Modulations

Modulations attempts to cover too wide a subject area in too little time. Electronic music is an all-encompassing label that is applied to musicians as diverse as Can, John Cage, and the Prodigy(!!). There are great segments here with pioneers such as Cage, Robert Moog, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, and Pierre Henry. There are too many segments of talent-short and ego-long knob twiddlers. And there's an inexcusable total lack of Kraftwerk or Cabaret Voltaire, the two groups who pioneered the crossover of 'electronica' from fringe to pop. And why no interview with Afrika Bambaata? He made it onto PBS' Rock n Roll Series, and he should have been talked to here.

The lowpoint is reached when a German techno artist says that techno has absolutely no revolutionary potential....except for his own special brand of hardcore jungle!! Modulations is a fascinating but frustrating once over lightly look at this ever evolving music scene.