Re: Modulations

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@earthlink.net>]

The thing that struck me the most about the film was the way in which
the construction of the film itself mirrors the aesthetics behind the
music it's documenting.  It literally applies a non-linerar, cut and
paste approach to its subject matter; a segment on detroit techno comes
after one on jungle, both of which come before disco, and all of which
come before footage of Stockhausen and Cage.

Favorite bits for me included:

-- footage of Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson, both in a profoundly messy
apartment and hopping around on stage playing bass to an absurdly fast
backing barrage

-- a similar shot of a portly, present-day Holger Czukay dancing around
behind his rig of gear at a recent live performance

-- the segment on Detroit Techno, which seems to strike more at the
essence of the music's origins than most of the other bits with its
footage of the city and commentary from the pioneers of the style

-- actually getting to see turntablists like Q-bert and Mixmaster Mike
do what they do

-- Scanner, talking about his experimental work with extracting found
sounds out of the radio waves of a given area, making a sort of "sonic
map" of whatever area he happens to be in

-- the unintentionally Spinal Tap-esque bits of Gary Cobain (of Future
Sound of London) copping a Max Headroom vibe via Internet relay from his
studio, muttering about making himself a sacrificial lamb in the name of
his ISDN experiments with broadcasted "live" performance

-- some British journalist who makes even more Spinal Tap-esque
commentary, including an hilariously dopey assesment of gabba techno

-- a very stoned Roni Size

The film functions overall less as an in-depth analysis of the different
subgenres of electronic music, and more as a sort of cultural analysis
of technology's impact on life (and concurrently, music) over the last
few decades.  Definitely worth checking out.

--Andre