Modulations

This documentary film takes a look at the electronic music scene all over the globe. Loads of great music, picture material from big venues, parties and of course great interviews with experts like Derrick May, Frankie Bones, Squarepusher, Mixmaster Morris, Carl Craig etc etc. This documentary is huge, it covers the whole electronic music era from the beginning of 19th century. Essential!

Being a fan of electronic music for several years now, I was surprised that a full scale documentary on the history of techno was produced.

I got a chance to catch it at the Motor Lounge in Hamtramick and what I saw surprised me. This documentary is incredibly well done. It covers the history of electronica from its earliest origins in the 1950's to the modern day rave scene.

The audio is fantastic and any music lover should appreciate the facts presented within the movie. Modulations covers most of the bases, including the various techno scenes across the world. They interview many artists and the man who started it all (inventing the Moog Synth). This is great stuff.....

The audio and video are fantastic and I hope that they release this on DVD in the near future.

A broad range of people linked to the current and past techno scene have made it into the film and it would be mean not to note how great Holger Czukay's dancing is. But the publicity for Modulations says it "traces the evolution of electronic music", which is not quite true. There's quite a leap from the jumble of clips involving Pierre Henry and John Cage into the familiar material on disco, Kraftwerk and Derrick May.

A more serious documentary might have challenged what the techno movement has to say about itself. Techno's rhetoric is borrowed from the modernists of the 50s and 60s, but maybe the real story is a more familiar one for pop music: the dancefloor's appetite for the next big thing.

If you are at all interested in electronic music - in just about any form, but especially techno/jungle/acid/dnb/house/etc. make sure you see this movie. "Modulations" is a brilliant little (73 minutes) film that is a perfect visual complement to the subject matter - including trippy graphics, beat-synched cinematography, thought-provoking interviews, live shots of wired-up ravers, and of course, a ripping soundtrack.

Get your head together and check it out - you'll be glad you did.

Pretty fine documentary. Whole thing concentrates almost exclusively on club-oriented electro-music, be House, Ambient, Illbient, Techno-Acid-Wash-Trance-Electro-Acoustic-Drumming or whatnot. I would've much preferred to see more variety included: Xenakis, Japanoise, etc. But then again there's only so much film that can be shot. Above all worth seeing again and again, if only for the wisdom of Genesis.