Means of production

Cinematic Orchestra, "Man with a movie Camera" (Ninja Tunes, 1999)
Cinematic Orchestra is a British jazz-electronic band signed to the Ninja Tunes label. The six member band features a digital music programmer, a bass player, a drummer, a saxophonist, a pianist, and a trumpet player. The product is a mix of acid jazz and trip hop. The album "The man with the movie camera" is a brilliant encapsulation of human emotion. The album's inspiration was a Russian Avant-gaurde soviet social commentary in the form of a silent documentary about industrial means of production. Dziga Vertov called his 1920's masterpiece "The Man with a movie camera". The songs of the Cinematic Orchestra album correlate with the movie as a redubbed soundtrack. The album is 17 tracks long.
Most pleasing aspects of CO's aesthetic are the use of repetition, the layering of established harmony, and the canvas feel of these compositions. The songs often seem lonely or unfinished; it is as if they require the imagination of the audience as a supplement. The British standout has managed to capture the experimental fanatic jubilant curiosity of jazz and infuse it with the deliberate mechanical cerebral focus of digital studio production.
"Dawn" epitomizes great music. The clumsy entrance of light over the horizon; the lazy reach of stretched cinders across the sky; the nagging realizations of the fading dusk. The four minute string composition is an automated assist to relaxation and reflection. This album is a nightmarish and meditative soundtrack full of instrumental songs of soliloquy. The ominous introspective sounding orchestral melodies are often supplemented with atonal funk samples. Background ambient samples of "oohs" and "ahhs" and the interpersonal sonic connection reverberating throughout this album combine for what we shall dubb: an album of classical colloquial jams.
"Awakening of a woman" is the best song on the album. An orgasmic cosmic orgy of celestial proportions. Set in 3/4 time, this ten minute epic evolves through seasons of disposition. The tone climbs from jubilant to passive, passive to anxious, anxious to morose, morose to wise. This song is perfectly titled, if perhaps woman is synonymous with universe. Admittedly, this track does give off the vibe of experimental lesbianism and the dim glow of Virginia slims. The song ends with a strengthened resolve infectious to the audience.
Cinematic Orchestra's "Man with a movie camera" is human effulgence and luminosity captured within a non lyrical opus. It is able to advertise all the resplendence of life with its emphasis on the timbre of emotion. This album arrogantly stumbles across genre lines without turning an ankle. Perhaps the band will begin to turn some heads with albums like this one. Four out of five stars for a cosmic experience.