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Modulations: Cinema for the Ear

Arthur Baker (Actor), Afrika Bambaataa (Actor), Iara Lee (Director) Rated:

Format: DVD

IMDb7.2/10.0

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February 18, 2003

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Product Description

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, kraftwerks innovative synthesizer drones, giorgio moroders glacial eur

Product details

MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 4 ounces
Director ‏ : ‎ Iara Lee
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Color, AC-3, Multiple Formats, NTSC, Dolby
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 15 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ February 18, 2003
Actors ‏ : ‎ Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Carl Cox, David Kristian, Derrick May
Studio ‏ : ‎ Mvd Visual
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0000844LI
Writers ‏ : ‎ Peter Shapiro
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #243,718 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,430 in Techno (CDs & Vinyl)
- #4,167 in Performing Arts (Movies & TV)
- #4,437 in Electronica (CDs & Vinyl)

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3.4 out of 5

28 global ratings

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Michael Kasper

Movie Provides A Great History of Electronic Music

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2007

Verified Purchase

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 In the historical references much credit is given to the classical composer John Cage and Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer as well as Miles Davis.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.

2 people found this helpful

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Guido

A waste of time and money

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2005

Verified Purchase

A poorly-conceived, poorly put together mess. Don't bother.

3 people found this helpful

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Richard G. Higgins

Modulations: A Brief History

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2004

Verified Purchase

I am a big fan of this movie. Many reviewers are knocking the Dj's and people in the film, 'for trying to be philisophical'. If you are a fan of Electronic Music, and know that it is not all TECHNO, then you will enjoy this film. It is a nice way of helping people to understand where this form of music comes from.

For me it was nice to see the origins of some type of music, because while I am not a fan of Techno, I am a fan of Breakbeat and House Music. I do like Drum and Bass, but I am not a fan of 'Drill and Bass" or Hard House. It's all preferences.

Anyway, I believe that owning this movie is like owning an abbreviated encyclopedia of Electronic Music. It's a necessary addition to your electronic music collection. If you have any music intrest.. it will help you to appreciate this form of it, that much more.

3 people found this helpful

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Mountains to Sea

Droning interviews spoil this DVD

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2006

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.

One person found this helpful

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Jimmymk

Everything's great...

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2005

I used to own a copy of this on VHS, and I love it. I still love it with the DVD I have now, but the fact that nearly the entire DVD menu is in Japanese shaves off two stars.

4 people found this helpful

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tamiii

If you like to listen to boys talk, this is for you.

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2004

Verified Purchase

Touted as the definitive work on electronica, the guys start talking and never stop. Though many interesting observations about the genre from its origins in disco to the influence of diverse races and cultures are effectively made, some questions receive scant attention. For example, while there is an interesting scene which shows how the equipment itself is made by women, every performer interviewed, spoken of, or filmed is male which makes one wonder what that might be all about?

8 people found this helpful

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Mr. Gregory L. Faja

Bought as a gift

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

Bought as a gift

One person found this helpful

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Dude

Trash

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2006

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

13 people found this helpful

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