CITY SEARCH.COM

BY DARREN D'ADDARIO | http://newyork.citysearch.com/E/M/NYCNY/0010/11/71/



Iara Lee continues her examination of the "unreal" that began with her first documentary in 1995 "Synthetic Pleasures." That film looked at the influence of technology and chemistry--from virtual reality to plastic surgery--on culture around the world in the years leading up to the millennium. In her new feature, "Modulations," the filmmaker narrows her focus to one such artificially enhanced topic: electronic music.

Jumping continually from past to present, Lee provides a jagged timeline of the history of electronic music, which she traces back to 1913, the year that Luigi Russolo published his treatise about the use of industrial sounds, "The Art of Noises." The film also nods at the use of electronics in music by legendary innovators Leon Theremin, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Miles Davis. But Lee's primary focus is on the present state of electronica. And the present here means anything that occurred after 1977 when producer Giorgio Moroder created a seamless flow of electric sound for Donna Summer's disco smash "I Feel Love." Using dozens of interviews with artists involved in different forms of techno music--hip hop, house, disco, ambient, gabba house, dub, jungle, acid house--the filmmaker attempts to explain the allure and essence of electronica. Visually, she alternates concert footage and studio demonstrations with surreal images from nature (cows in pasture) and industry (jackhammers breaking cement).

From Frankie Bones to Moby to Derrick Carter, the producers and artists Lee interviews display an impressive, almost cultish knowledge about the subculture of electronica. Detroit techno pioneers speak eloquently about the contributions of Stockhausen, the German grandfather of electronic music. Footage of Afrika Bambaataa shows how he deftly sampled Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" to create his 1982 opus, "Planet Rock." From raves in Brooklyn to electronica festivals in East Berlin, artists are shown sampling, scratching, and calibrating at a febrile pace.

One interesting aspect of the techno culture that Lee ignores in "Modulations" is that although this music traverses racial, class, and national boundaries, it hasn't quite made it across gender lines. There are few female electronica artists and not one is interviewed for this documentary (unless you count the platinum blonde Genesis P. Orridge, the androgynous founder of the industrial band, Throbbing Gristle, who looks like a middle-aged Benny Hill in drag). Dozens of male musicians talk about playing with their electronic toys to the point where it begins to feel like a Star Trek convention. In fact, the continual stream of guys saying similar things about electronica makes this relatively brief film seem quite a bit longer than it is.

Despite Mr. Orridge's assertions, electronic music probably is not the most important innovation of the 20th century. But as Beat poetry informed the mainstream, the pulsing dissonance of techno will no doubt continue to influence all kinds of music. Iara Lee's middling, frenetic documentary will never be confused with an authoritative statement about electronic music, but it's not a bad starting point either.