AllMovie

Documentarian Iara Lee, a U.S.-based, Brazilian-born filmmaker, skated through virtual reality, cyber-stimuli, and recreational technologies in her fast-paced Synthetic Pleasures (1995), notable for the memorable "surf's up" sequence inside a Japanese indoor beach with rolling waves. Where Synthetic Pleasures attempted to explore all aspects of the digital domain, Modulations focuses just on modern music-rave parties, techno dance music, and the history of electronic music (John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Robert Moog), moving on to '70s innovators (Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder), hip-hop pioneers, and more recent club-scene creators (Prodigy, Moby, Money Mark, Future Sound of London, The Invisibl Skratch Piklz), capturing diverse dance-track styles (house, trip-hop, acidhouse, ambient). The 35mm film brings together archival material, video clips, concert footage, and numerous interviews with musicians. Shown at 1998 film festivals (Sundance, Berlin).