Microcinema DVDs - Electric Purgatory

2010-04-28 Premier Guitar
By Chris Kies

Without black guitarists and musicians, we wouldn’t have rock ‘n’ roll. From Robert Johnson and Leadbelly to Jimi Hendrix and Prince, black musicians have been some of the most innovative and influential artists of the last century. But in the past 20 years, the black rocker’s scarcity has been increasingly apparent to musicians and fans alike—where have they gone?

Directed by Raymond Cayle, Electric Purgatory poses a racially charged question and presents a very thoughtful response. By first providing a thorough history of black musicians’ roles in rock music, Cayle provides the context to appropriately examine this polarizing issue. Instead of inserting his own voice into the documentary, Cayle allows a roster full of black rock’s leaders—Vernon Reid, H.R. of Bad Brains, members of Fishbone, and Doug Pinnick of King’s X—and music journalists to express their opinions and ideas on the matter. They do so with such forthrightness and honesty that at times it’s disheartening, but ultimately their tone and message provide answers rather than excuses for the racial lopsidedness in rock music. The participants rarely resort to finger-pointing and references to “the man,” but address this situation as a matter of concern to all. Furthermore, the last portion of the film examines ways to promote black musicians in rock, destroy the stigma of being a black rocker, and bring black audiences back to rock concerts.

Electric Purgatory isn’t a lighthearted, ho-hum documentary—it’s a significant film that spotlights the black rock community’s introspective look at their history, importance and current lack of representation in the genre.

2010-02-04 DVD Talk
By David Walker

The Film:
For many years I wanted to do a documentary that traced the history of rock-n-roll from a completely black perspective. While I love rock as much as the next person--and perhaps even more than the next person--there is a special place in my heart for black rockers, and I've often felt most of them have never gotten there just due. Sure, guys like Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix are often cited when listing the contributions of African-Americans to rock music, but there are many other names that have been forgotten or seldom known. And that's why I planned for many years to do a black rock documentary. Fortunately, filmmaker Raymond Gale had the same idea as me, and thanks to his film Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker, I can now scratch off one project on my "Things To Do" list.

The history of rock music has always favored white musicians like Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and the Comets, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley, who, as we all know, has been crowned the King of Rock-n-Roll. The truth is that rock was a mutation of the blues, and before it was called "rock" it was most commonly called either "race music" or "colored music." This is, of course, because most of the early musicians playing what would latter be dubbed as rock were black. The term "rock and roll" itself comes from the coded slang of colored music, and used to describe sex.

Electric Purgatory is an impressive history lesson that kicks off with a live performance by Fishbone, the first in a series of incredible pieces of archival footage found throughout the film. The film offers a quick and abbreviated overview of the history of rock, touching upon the roots it has in the blues, and covering several of the most noted rock pioneers of the 1950s. Gale pays close attention to Little Richard, who is himself the embodiment of rock music, and easily one of the most crucial people in the development and showmanship of rock-n-roll. With a mix of interviews and performance footage, Gale pieces together an incredible timeline of rock's evolution from the 1950s up to the early part of the 21st century. Along the way he talks to rockers from better known groups like Fishbone, Living Colour and 24-7 Spyz, and the film begins to navigate political waters as it addresses issues of racism in the music industry.

As a documentary, the film really hits its stride and finds its most assured footing in the second half, as it examines the career of Fishbone. Easily one of the most influential bands of the past three decades, commercial success has largely eluded the band, as the film, members of Fishbone, and even fellow musicians like ?uestlove of The Roots candidly discuss. To that end, Electric Purgatory feels at times like it is as much about Fishbone as it is about any other group, and there are certainly groups that come across as being either under represented or completely absent. But that's not a bad thing, so much as the nature of all documentaries. It is easy to come away complaining about what band wasn't discussed or what musician wasn't interviewed, and in the process lose sight of the amazing things that are being presented. And there are some amazing things being said, especially by Fishbone's Angelo Moore and Spacey-T, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Doung Pinnick of King's X and Jimi Hazel of 24-7 Spyz.

Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker is not a comprehensive documentary (that would require a multi-part series that ran at least twelve hours, and dedicated an entire sequence to Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy), but it is a solid documentary that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. Gale's film makes for a nice companion piece to James Spooner's documentary Afro-Punk, and the two would make a great double feature. Electric Purgatory is also a great jumping-off point for the discovery and rediscovery of some truly incredible music. And perhaps, most important, the film raises the question of "where do we go from here?"--an issue that needs to be discussed as long as black rockers continue to struggle to survive and find success in a medium they pioneered.

Video:
Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker is presented full frame. The documentary consists of archival footage and interviews that vary in picture quality. Some interviews are lit better than others, and some of the older footage have signs of wear, but overall the picture is good.

Audio:
Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker is presented in 2.0 stereo. Like the picture, the audio is made up of older archival material and interviews with varying audio quality. Some of the interviews were recorded in noisy environments, which can be distracting, but the sound mix works to keep all the levels consistent, and the audio is clear enough that it is easy to understand what is being said.

Bonus Material:
Bonus material consists of deleted scenes and other footage that is also pretty much a collection of deleted scenes. There is a brief conversation with Bad Brains front man HR that is not that impressive (his comments in American Hardcore are better). "Outlets for Change" and "The New Breed" are really just bits and pieces of interviews that didn't make it into the final film. There's nothing ground-breaking or essential viewing hiding within the bonus material, but it does provide for a slight extension of the conversation started by the film itself.

Final Thoughts:
There's some great performance footage to be found in Electric Purgatory, and some very profound insights made by the interviewees. This is a solid documentary that goes a long way to begin finally rectifying the often poorly written history of rock-n-roll.