Modulations

[Laurie Hatch <lahatch@dnai.com>]

hey looperz-

Just saw a stunning feature length documentary last night by Iara Lee 
about the 
electronic music underground, titled "Modulations".  It's been out for a 
while 
making the film festival and preview circuit, but was just released into 
theatres yesterday.

*Don't miss this one!*

Inspired by early Italian pioneer Luigi Russolo (his 1913 manifesto, "The 
Art 
of Noises" states "We must break out of this limited circle of sounds and 
conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds."),  the evolution of 
electronic 
music is explored via interviews and sounds of Stockhausen, Cage, Moog, 
Theremin, Teo Maceo (Mile's producer), and others.  Lee continues through 
disco 
(Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summers producer), house, techno, hip-hop, jungle 
and 
beyond.  It's a who's who of electronica/techno music and turntable 
culture, 
including interviews with Carl Cox, Bill Laswell, Mixmaster Morris, Danny 
Tenaglia, DJ Spooky, Goldie, Moby, Prodigy, Squarepusher, Photek, Holger 
Czukay, Tetsu Inoue, Juan Atkins, Meat Beat Manifesto, Invisbl Skratch 
Piklz 
and more.  The film explores the world-wide rave scene, with footage, for 
instance, from the typhoon-soaked Rainbow 2000 rave on top of Japan's Mt. 
Fuji, 
Future Sound of London, and a spectacular crowd in Moscow's Red Square.  
Lee 
also outlines the cultural and sociological evolutionary path of various 
microgenres - acid house, trip hop, drum n bass, ambient, and so on.

Visual imagery is equally intense - a captivating collage of eye candy 
images 
gleaned from hundreds of hours of film shot all over the world.

If I remember correctly, Modulations soundtrack is (or will be?) available 
on 
Sire records.

Check it out:
Caipirinha Films:
http://www.modulations.com/Film/filmcontent.html

Or go straight to the Modulations link:
http://www.modulations.com/Film/modulations/modcontents.html
The "Treatment" link is a very interesting evolutionary history of 
electronica 
from the film's perspective. "Screenings" lists city release locations and 
dates; "Musician Bios" offers brief notes on many of the featured artists. 
 Great site overall.

Caipirinha Productions released a film in 1996 called Synthetic Pleasures, 
and 
a collection of music entitled "Synthetic Pleasures Volume Two". 
http://www.electronicmusic.com/features/showcase/caipirinha.html

Has anyone else seen this yet?  I'm curious to hear other impressions...

laurie