Modulations is a highly engaging documentary that presents the history and evolution of electronic music in the 20th century. The narrative of the film slightly follows a genre-focused structure including musique concrete, different styles of techno, jungle, and house but it also cuts back and forth between individual pioneers of electronic music such as Kraftwerk, John Cage, and Karl Stockhausen. And the mix of interviews, in-studio shots, live performances, and innovative visuals used in the film mirror, all together, the energy of electronic music in its most creative forms.

As part of in-studio shots, we see one of the pioneers of musique concrete, Pierre Henry, appreciating electronic music for the space it provides for imagination. This space becomes more visible during the interviews with three creators of what is today called Detroit Techno: Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson. They touch on political factors critical to the genre’s evolution such as the 1967 Detroit Riot and the following urban destruction. In that setting, we learn, how techno opens a door to escape from the present by imagining about future. Then, we shift our focus to another destruction, that of Berlin Wall, to make sense of how Berlin became the liberation dance of East Berliners, and then, the cultural epicenter of techno. Connecting the dots, techno in these two cities appears to be the product of the same energy that started the riots and the destruction of the Wall.  

Certainly, electronic music is not only the soundtrack of political turmoil. Its artefacts and sounds are not only the source and manifestation of imagination that needs to escape from the present’s darkness by transferring it to the music. It is also about a commercial present accompanied by a depoliticized audience. Although the film touches upon these issues through the voice of, for example, DJ Spooky who blames the scene of electronic music for cultural amnesia, it devotes not much space for criticisms of commercialization and political alienation. For this reason, Modulations is a history to be applauded, which also motivated a new publication in the book format. Edited by film’s writer Peter Shapiro and named after the film, the book focuses on different genres of electronic music and can be an opportunity to get more than a 75-min documentary can provide.  

Spotify Playlist

Soundtrack of the Movie

https://www.discogs.com/release/11212-Various-Modulations-Cinema-For-The-Ear

Notes

At the beginning people talk about electronic music:

“Pretty much music as we come to understand it today, in the last 30-40 years is all electronic music. Even if it is acoustic, it is still electronic. “

“Electronic music is always something different, it is chaotic.” 

Pierre Henry on musique concrete: it does not come from interpretation nor performance; it comes from imagination. It can only be possible with electronic music. 

Kodwo Eshun on Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk affected grandmaster flash and afrika bambaata. Producers also say that Kraftwerk affected them. Trans-siberian express seems to be an important inspiration for electronic music producers. Bambaata connected Bronx and Kraftwerk. 

Moby: electronic music is more about the character of the sound than the actual composition. 

It is about mixing things to get new hybrid. 

Interphase between technology and drugs is a running theme in history. Evolution of music has been conditioned by extasy and drug use. Then dark music and rave music turned into jungle.??

Jungle is a convergence of all kinds of music, that in their own form never mixed. It is kind of mixological, illogical music. It brings all those forms together. Jungle is British urban experience. It is about the effect of US. 

Synthesizer becomes more like an instrument than a sound effect machine.

House – Warehouse. House music was just disco. cut ups, they use songs from the 70s

You cannot listen a house track without hearing 909 drum kick. 

Raves become very commercial. Motivation behind parties becomes Money. Prices too high. Scenes from Berlin Love Parade. 

Then DJ Spooky speaks of culture of amnesia. Most people don’t want to think about history they want to be passive consumer. 

East Berlin parties in big venues, explosion of energy, liberation dance of the east Germans. These people made Berlin Techno. 

Gabber, subgenre of techno, … The music is generally between 140 up to 190 beats per minute. Music for nihilistic, it is a heart attack music. It attains a punishing rate of velocity. It is about drilling noise which drills through your cortex and allows a certain synaptic rearrangement. 

Karl Stockhausen: using materials to make sound. He was very important, he had so many practical things done and invented. He was the first dub mixer in the World (stated by CAN members). He is closest to hip-hop, this is what it is and this is what we can do for shaping it. 

Moog: you cannot burn anything by trying something new. Even if you burn out, it can be fixed, try something new. Vinyl goes but it stays for scratch.