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With Modulations, her second film in three years in competition at Sundance, Iara Lee is quickly becoming the authoritative cinematic voice for a subculture whose nucleus is electronic music. Created by computer artists who manipulate sampled sounds with synthesizers, and performed on turntables at after hours "raves" and parties by disk jockeys, electronic music is as much a state of being as it is entertainment.

Modulations intersperses artful imagery with talking-head interviews and party and club footage to examine the historical development of electronic music and explore the philosophy of its young audience. The film, like the music, is multilayered in ways that go much deeper than what can be casually observed.

Lee captures the sort of visceral images only available to an insider. Originally conceived as underground gathering places, an increasing number of raves are now organized by commercially driven entrepreneurs.

Lee traces the tribal roots of such styles as "house," "acid," "ambient," "Detroit," and "German drum and bass." Further, she examines the influence of artists like Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa on the music, and assesses the impact of John Cage, whose early work, with its use of mechanical and background noise, seeded the creation of today's electronic music.

Using interviews with the scene's most respected and influential players and clips from performances in the key hubs of the United States, Germany, Japan and Great Britain, Lee conveys the expansive reach of this constantly morphing art form. Her expertly conceived and executed film is sure to be a staple in the collection of the electronic music movement's growing legion of worshippers.

- Trevor Groth

Well, I went saw Modulations at da film fest....

Really, really enjoyed it. Done in a sort of pseudo-documentary style, with breif soundbites from hundreds of different DJ/producer types. The whole thing is only about 70 minutes long, so I wasn't expecting the definitive history of this thing we call house, (or techno, hip-hop, ambient, jungle etc...) but....

Very entertaining though, and I found it surprisingly moving in parts, it was wicked to hear snatches of heaps of classic tracks from 'Planet Rock' to 'Trans Europe Express' to 'Energy Flash' to 'Shadow Boxing', and a shitload more... lots of the old goosebump/tears in the eye type moments, that's for sure...

Some vague Highlights that I remember... Derrick Carter and Sneak djing together, nodding in unison, and looking absolutely mashed, on fine form as always then...

Genius P Orridge (fucked if I know how to spell his name) spouting off about this that and everything, and looking like a washed up old transvestite...

Q Bert, A-Trak etc fooling around in the studio and making turntablism look lay utter childs play. Bastards.

Lots of interviews with freaky old cats, like the guys who invented the original Moogs etc... seriously deranged...

FSOL talking utter wank during their infamous ISDN live internet broadcast, and still coming across as totally onto it...

Mixmaster Morris yabbering away about anything and everything, in possibly the brightest day-glo tripper shirt ever seen...

Some lowlights...

Some crazy black dude who makes "ghetto house" with porno lyrics, because "I',m really into hip-hop man, but house is where the money's at, so I'm working it baby..."

The guy behind Panacea, a big ugly fat German dude, who says something like... "All those guys making techno aren't doing anything new, what I'm doing is truely revolutionary, my sounds are the darkest, evilest around. I'm out to shock people. I'm a scary mean motherfucker man..." you're a fucking jerk mate...