Modulations: Cinema for the Ear

Starring:DJ Spooky, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Robert Moog, Derrick May, Rob Playford, David Kristian, Carl Cox, Genesis P-Orridge, Danny Tenaglia, Afrika Bambaataa, Arthur Baker, Moby
Director: Iara Lee
Studio: Music Video Distribu
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

MODUALATIONS (VARIOUS ARTISTS)

Customer Reviews:

An extraordinary compendium of electronic music.......2007-05-26

"Modulations" is truly the most complete electronic music DVD documentary released as of 2007. Any fan of electronic music will recognize at least some (if not all) of the artists featured.
I can't think of any other film (with the exception of the rave oriented "Better Living Through Circuitry") that features such a compendium of electronic music pioneers, including instrument makers, composers, DJs, producers.. Autechre, Robert Moog, Moby, Q-bert, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Squarepusher, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Carl Cox, O Yuki Conjugate, Scanner, Oval, Genesis P Orridge, George Moroder, DJ Spooky, Bill Laswell and many others are all here.

Notably missing from the film are Aphex Twin, Brian Eno and Kraftwerk, although Eno and Kraftwerk are quoted and mentioned throughout the film.

I am sure that the quantity of interview footage posed a problem for the producers and editors of this film, so everything is tightly edited to keep this movie from becoming another boring academic documentary with voice overs, (which i am sure it was something the producers and director wanted to avoid)

I wish this movie would have been made a lot longer, or more extra footage made available on the DVD, maybe a more structured editing approach would have made this movie a little less chaotic, but this still doesn't detract from the breadth and scope of this truly remarkable film.

This DVD is a must for anyone interested in electronic music, rave and DJ culture.

Trash.......2006-09-14

Ok, look at the cover of this DVD. It says it all:

Limegreen wording. An asian girl, with a purple-tinted face, wearing huge bug-eye glasses, big headphones over both ears. WHAT does any of this have to do with House/Techno/Drum'n'Bass, the 80's/90's Rave Scene, the developing music in Chicago and New York in the birth of Underground Dance music?

Absolutely nothing. Like most of the project, it plays to popular misconceptions of the electronic music scene (crazy teenagers having sex, high on drugs! Baggy pants! "Drum N Bass was 'invented' because people did too much ecstasy, and needed darker-sounding music!)

It's an outsider's view, misinformed, fetishized, meandering.

-------
UPDATE:

If I could make some additional points:

==================================

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WORD ELECTRONICA

In the 90's, Underground Dance Music began making it's way into the mainstream in a way similar to its last head-rearing in the 1970's. Disco was a popularized version of underground dance music, understandably despised for it's excess and apparent superficiality, just like we have today's popularized (read: diluted) versions.

In the 90's, a corporate entity called "Billboard" made a decision. Now, understand, the people who work at Billboard are not musicians. They may have taken guitar lessons when they were 15, but they not musicians. They are accountants, marketers, executives, etc. Necessary to society, but NOT to be confused with musicians.

They decided to come up with the marking name "Electronica" to describe certain styles of music gaining popularity in the 90's. This taxonomy is based neither on musicology, extensive industry experience with the music, or anything beyond catchphrase convenience. It unfortunately groups styles of music together that have very little intrinsically in common. So here's your first bit of advice - people who use the word "Electronica" got into this game via a mainstream marking taxonomy.

Please let me make something clear: marketing is necessary to the sale of music - but it is not a path to learn about music.

==================================

Now get this. We all know that DJ's, who comprise the largest group of electronic-media sound artists, play other people's records to create their "sets". This means that record companies cannot publish a DJ set as their own entirely. They have to authorize and pay for *every single record* that is played in a set (as opposed to one or two samples, which we find in hiphop/rap). This means a very slim profit margin and a very complicated royalty distribution. Companies don't like that, so DJ's, even GREAT DJ's don't get picked up by large labels.

But, there is still a lot of buzz surrounding this music, and now Billboard has branded a marketing catchphrase, so the major labels *tend* to sign and produce groups which create their own material entirely, but are frankly MEDIOCRE artists - generally speaking. I'm not saying every non-DJ electronic artist is mediocre, but when an entire population of musicians is essentially out of marketable bounds - you're left with detritus.

Modulations is one of the business spin-offs from the spike in interest in electronic music in the 90's. It is derivative, unoriginal, uninformed. Enthusiastic, yes, but without focus or merit. It is born of detritus. Iara Lee has never had anything to do with any of these fields, and it shows in the documentary. A recurring interview in the documentary is with a culture/fashion/lifestyle magazine writer. You know, the types who can always comment, no matter how vapidly, on every subject. It makes for nice sound-bites, and maybe an easier editing job for film production. But... don't you want to learn what all this beautiful music is really about?

Her aesthetic and presentation of the disparate worlds of Underground Dance Music, the European avant-garde (and the deeply misguided implication of specific connections between the the two), electronic experimental, and all other turntable-based musics, for me, encapsulates the very essence of the very contrived word: Electronica.

Don't let the fact that they drop names of concert-music composers like Cage and Stockhausen impress you. It's a documentary, not a cocktail party.

If this documentary amazed and inspired you to learn more about all the different types of electronic music - well, great! It's serves some purpose. But I would encourage you to drop any this sugar-candy edited-for-radio version and really go out to explore the good stuff.

Some recommendations:

Informative movies:
Paris is Burning
KIDS

Informative books:
You better work
Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

Droning interviews spoil this DVD.......2006-06-01

A disappointment. I was hoping for extended selections of the artists' music, with maybe a little introduction/explanation. Unfortunately, its mostly artist interviews droning on and on with only snippets of the music. The artist comments are typically, "...its like everything that's noise can be music...but its like, uh, all about the technology..." No real passion or insight until some more snippets of a rave flash briefly by. Lots of subtypes of the techno music described, but its confusing how they differ for the lack of lengthy defining examples. If you are a knowledgeable fan and want some camera shots and comments of your heroes, this may be for you. If you want a clear introduction of the music and which artists may interest you enough to buy their music, skip it.

A nice teaser to the history of electronica..........2005-09-25

There are enough snippets, soundbytes and visuals in this documentary to give it a high recommendation. It runs the gamut from the early pioneers of electronica - John Cage anyone? - to the influence of the disco sound of the 70s and the emergence of the Moog into that sound and how it would soon flourish into the 80s as what we now think of as 'techno'. In other words, it has been an evolution. This film traces that evolution a bit haphazardly but quite thoroughly. In this sense, it is a valuable film.

However, it's weakness seems to be that it covers too much too fast and at times tries too hard to be hip. Perhaps that is merely symbolic of the culture in which we live but it fast forwards through artists and sounds that could have used some more depth. Considering the terrain, though, that could have made a really long documentary. So for brevity's sake, it works.

I was really happy to see snippets of Moby, Danny Tenaglia, Sasha and other well-known artists here just before hitting the big-time as 'techno' made an attempt at becoming "the next big thing" (which, fortunately, it didn't). We also get to see interviews with some of the pioneers of the Detroit techno scene and others from around the world, whose names are familiar but whose voices are not.

Hip-hop, including Afrika Bambaata's influence, and other sub-genres are given brief mention and it is refreshing to get some candid statements by some artists that this music is really not revolutionary but merely a continued rehashing and fusion of the 60s and 70s with technology.

There is so much here, everyone will find something here they didn't know. Archival footage and interviews will render this film essential as the years go by.

Overall, a highly recommended film but expect an all-out visual and aural assault.

A waste of time and money.......2005-08-03

A poorly-conceived, poorly put together mess. Don't bother.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Wire in the Blood - Justice Painted Blind

Roswell

Thomas & Friends: Thomas & the Jet Engine & Othe

DVD: The Medallion / The Art of Action

Parfum des Todes