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Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 4
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The fourth installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films and TV shows from the United Kingdom. The British Isles have always been a major center for excellent film music, and this year is no exception: as well as scores for projects like Peter and Wendy, Wolf Hall, Poldark, Suffragette, Spectre, Mr. Holmes, and Far From the Madding Crowd, which I have already reviewed, the rest of this year’s bumper crop includes the scores for a low-budget thriller, two wonderful TV documentaries, a witty comedy, and a swashbuckling TV adventure series!
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 3
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The third installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from mainland Europe. I know this is a very ‘broad brush’ description, but there are a number of countries this year where there are just one or two standout works which couldn’t justify an entire article to themselves, so I decided to present you with this bumper crop from across the entire continent instead! The scope is quite wide-ranging, and includes everything from French documentaries to Polish serial killer thrillers, Russian adventure movies, and Greek romantic dramas, by written Oscar-winners and exciting newcomers alike.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 2
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The second installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Scandinavia. This year’s crop of outstanding scores from the far north of Europe features an animated film from Denmark, a wry comedy-drama from Iceland, a pair of historical dramas from Finland, and a wonderful children’s score from Norway written by one of that country’s most talented young composers!
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 1
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The first installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Spain and Portugal. I have been very vocal in the past about my admiration for the music coming out of the Iberian peninsula, and this year just reinforces my view that some of the best film music in the world right now is being written there. My first look at the area features new scores by some of my favorite contemporary composers, including Federico Jusid and Nuno Malo, and there will be more to come later!
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 5
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
My fifth article in my Review of the Year 2014 looks at the Best Scores from Scandinavia. Scandinavian movies and scores get pretty short shrift from the majority of mainstream audiences, and that needs to change, because the level of talent and craftsmanship at work in those countries is superb. While composers like Johan Söderqvist from Sweden, Jóhann Jóhannsson from Iceland, and Tuomas Kantelinen and Panu Aaltio from Finland have developed an international profile over the past few years, there are still a number of domestic composers doing excellent work within their own industry; as such, this year’s choices from the frozen north contain music by both established names and promising newcomers, and include a Danish TV mini-series, a Swedish comedy, and three scores from Norway: a children’s adventure, a historical thriller, and a wonderful classical documentary.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 4
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
My fourth article in my Review of the Year 2014 looks at the Best Scores from Spain. It’s pretty common knowledge that I consider Spain to be one of the world’s great hotbeds of excellent film scoring, and 2014 continues to affirm that this is the case. This year’s group of scores from the Iberian peninsula runs the gamut of genres, from dramas to comedies to horror scores to contemporary thrillers, and features music from some of from the best regional composers working today, including Roque Baños, Arnau Bataller, Zacarías M. de la Riva, and Federico Jusid.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 3
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
My third article in my Review of the Year 2014 looks at the Best Scores from Poland and Eastern Europe. It has been exciting to watch the emergence of several young, talented Polish composers over the last few years, as the ‘old guard’ of composers like Wojciech Kilar and Zbigniew Preisner pass the film music torch onto the next generation. This year’s crop of scores from the European continent’s eastern edge includes two scores examining the subject of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising from different musical points of view, the score for the top-grossing film at the Polish box office in 2014, and an excellent multi-national fantasy score from Russia, written by a Spaniard!
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 2
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
My second article in my Review of the Year 2014 looks at the Best Scores from Italy. Italian cinema doesn’t quite have the same level of acclaim and popularity as it did in the past, and the state of Italian film music is not once what it was either; the country’s heyday, when composers like Ennio Morricone, Pino Donaggio, Nino Rota and Riz Ortolani dominated, appears to be mostly over, and today’s most prominent Italian artists (Dario Marianelli, Carlo Siliotto, Nicola Piovani) are working mostly on non-Italian projects. Ironically, it appears to be for Italian television that the most promising music is being written today, and my picks for the best Italian scores of 2014 include three works for TV, and one stunning work for an under-the-radar art house piece from a composer to watch.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 1
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The first installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Asia: specifically, the far eastern nations of China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Already in 2014 I have reviewed Christopher Young’s magnificent score for the Chinese epic fantasy adventure The Monkey King, and Jo-Yeong Wook’s score for the revisionist samurai action film Kundo: Age of the Rampant. In this article, I’m taking a deeper look at some other excellent works, ranging from anime movies and TV series from Japan, baseball dramas from Taiwan, and two of the highest-grossing films from Vietnam.
You can read my review of The Monkey King here, my review of Kundo: Age of the Rampant here.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 5
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 4
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 3
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 2
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 1
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