confusing and jarring
I had heard the track "Channel One Suite" before (on Solid Steel) but I never knew what it was, so it was a nice surprise to find it on here. It's an accessible tune, but is nice and complicated. Some of the other tracks are a bit inaccessible, others are really brilliant. Lovely drums, nice and loud and gritty. "Night of the Iguana" is a real classic, meandering drums, evocative and atmospheric strings. Sometimes I find the odd time signatures a bit confusing and jarring though, and it makes it harder to keep up and appreciate the atmospheres being created. Mixed bag for me.

My Favourite Jazz Album
In my own humble opinion, this is the greatest jazz album ever released. That's a pretty bold statement when there are albums like Miles Davis' 'Kind Of Blue' or John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme', but I stand by it. It isn't your usual jazz album where the whole group comes together and records a session. Instead, band 'leader' Joe Swinscoe sampled each of the other members and then arranged them all to produce 7 stunning tracks.

A dark mood pervades most of the pieces- 'Channel One Suite' and 'Night Of The Iguana' in particular. However, there are moments of a lighter nature, namely 'Ode To The Big Sea' and 'And Relax!'.

In conclusion: It's jazz, and it's very, very good jazz. You jazz can't listen to 'Channel One Suite' without thinking "WOw, this is amazing!". Get it, play it, and relax!

Dark brilliance
I first listened to Motion while browsing a CD store in Brighton some years ago. I was completely, utterly bowled over and I knew I had to have this CD. There is certainly something cinematic about this music - it suggest familiar images from film noir territory. In my opinion, in terms of sheer mood impact "Motion" is up there with Miles Davis' minor masterpiece "Ascenseur pour l' Echafaud". "Motion" is an extraordinary CD, what with the perfect musicianship or the added detail of a cryptic sleeve that discloses very little about the band behind it. If you like brooding, late-night jazz with a whiff of dark foreboding then this is your ticket.

More after hours lounging from the Cinematic Orchestra
I was introduced to the Cinematic Orchestra's albums out of unison. I first bought The Remixes ,then recently Everyday which I found superb and so recently I bought the debut Motion. For Motion lacking the more melodic sound of the mellower new masterpiece Everyday . Motion is dark through out. The whole album oozes 1950's smoky bass lines sassy horns and percussions, with snippetts of stylish jazzy vocals that resemble Simone on the dangerous sleazy opener Durian. Channell 1 suit is completely out of charecter being more of a club orientaded track from the rest of this straigt contempory jazz set which flows along with echoes heavilly of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Forget the comercial compilation chill out albums for winding down. This album is a seious late night lounger, for the post club post party crowd to see in the dawn. The whole sound is dark and moody, and the tempoe remains as late night down beats. Another winner from the Cinematic Orchestra.

Interesting
A wonderful album. Perhaps not entirely original (it owes a lot to DJ Shadow and Coldcut perhaps) but never the less it is very good. It suffers from being rather too low budget (the excellent soloists are mixed too far back at times) and some of the tracks are a bit overlong and have insufficient development but I still rate it as one of the best albums Ive heard for some time. There isnt too much information with the sleeve and I cant be arsed to check out websites to find out more but it sounds like much of the orchestrations and voices are sampled making it even more remakable. A lot of it sounds like 1960's Gil Evans/Miles Davis at around the time of Out Of the Cool/ Dance of the Barracudas with beats. Not as good as Kylie Minogue's Fever (what else is at the moment) but a
close second.