SPIN MAGAZINE | JULY 1998

ELECTRONICA, A MOVIE

" My biggest struggle as a cultural agent is to get people to break the toy, " says Iara Lee, who would more commonly be described as a director, and whose new documentary on electronica, Modulations, is hardly as cryptic as that pronouncement. Actually, Lee's movie, which splices vibrant footage of clubbers with thoughtful commentary from an exhaustive list of key players, manages to be the polar opposite of its subject: It's a linear, cohesive, and relatively sober overview of the scene. "I knew a movie like this would appeal to the underground culture," says Lee, "but I didn't just want to entertain the kids. I wanted to educate. "To that end, she called on electronica heavyweights Mixmaster Morris, Roni Size, Giorgio Moroder, Bill Laswell, Moby, and, of course, DJ Spooky to provide an oral history of the "electro-acoustic-ambient community" and to theorize as only futurists (like Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P-Orridge, who traces electronica's origins to the splitting of the atom) can. Though, at times, Lee takes her subject too seriously, Modulations effectively serves as both a primer for the uninitiated and a comprehensive history for the obsessive- and wisely strives for nothing greater. Because, as Alec Empire sagely says, "At the end of the day, it's all about a stupid party."

Maureen Callahan.