Cinematic Orchestra - Man With A Movie Camera
SKU
05-ZEN078
"J Swinscoe's TCO have been described as "classy and cerebral, but atmospheric and soulful too" (NME). They are one of the few bands of the last few years to successfully fuse contemporary studio production techniques with fantastic live playing, their take on jazz and film soundtracks fused together with a thoroughly modern sampler-generation attitude."
"It was just a matter of time before the Cinematic Orchestra received a commission for a film score, but this 2003 release actually dates from 1999. The genesis of Man With a Movie Camera lies in the selection committee of a Portuguese film festival, which asked Cinematic Orchestra to score their re-airing of Dziga Vertov's 1929 film of the same name, a silent Soviet documentary focused on a day in the life of an average worker. Performed live by the orchestra, Man With a Movie Camera doesn't allow J Swinscoe to indulge in his usual post-production magic, but it is a surprisingly adept score, with occasional bursts of on-the-one jazz-funk wailing to break it up. (Pity the poor comrade who's soundtracked 70 years later with a hyper-speed Pretty Purdie-type drum solo and some old-school-rap samples in the background.) Scattered moments of brilliance abound, and at one point, someone on sax comes up with a brilliant foghorn recreation. The cinematic material lies in '70s astral jazz, with evocative, tremulous work from soprano sax and violin." - John Bush/All Music