Modulations

Directed by Lara Lee, whose last film was the flawed overview of virtual realities Synthetic Pleasures, this look at the history and the contemporary face of electronic music features interviews with an impressive international cast of past and present auteurs -- from Miles Davis's splice-happy producer Teo Macero and Parisian musique concrète-ist Pierre Henry to disco doyen Giorgio Moroder; from Detroit and Chicago house pioneers Kevin Saunderson and Jesse Saunders to drum 'n' bass masters LTJ Bukem and Roni Size; from Amer-indie post-rocker Bundy Brown to Beastie Boys turntablist Mix Master Mike. Lee's quick-cut sound-byte editing style, though an apt metaphor for the music she explores, ranges from distracting to just plain annoying, and it tends to undermine the film's laudable attempt to trace today's techno in all its guises (jungle, ambient, hip-hop, etc. . . .) back through Detroit house, Kraftwerk, and disco to conceptual giants like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Besides, PBS did a better job of that with its 10-part Rock & Roll: An Unruly History back in '95.

-- Matt Ashare