Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Electronic Music Films



I was recently asked if I knew any documentary films that would shed more light on the history and beginnings of electronic music. I did some searches, and subsequently found out that most of those documentaries in existence (well, at least those listed at Internet) concentrate mostly on the latest developments in electronic music, or to be more precise, electronic dance music and rave culture.

The early history of electronic music (before 1960s, an area mostly populated by academic/avantgarde composers and inventors of electronic instruments) seems to be only sporadically (or as footnotes) featured in most existing documentaries, bar perhaps Steven M. Martin's 1994 feature on León Theremin or even Mika Taanila's 2002 Future Is Not What It Used To Be on Finnish electronic instrument inventor Erkki Kurenniemi; not forgetting the films dedicated to Robert Moog or Bruce Haack. If you know of any other related documentary films, please let me know.

  • Music Arcade: BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, early 80s?)
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3
    Part 4
  • Discovering Electronic Music (USA, 1983)
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3
  • The Electric Music Machine, Five Days at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, 1988)
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3
    Part 4
    Part 5
  • Bring The Beat Back (Finland, 1992)
    Credits
    Director Hannu Puttonen info
  • Rave New World (UK, 1994)
  • Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (USA, 1994)
    related clips @ YouTube
  • Universal Techno (France, 1996)
  • Modulations (USA, 1998)
    IMDB entry
    trailer @ YouTube
  • Hang The DJ (Canada, 1998)
  • Sonic Visions: From Stockhausen to Squarepusher (USA/Netherlands, 1998)
  • Better Living Through Circuitry (Australia, 1999)
    clips @ YouTube
  • Synergy: Visions of Vibe (UK/Japan/Germany, 1999)
    clips @ YouTube
  • Bass Frequency (USA, 2001)
  • The Future Is Not What It Used To Be (Finland, 2002)
    info @ pHinnWeb
  • Electro Dziska: Miami 2001-2002
    a clip @ YouTube
  • Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound (UK, 2003)
    clips @ YouTube
    BBC Radiophonic Workshop @ Wikipedia
  • Bruce Haack: King of Techno (USA, 2004)
    clips @ YouTube
  • Moog (USA, 2004)
    IMDB entry
    info @ Wikipedia
    (see also: Bob Moog clips @ YouTube)
  • Liquid Vinyl (USA, 2006)
    trailer @ YouTube
    a clip @ YouTube
  • Darkbeat, An Electro World Voyage (USA, 2006)
    trailer @ YouTube
  • Feiern (Germany, 2006)
    trailer @ YouTube
  • High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music (USA, 2006)
    trailer @ YouTube
    another trailer @ YouTube
  • Put the Needle on the Record (USA, 2006)
    a clip @ YouTube
  • Rough Electro (Romania, 2006)
    trailer @ YouTube
    another clip @ YouTube
  • The Sound of Dubstep (UK, 2006)
    a clip @ YouTube
  • What The Future Sounded Like (Australia, 2007)

    More related titles @ IMDB:
    http://imdb.com/keyword/electronic-music/

    All electronic music documentary search results @ YouTube

    History of electronic music links @ pHinnWeb

    And a silly old text of mine



  • 1 comment:

    Unknown said...

    This list es amazing!!!

    I will try download this documentaries :)

    Thankyou =)

    Dallavalle Fernando - Argentina