COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL

Jim Harley
Computer Music Journal, Reviews

Iara Lee: Modulations
Reviewed by Kim Cascone
Pacifica, California, USA

"In music, the instrument often predates the expression it authorizes."
(Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music)

Modulations is independent filmmaker Iara Lee's second feature-length
documentary exploring the outer boundaries of pre-millennium culture. In her first film, Synthetic Pleasures, she focused on exploring artificial environments and how our culture has been impacted by technologica philosophy in the 1990s. In Modulations, Ms. Lee turns her lens to exploring the synthetic landscape of electronic dance music. By interviewing dozens of artists and DJs involved in various cities/scenes around the world, she traces the roots of techno from its birth in Detroit to its global mutational outbreaks.

Electronic dance music has enjoyed an explosive growth in the past decade, with more and more of its fabric now being woven into commercial media in the USA. Examples abound: from the Madonna album produced by William Orbit to the new Volkswagen Beetle television commercials underscored by lush beat-driven electronica to the relative superstardom of bands like Prodigy, Orbital and Future Sound of London. Even bands like U2 and R.E.M. are embracing studio techniques to lend a more contemporary sound to their recent releases.By giving her subject abundant space, Lee brilliantly weaves an amorphous narrative, letting the subject matter reveal itself through the patient process of drawing out and examination true to the documentary format. One flaw in using this approach with such a specialized subject matter, however, is that there is little relevant information given with which newcomers can orient themselves. Even though a historical framework is put into place early on by invoking the usual list of electronic music‚s founding fathers˜John Cage, Luigi Russolo and the Italian Futurists, Varèse, etc.˜some important figures in contemporary electronic music are absent: Peter Namlook, Wendy Carlos, Aphex Twin, Yellow Magic Orchestra, The Residents, Tangerine Dream, George Clinton and Brian Eno. These figures could have helped to provide a more intuitive chart when trying to navigate the various sub-genres of techno mentioned in the film. Additionally conspicuous is the lack of any female DJs or artists working in electronic music. Lee could have shed some light on the issue of female DJs/artists trying to break into the world of techno by Featuring interviews with Riz Maslen, Susanne Brokesch, Miss Djax, Alaura (ex-Psychic TV), Moonbeam from DubTribe, and Bjork.If you have an interest in watching a documentary-styled tone poem on the history of electronic dance music and already have some exposure to the subject, Modulations provides an interesting insight into a genre that continues to defy most mainstream media's attempts to classify and define it. The uninitiated, though, will leave more confused than when they arrived. Word has it that a book version of the film is in the making, and may be a good companion piece to Modulations for those who want to better explore the abundant territory of electronic dance music.