List of good electronic music documentaries

TomWhitwell · 2017-07-27T06:39:21.337Z

Wow, that’s absolutely wonderful - I hadn’t seen that before

slopstream · 2017-11-27T20:44:15.653Z

Haven’t seen this one, just came out, seems promising!

MUBI

Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett

The life and work of highly influential, yet little known, Canadian composer and microcomputer pioneer Martin Bartlett is resurrected in this lovingly constructed biographical essay which conveys a sense of intimate, holistic personal history.

slopstream · 2018-01-11T14:44:19.670Z

This excerpt from Practical Electronica about FC Judd’s work is exciting! Anyone know where I can find the whole thing?

sam · 2018-01-11T19:12:29.264Z

From our own @TomWhitwell

More of a pre-history of electronic music. Definitely interesting hearing about the individuals behind the silicon.

TomWhitwell · 2018-01-15T08:45:57.151Z

From the same event, here’s James Carruthers - a really interesting talk on the internals of modules, the difference between analog & digital modules, and how to go about designing and making something useful:

dermo · 2018-01-15T18:44:09.638Z

Wow some great stuff in here. The dub documentary was awesome! Also really enjoyed the short Elaine Radigue vid! I remember watching that 303 documentary a year or so ago and the narrator is so dry and unenthused about the whole thing! Considering how much of a rave/techno/house classic that synth is i thought it was pretty damn hilarious how nonplussed he comes across throughout it

slopstream · 2018-01-15T19:19:33.555Z

Just clicked play. Whoa, the opening shot is filmed 500 m from my house. gulp

Caught me off-guard

wselman · 2018-01-16T02:01:33.240Z

Just finished this one last night. Really excellent interviews with an artist I’m disappointed to say I’ve never heard of before.

MUBI

15 Corners of the World

Polish composer, electronic and sound engineer Eugeniusz Rudnik revolutionized the concept of music with a pair of scissors and some magnetic tape.

wselman · 2018-01-16T02:03:48.535Z

This was an excellent documentary. I loved how they used Bartlett’s diary and letters to narrate the story. I wasn’t familiar with his work but found the lack of attention and interest to it during his lifetime to be quite heartbreaking.

The struggle is real.

TomWhitwell · 2018-01-18T23:42:35.605Z

This is really wonderful - well worth the £5.99 to stream it, I think.
There’s a great scene early on with David Tudor, David Berhrman, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma all chatting at the Stony Point Artist Colony in 1971, a bit of Subotnick jamming, Max Neuhaus rigging up Water Whistle in his trunks, Steve Reich developing Drumming (singing himself) in front of a very bored-looking bunch of mates, the Philip Glass Ensemble rehearsing ‘Music with changing parts’

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dermo · 2018-01-19T10:58:46.164Z

Wow this looks great! Thanks for posting

stephenvit · 2018-01-19T12:02:41.078Z

also, love the parts with Joe Jones.

slopstream · 2018-01-20T18:24:43.140Z

Thanks for sharing. Good stuff! Enjoyed the talk w/ the sonic arts union very much. Does anyone know if the building (at stony point) still is an active artist “colony”? Couldn’t find any info on it.

Here’s another documentary I just found, focused on a similar subject, sorry if it’s been posted before… about to watch it now

andrew · 2018-01-20T18:58:24.985Z

How do you like MUBI? I just find out about it through your post and it seems really cool and much better than the Netflix original series onslaught

wselman · 2018-01-20T20:15:39.600Z

I really love Mubi so far. It’s a great combination of well-curated choices and limitation. The films disappear after 30 days so there is a great incentive to actually watch the ones you want to see. It solves the aspirational viewing problem of a lot of streaming media: “Oh, I want to see that film (or I feel like I should see that) so I’ll bookmark it but then in the end I never end up watching it.”