Though the average age at a rave hovers only slightly above that at a driver's ed class, the genre has been around since the turn of the century. Director Iara Lee (Synthetic Pleasures) takes the long view of electronica in her riveting documentary Modulations.
This film begins its journey not in 1978 with Kraftwerk, but in 1913 with Italian futurist Luigi Russolo. It careens through footage of modern raves to interview clips with Robert Moog and then off again in its decidedly nonlinear exploration. Cut in a style that makes MTV seem all slow pans and soft fades, this film demands complete attention.
The downside of this style is that no one music type gets an in-depth analysis. But for an espressolike jolt of documentary, Modulations succeeds as both a primer and a historian.
STREET CRED
Browser Beware Electronica through the Ages