Low-budget sci-fi drama explores the darker side of synthesis, but has there ever been a truly good electronic music film?
Via Synthtopia comes news of an independent feature film based around the premise of electronic sounds being used to manipulate and control unwitting humans. LFO: The Movie is described as: “a dark comedy/drama/Sci-Fi about a man who realizes that he can hypnotize with sound. He starts experimenting on his neighbors, where the abuse of power takes over and, eventually, severe consequences for mankind are at stake.”
LFO is the third film from Danish production company Ping Pong Film, with a budget of just 900,000 Swedish krona (roughly £90,000). We’re certainly not expecting the next Citizen Kane, but it looks fun in a kind of tongue-in-cheek schlock horror way. Check out the trailer below or find out more at the film’s Facebook page..
Has there ever been a truly great movie about – or even tangentially related to – electronic music?
Documentaries like Maestro and High Tech Soul tell the stories of early house and techno adequately but each one is flawed in its own way. We’ve got high hopes for I Dream Of Wires, but it’s very much focussing on a niche topic. Even at their best, live DVDs are a neutered representation of the live dance music experience (an accusation we’ll happily level at live DVDs of any genre).
At a time when we’re being threatened with an EDM movie starring Diplo (“EDM, which I gather is a cousin to rave music, is a huge industry where the DJs are the big stars…”) and a movie entitled The Drop is impressing film festival crowds, it’s probably best to avoid investing too much hope in the idea of a truly insightful electronic music film. Instead, let’s take this opportunity to look back at the definitive masterpiece of so-bad-it’s-good ‘techno’ movies: 1996’s staggeringly misguided straight-to-video cult classic, Vibrations. If you’re brave enough you can stream the entire thing below.
Are we being unfairly harsh? Are there some lost gems of electronic music movies and documentaries out there? Let us know your favourites below.
12.48 AM
“HUMAN TRAFFIC.” GUYS. SERIOUSLY.
01.38 AM
‘Has there ever been a truly great movie about – or even tangentially related to – electronic music’
Erm, Berlin Calling is a pretty damn obvious one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211946/
11.45 AM
Human Traffic? Meh. Brings back too many bad memories of people thinking they were fucking badasses by quoting that ‘weekend has landed…’ monologue! 😉
Berlin Calling is a pretty good shout. Definitely a case of a good movie which happens to be about music.
12.41 PM
Rip a Remix Manifesto, a very nice documentary about mashups and sampling.
http://vimeo.com/8040182
12.44 PM
Nice tip, Robert. We haven’t seen that one.
02.38 PM
When I sold myself to the machine is a GREAT indie doc on Den Haag scene
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1505436/
03.25 PM
Slices: Pioneers of Electronic Music is a good documentary series.
03.28 PM
Here’s a good list too:
http://news.beatport.com/blog/2013/02/11/the-10-best-house-documentaries-of-all-time/
08.11 PM
Modulations: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139468/
Synth Britannia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXm8O5cKrhI&list=FLFWa81wWoJLoWXHKvtgL1lw&index=9
Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289806/
These are three great documentaries covering different aspects of the history of electronic music.
10.56 PM
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hackers yet…
Pretty much the definitive extremely terrible yet kinda fun because its so precisely godawful electronic music movie.
05.25 AM
Daft Punk’s Electroma
05.05 AM
Though I’ve yet to see it, Speaking in Code is supposedly pretty good-(Modeselektor, Ellen Allien)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_In_Code
Better living Through Circuitry (1999)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Living_Through_Circuitry
and don’t forget Groove!! (2000)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_(film)
12.13 AM
MONOMACHINE and MACHINEDRUM as supporting actors! 🙂