The Cinematic Orchestra - Motion (2LP)

Some records feel like a doorway. Motion is one of those, the kind of debut that sketches a whole world in charcoal, then floods it with late night colour. Released in 1999 on Ninja Tune, The Cinematic Orchestra’s first album arrived at a moment when trip hop was fading and nu-jazz was working out what it wanted to be. Jason Swinscoe took that in-between space and built a living, breathing band around it, pulling in double bass, drums and reeds, then stitching samples and edits with a film lover’s sense of pacing.

You can hear the intent right away. Ode to the Big Sea moves like a camera gliding across a harbour at dawn, Luke Flowers’ drums soft but insistent and Phil France’s bass carrying a quiet swagger. The pieces don’t hurry. They coil, unfurl and find their own gravitational pull. Channel 1 Suite is the clincher, a noir shuffle that sets Tom Chant’s sax against a rhythm section that understands restraint, pushing and releasing just when your ear starts to lean forward. Night of the Iguana, titled like a matinee poster, smoulders rather than burns. And Relax! does what it says, a gentle exhale that reminds you this music knows when to leave space.

Swinscoe’s production approach was novel for the time, not simply a DJ pasting jazz samples over a beat, but a bandleader shaping an ensemble to feel like a score. The edits are surgical, the dynamics patient, the melodies often carried by the bass or a distant piano rather than a big chorus. That’s part of Motion’s charm. It works as mood, but it also rewards close listening. The brushwork on the snare, the woody resonance of the bass, the way a chord will hang in the air for an extra second before the drums return, all of it feels purposefully cinematic without tipping into pastiche.

Context matters here. This record established the blueprint that would lead to the group’s later triumphs, including their live score for Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera and the expansive sweep of Every Day. But Motion has its own pulse. It is leaner, a little rougher at the edges, and that gives it life. Critics at the time picked up on that balance of atmosphere and craft, and the album has held its ground in the years since, the sort of title you quietly recommend to a mate who loves jazz but wants something modern to live with.

On vinyl, the record’s depth comes into focus. The bass feels more tactile, cymbals bloom rather than sizzle, and those quiet passages settle into the room like dusk. If you collect The Cinematic Orchestra vinyl, Motion sits near the top of the stack for that reason. A good pressing rewards the patience the band asks for, with the stereo field stretching out like a screen. Motion vinyl pops up often enough that it is not a white whale, but it is one you will pull out when the lights are low and the city has gone quiet.

There is also something quietly British about the record, not in a parochial way, more in its sense of evening streets and old cinemas with sticky floors, the mix of romance and drizzle. Ninja Tune’s influence is present too, a label that prized texture and left turns. You can imagine these tunes first coming to life in a London rehearsal room, the players working out how to give the samples space, then letting the band breathe around them. That interplay between human touch and edit-point precision is what keeps Motion from ageing. It still sounds like tomorrow at 2 am.

If you are crate digging or looking to buy The Cinematic Orchestra records online, this is the place to start. It pairs well with their later work, and it sits neatly alongside other Ninja Tune staples if you are building a small corner of that scene at home. The Cinematic Orchestra albums on vinyl tend to reward proper listening sessions, and Motion is no exception. If you are in a Melbourne record store, you will often see it filed under downtempo or jazz, which feels right, but it belongs in that small section of records that turn a flat into a cinema. For fans of vinyl records Australia wide, it is a reliable recommendation, not because it is flashy, but because it knows exactly how to cast a spell and hold it.