Modulations: Cinema for the Ear
by Iara Lee
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DVD details
Actor: Arthur Baker, Danny Tenaglia, DJ Spooky, Rob Playford, Robert MoogDirector: Iara Lee
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Soundtrack
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 74 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Mvd Visual
DVD Reviews of Modulations: Cinema for the Ear
DVD Review: The history on electronic music
Summary: 5 Stars
Modulation is a deep look into the past and present of sound and techno music. All Techno DJs should watch this dvd. This one is my all time favorite dvds that can be played every night and not get tired of watching it. DVD Review: Movie Provides A Great History of Electronic Music
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this video very helpful in examining the history of electronic music. Many of the electronic music styles such as House, Techno, Trance, Ambient, and Trip Hop were the focus of this video. The video examined the history of the disco era and psychedelic music's contributions to the styles listed above. Many of the most established and recognized electro artists appeared such as DJ Spooky, Squarepusher, Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, Moby, Derrick May, Brian Eno, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Carl Cox, TG's Genesis Porridge, and Giorgio Moroder Chicory Tip. In the historical references much credit is given to the classical composer John Cage and Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer as well as Miles Davis. There is discussion of the Moog synthesizer and its influence in electronic music. I learned a lot of new information about the origins of electronic music, its sources, its inspirations, and what its pioneers have achieved and their ideas for the future of music. DVD Review: An extraordinary compendium of electronic music
Summary: 5 Stars
"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.
DVD Review: Trash
Summary: 1 Stars
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
DVD Review: Droning interviews spoil this DVD
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Description of Modulations: Cinema for the Ear
MODULATIONS traces the evolution of Electronica music as one of the most profound artistic developments of the 20th century! By cutting back and forth between avante garde composers, kraftwerk?s innovative synthesizer drones, giorgio moroder?s glacial eurDance & DJ Music CDs
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