompanying bass, drums and percussion players. Even more, the music is powered by an evangelical zeal derived from his mystical Christian faith. “There’s just so much joy,” Moby told the audience at one point. Appropriately, he paid homage to Prince, one of pop’s ultimate synthesist-sensualist-spiritualists, with a casual version of “Purple Rain.”

Rather than use the ethnic music samples that are cliched staples of techno, opener Juno Reactor (English musician Ben Watkins) brought the real thing--the five-man South African drum and dance troupe Amampondo. Not only did their chants and rhythms weave a vivid tapestry with Watkins’ electronics (and on one piece with the guitar of former Billy Idol sideman Steve Stevens), but the troupe also provided visual appeal with their ceremonial dress and eye-popping acrobatics.