[ad_1]
Do you like movies? Sure you do. It’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and whether you’re huddled under covers or cuddled somewhere in the tropics, it’s time to sit back and relax with a nice…rave movie.
While dance music’s popularity keeps growing, many of the genre’s great feature films and documentaries were released long before its recent resurgence. If you weren’t around for the first wave of rave, you may have missed choice treats like the 1996 film Vibrations, which…well, read on and learn. From history to hilarity, we’ve got your dance movies covered, and they’re all ready to stream, so dive in.
It’s All Gone Pete Tong (2004)
Available on: Amazon Prime, Xbox Live
The story of a world-famous DJ who goes completely deaf and spirals into a massive identity crisis, It’s All Gone Pete Tong takes full advantage of its Ibiza setting (the film features iconic venues like Pacha, Amnesia, and DC10) and peppers the story with ‘mock doc’ talking head interviews with the likes of Paul van Dyk and Tiësto.
The movie stars British comedian Paul Kaye (whom you might know as Thoros of Myr in Game of Thrones) and features a soundtrack with everything from Orbital to The Beach Boys. And, yes – the actual Pete Tong appears and contributes to the soundtrack.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGsCzaI5qrM]
Human Traffic (1999)
Available on: Amazon Prime, Netflix
Often overlooked in the wake of 1996’s Trainspotting juggernaut, Human Traffic taps a similar vein with the story of five friends proudly carrying the banner of “the chemical generation” into the throbbing Wales club scene. It makes a nice double-feature with It’s All Gone Pete Tong, as both feature cameos by Carl Cox and the ubiquitous Tong (he’s heard on a car radio early in the film).
It’s also one of the first major roles for actor Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Walking Dead). The soundtrack features pretty much all of the ’90s, with contributions from Armand Van Helden, Underworld, System F and William Orbit. Human Traffic is probably best known for containing arguably the greatest record store scene of all time, for all de junglist massive.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0kPAPNahU]
EDC 2013: Under The Electric Sky (2014)
Available on: Netflix
Part road movie, mostly big budget infomercial, Under The Electric Sky jams a whole lot of spectacle into 85 minutes. The focus is Las Vegas mega-fest Electric Daisy Carnival, which transforms a Speedway in the Nevada desert into an EDM fantasia each summer.
While we see the usual after-movie tropes – sweeping crowd shots, fireworks in the night sky and a parade of talking heads (Avicii, Calvin Harris, Tiësto and Tommie Sunshine are all on board to wax lyrical) – Under The Electric Sky seeks to be a human interest story too. Given EDC’s positioning of its attendees as “Headliners,” the focus is on a disparate group of absurdly enthusiastic party people making the pilgrimage, from a super-fan in a wheelchair to a couple of seasoned ravers staging an EDM wedding. The movie had a limited 3D run in theaters, but now you can enjoy it via Netflix on your laptop screen.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icDEYGe7o4U]
Party Monster (2003)
Available on: Hulu
Based on the memoir Disco Bloodbath by ’90s club kid James St. James, about his friendship with notorious party promoter Michael Alig, and the events that led to Alig’s arrest for the murder of Angel Melendez, Party Monster eschews the ‘true crime’ angle for something more darkly satiric. Whether the resulting movie works is another question altogether.
The cast is pretty mind-bending: Macaulay Culkin as Alig in his first major screen role since 1994’s Richie Rich, Seth Green as James St. James, Chloe Sevigny, Marilyn Manson, Mia Kirshner, Wilmer Valderrama, Natasha Lyonne and, err….John Stamos. Ladytron, Felix da Housecat, Scissor Sisters and Mannequin supply the soundtrack. A good time appears to have been had by all. Relive the madness.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV7MND4r0mY]
Limelight (2011)
Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Xbox Live
Also a good companion piece to Party Monster, this documentary from Cocaine Cowboys director Billy Corben, reveals how an eyepatch-wearing Canadian named Peter Gatien ended up creating indelible New York club landmarks like Tunnel, Palladium and of course, the Limelight. Set to the music of the era (the Limelight’s reign was at its peak through the ’80s and ’90s), the doc details Gatien’s rise to power and his losing battle with New York political bulldog Rudy Giuliani. Former NY mayor Ed Koch and Michael Alig pop up as talking heads. This is a piece of history, depicting a New York City that may never return.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Ntoy-RKdY]
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Available on: Xbox Live, Amazon Prime
OK, so this isn’t a movie about dance music exactly, but the combination of Tron: Legacy’s dark, neon-soaked digital reality and the Daft Punk score (and cameo) make it feel more like interstellar rave than typical sci-fi blockbuster. There are hints of Wendy Carlos’ original Tron score (which is worth a listen) and a non-stop parade of mind-blowing visuals throughout. Don’t even worry about the plot (this is becoming a theme), just imagine Daft Punk and Disney threw a rave, and party accordingly.
Also worth checking out is Daft Punk’s video for “Derezzed,” a slick mini-movie companion piece that works as the ideal visual and aural bridge between the 1982 original and Legacy – not surprising, since Daft Punk are avowed Tron fanatics. Legacy director Joseph Kosinski revealed that in his preliminary meeting with the robots, he felt like the duo were interviewing him to ensure he got the film right.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9szn1QQfas]
Moog (2004)
Available on: Netflix
How did the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival and a re-recording of Johann Sebastian Bach kickstart the birth of electronic music? It’s all thanks to a man named Dr. Robert Moog. He and the analog synthesizer that bears his name are the focus of this 2004 documentary, which traces the first commercial use of the synth (in 1967, in Monterey) to the first breakthrough recording made with it (Wendy Carlos’ Switched-on Bach in 1968) on through the modern era. The soundtrack features 17 original tracks produced on Moog instruments, from the likes of Stereolab, Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert, Charlie Clouser and Baiyon.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7VGkhknT9E]
Vibrations (1996)
Available on: Netflix
From the Netflix description: “Rising rock star T.J. Cray gets the shot of a lifetime — an audition with an A&R man — but on the big day, a carload of drunks smash into his car, and his hands are severed. Soon, he drops out of the business and becomes a homeless drunk, until one day when he wakes up to a pulsing beat in an abandoned warehouse where a ‘rave’ party is in full swing. There, he meets Anamika (Christina Applegate), who helps reinvent T.J.’s career.”
What can be said about Vibrations? What’ can’t be said about Vibrations? It includes some of the most incredible depictions of dance music of all time. It features a man with no hands playing a keyboard in a robot suit. It boasts “special appearances by U 96, Fierce Ruling Diva, and Moses On Acid.” It offers perhaps the best explanation of the “essence of techno” you will hear (check for it at around 51-minute mark). The lead’s father’s name is Lieutenant Cray.
It also stars Christina Applegate, who had already been on “Married With Children” for nearly a decade, and James Marshall, who had recently enjoyed serious roles on “Twin Peaks” and A Few Good Men. What they’re doing in this mess is hard to say. Honestly, it’s amazing that this film exists.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0S6b7_Z404]
Honorable Mention: Pump Up the Volume (1990)
Available on: DVD (not streaming)
While not technically streaming (although you can definitely find it), and also not really a dance movie (it doesn’t even include the MARRS’ classic it was named for), 1990 film Pump Up the Volume marked the first time we saw the DJ as human being, in the form of absurdly angsty teenage loner “Hard Harry” or “Happy Harry Hard-on,” played by Christian Slater.
Slater’s character takes his small Arizona suburb by storm, via pirate radio, playing a selection of gnarly cuts by Ice-T, Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Bad Brains, Henry Rollins and The Pixies, as well as an ultra rare early track by “close personal buddies,” the Beastie Boys. DJs are almost always presented as larger-than-life figures (unless they’re radio jocks, a popular theme in the ’90s), but Pump Up the Volume introduced a character even Deadmau5 could relate to.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLDehtTqyig]
[ad_2]
read more
