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NEW
YORKER | 09/07/98 Iara Lee's compelling documentary chronicles how sound technology has eclipsed traditional modes of performance in much recent pop music. Without passing aesthetic judgments, Lee focuses on how the manipulation of sound has allowed d.j.s. and sound mixers to fill the spot once reserved for composers, sometimes with impressive creativity."Electronic music is the hot-rodding of the nineties," declares synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, and the film's hyperactive editing, by Paula Heredia, underscores the visceral thrill his comment implies. To anyone who's been engrossed in the pop scene for the past three decades, this should prove a nostalgic, and often enlightening, hip-hop down memory lane. But music lovers not drawn to youth culture should check it out, too: in a mere seventy-five minutes they'll get a beautifully crafted precis of sonic experimentation and will sustain no hearing loss in the process. |