Maestro

An attempt at a linear history of dance music from the '60s to today, or more specifically, the story of Larry Levan (perhaps the most influential DJ ever?). Interviews with pioneers of the underground club scene are intercut with archive footage from Levan's Paradise Garage (or 'Gay-Raj', as it was known). There's plenty of 'you had to be there' commentary (the club operated in New York from 1977 to '87), crediting the scene with the beginning of everything from fag haggery to 'mixing', the birth of the 12-inch and sound systems. Regrettably, the footage fails to provide any sense of the excitement described and part of the blame must fall to the sometimes obvious editing - shots of energetic dancers and waving clubbers, for instance, are 'synched' with interviewees talking about the buzz, rather than the music that inspired it.