Pitchfork

Recommending soundtracks is tricky, because I almost feel like I'm not giving the music its fair shake unless I hear it behind the film at the same time. Certainly there are some great scores out there: Nina Rota's work for Fellini, Bernard Herrmann's amazing music for Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick's survey of modern classical music for his own pictures are a few of my favorites. However, generally I think soundtracks are written as supporting roles rather than feature attractions, and taken on their own, that doesn't always equate to a gripping performance for listeners. Jason Swinscoe, leader of the UK post-fusion, part-time IDM outfit Cinematic Orchestra, certainly knows how to enhance a mood (witness his moonlighting as a DJ and remixer), but on this set of vignettes-- all recorded in 1999-- he usually settles for pleasant nothings.

Unlike last year's surprisingly lively Every Day, wherein Swinscoe passed up noir-jazz tastefulness for edgy expressionist, post-Ayler extroversions, Man With a Movie Camera catches his project in a much more conservative mode. Swinscoe's soundtrack for director Dziga Vertov's 1929 silent documentary of the same name plays it smooth for the most part, using muted James Brown funk beats and the occasional dash of electronic sheen as the spice in an otherwise minimal, contemplative brew. Not having seen the film (also recently released on DVD with this accompanying soundtrack), I can't really say how well his pieces complemented scenes of the young Russian workers only 12 years into an unprecedented way of life. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he was able to make acid-jazz work, though you have to wonder how old Vertov would have felt.

As with many soundtracks, I often get the sense here that things are kept at an even, not-terribly-intrusive keel in order to support whatever might be happening onscreen-- and as a result, they don't necessarily work very well as stand-alone listening experiences. Sure, I'm free to let the theater of the mind have its way with this music, but as sparse, "evocative" music goes, these guys have little on, say, Stereolab (or a Martin Denny record for that matter). When the Orchestra plays it "cool," as on the reprise of their cover of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's "Theme de Yoyo", they come perilously close to playing background music that might even go unnoticed by the guys in the band. Drummer Luke Flowers and reedist Tom Chant do an admirable job of keeping things afloat on the slow, cocktail funk simmer, as electric piano and Phil France's bass make sure everything stays in its right place-- yet, without a climax, or any obvious direction, the tune meanders.

Likewise, on pieces like "Postlude", where Flowers' expert 2-step beat and the spooky pluck of strings give straight cop-show melodrama a hip edge, the blunt club of repetition and lack of dynamic arc suck the life out of it. Swinscoe again injects subtle electronics, and even vinyl scratching into the mix for color, but I'd argue those elements are actually too subtle and that in general, the album could have benefited from a punchier production. As such, the titles that work best are the ones forgoing upbeat energetics entirely for atmospherics. "Russian Record" uses marimbas and a rainy-day string arrangement, perhaps as perfect accompaniment to the dour, never-changing routine of the average Russian worker. The simple, but effectively wry chorus of violins on "Reel Life" does wonders for its clumpy, mid-tempo funk shuffle-- Cinematic Orchestra play "sophisticated" well.

Since these pieces were recorded in several years ago, anyone curious about the further development of Swinscoe and company will have to wait. It's clear that their adventures in support of the big screen have gotten more engaging over the years, though melodically and texturally, Man With a Movie Camera is pretty consistent with the rest of the band's catalog. Still, I would recommend anyone start with Every Day and work backwards as far as hitting their best stuff first. This isn't a bad album, but should almost certainly work better with something else happening.