 
Made In Sheffield: The Birth Of Electronic Pop The birth and rebirth of electronic pop music are the subjects of these two documentaries that are both low on budget, but high on entertainment value. Hailing from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada, Bruce Haack attended
New York’s Julliard Fast-forward to England in the late ‘70s. Sheffield was a bleak,
industrial city that developed a robust musical scene following the
advent of punk and the realization that anyone could start a band, regardless
of experience. Although short and missing interviews with some of the
scene’s more crucial musicians, Made In Sheffield manages to construct
an interesting portrait of such influential groups as the Human League,
Cabaret Voltaire, Artery, ABC, I’m So Hollow, Pulp, Heaven 17,
Vice Versa and others. Like Bruce Haack, the Cabs built their first
synthesizer from a kit and took delight in the fact that they could
make music by pushing buttons and turning knobs, as did the Human League,
one of the first acts to make the pop charts using minimalist electronic
programming. Much of Sheffield’s story is told via interviews
with some of the principal players and although there’s precious
little live footage, this is still an informative hour and fun to watch.
- David Bassin
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Haack: The
King Of Techno
School
to study piano and composition. After failing to make a dent in the
world of commercial pop, he began building electronic devices that he
could use to program music and collaborated on a series of children’s
records with longtime partner Esther Nelson. King Of Techno features
clips of Haack performing with his “dermatron” (a device
that allowed him to play music on another individual) on the TV program
“I’ve Got A Secret,” and programming additional unnamed
devices on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Over the years
Haack continued to build synthesizers of greater complexity and partly
due to depression, experimented with drugs and alcohol that both fueled
and stunted his creativity. He made a brief foray into acid rock in
the ‘70s, but later returned to focus on children’s records
before his death in 1988. Members of Annubian Lights, Tipsy, DJ Me DJ
You and others appear throughout the film to comment on Haack’s
influence on electronic music, as does business partner and musical
collaborator Chris Kachulis.