The Deal: Film music without the films.
The Good: In the past, The Cinematic Orchestra — essentially Scots composer/programmer/multi-instrumentalist Jason Swinscoe and various cameos — shot in wide-screen sound-scapes that relied on Portastatic/Strange Cargo-like electronica, noir-jazz accents and string flourishes Curtis Mayfield might have concocted. The mix was evocative and film-friendly enough to earn Swinscoe and players a live slot at the 1999 Directors’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony for Stanley Kubrick in London. As fellow Loaf contributor Tim Davis wrote in Harp this month, the focus of Cinematic Orchestra music is “on the accompanying visuals the listeners bring to the table.” But a lot of those elements are either absent or relegated to the background on Ma Fleur, with more traditional song-craft hogging the spotlight and a trio of velvet-voiced singers emphasizing the change. Swinscoe again taps cult favorite soul singer Fontella Bass for a couple of strong vocal turns, Canadian crooner Patrick Watson’s two cuts sound positively (early) Coldplay, and ex-Lamb chanteuse Lou Rhodes adds her ethereal voice to two others. Still, it’s the instrumental interludes and arrangements that captivate. Looped rhythms, programmed beats, and processed guitars and keys all funnel into elegant compositions that tell more dynamic stories than the vocal tracks.
The Bad: The emphasis on songs dilutes some of the Cinematic Orchestra’s strongest traits; instead of many moods, we get one long chill-out vibe which seems a bit wan and thin by comparison.
The Verdict: Not bad, but newcomers are better served by the Cinematic Orchestra’s earlier records, especially their genre-hopping debut, Motion.
This article appears in Jul 11-17, 2007.
