Modulations
Modulations
| 18 September 1998 (USA)
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Less a documentary than a primer on all electronic music. Featuring interviews with nearly every major player past and present, as well as a few energetic live clips, Modulations delves into one of electronica's forgotten facets: the human element. Lee travels the globe from the American Midwest to Europe to Japan to try to express the appeal of music often dismissed as soulless. Modulations shows that behind even the most foreign or alien electronic composition lies a real human being, and Lee lets many of these Frankenstein-like creators express and expound upon their personal philosophies and tech-heavy theories. Lee understands that a cultural movement as massive and diverse as dance music can't be contained.

Reviews
Laikals

The greatest movie ever made..!

Reptileenbu

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Aedonerre

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

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PiraBit

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

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p_reavy

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.

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John Seal

Modulations attempts to cover too wide a subject area in too little time. Electronic music is an all-encompassing label that is applied to musicians as diverse as Can, John Cage, and the Prodigy(!!). There are great segments here with pioneers such as Cage, Robert Moog, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, and Pierre Henry. There are too many segments of talent-short and ego-long knob twiddlers. And there's an inexcusable total lack of Kraftwerk or Cabaret Voltaire, the two groups who pioneered the crossover of 'electronica' from fringe to pop. And why no interview with Afrika Bambaata? He made it onto PBS' Rock n Roll Series, and he should have been talked to here. The lowpoint is reached when a German techno artist says that techno has absolutely no revolutionary potential....except for his own special brand of hardcore jungle!! Modulations is a fascinating but frustrating once over lightly look at this ever evolving music scene.

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kHAn-10

I saw Modulations as part of a film festival here in Adelaide; i wish now that i had gone and seen it twice. I finally found out WHY i like dance/electronic music while watching it. The first feeling i had as i walked out of the theatre was "ALL my friends need to see this so they can understand me better!"Unfortunately not one of them has- but i am still hoping!!For anyone who hasn't seen it; and are into dance or electronic music of any kind; GO SEE IT. You'll probably find your roots, come to a new and better understanding of your self and learn all sorts of amazing facts about the history and evolution of the newest form of music.For the producers.. not that you'll ever read this!! Make a second film.. there's so much happening in dance culture today that there needs to be another chapter written covering 88-2000 there have been huge advances in our culture!

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bigmike-4

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.

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