Archive
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2016, Part 1
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The first installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from the Asian continent – in this first case, Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea, and Israel. The film music coming from the Eastern hemisphere is among the best being written anywhere in the world right now, and my first look at the area features five scores by some of my favorite contemporary composers, including Naoki Sato, Christopher Wong, and one especially impressive newcomer. There will be more to come from Asia later!
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 6
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The sixth and final 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, although all of main ones this year are from the far eastern nation of Japan, with a couple of interlopers from Iran and the Lebanon. In this article, I’m taking a deeper look at several truly excellent works, which range in scope from anime movies and prestigious TV series to fantasy adventures, small-scale dramas, and religious epics.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2015, Part 5
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The fifth installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world takes a look at another great bunch of music from films and TV shows from Spain and Portugal. As I mentioned before, 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. This final crop features scores by Oscar nominees and promising newcomers, spanning documentaries and dramas and animated films, including three of the scores nominated for the 2015 Goyas, the Spanish Academy Awards.
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
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the second of 2014, looks at four of 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 glory days when composers such as Ennio Morricone, Pino Donaggio, Nino Rota, and Riz Ortolani dominated the country’s film music scene appear to be mostly over; meanwhile, several of today’s most prominent Italian composers, including Dario Marianelli, Carlo Siliotto, and Nicola Piovani, tend to work primarily on non-Italian projects.
Ironically, some of the most promising Italian film music being written today appears to be for television, and three of the four scores featured here originated on the small screen: Stefano Caprioli’s Furore: Il Vento della Speranza and I Segreti di Borgo Larici, both of which showcase his rich, classical, strongly thematic style, and Andrea Farri’s Le Mani Dentro la Città, an excellent example of contemporary action-thriller scoring which blends orchestra and electronics without allowing the latter to overwhelm the former. The final score is Alexander Cimini’s Red Krokodil, a stunningly beautiful and unexpectedly symphonic accompaniment to a dark and disturbing art-house drama, and one which earmarks Cimini as “a composer to watch.”
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2014, Part 1
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the first of 2014, explores seven outstanding scores from recent months, including an epic Japanese historical television drama about the life of a brilliant military strategist navigating the turbulent world of 16th-century feudal Japan, a Vietnamese drama-thriller about an aging actress whose desperate attempt to restore her fading beauty leads to tragedy and a sinister cover-up, an inspirational Taiwanese sports drama telling the true story of a multicultural high school baseball team that overcame enormous odds to compete for the Japanese national championship in 1931, a Vietnamese supernatural thriller about a young heart-transplant recipient haunted by visions connected to the mysterious family of her donor, a spectacular Japanese period action film in which a former assassin is called upon to prevent a ruthless enemy from overthrowing the newly established Meiji government, a somber samurai revenge drama about a loyal warrior who spends thirteen years hunting the men responsible for his master’s death, and a beautiful Studio Ghibli animated drama about a lonely young girl whose friendship with the mysterious Marnie gradually reveals an unexpected connection to her own past.
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. 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
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the fifth installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the fifth of 2013, explores five outstanding scores from recent months, including an Argentine animated comedy-adventure about a shy table football player who must reunite with his former teammates to defeat an old rival, an epic Brazilian historical drama chronicling 150 years in the lives of two feuding families against the backdrop of the formation of modern Brazil, a Venezuelan romantic comedy about two passionate baseball fans who fall in love despite supporting bitterly opposed teams, a Chilean period romance with Gothic horror overtones in which a young woman begins to suspect that her husband’s mysterious brother may be connected to a monster terrorizing a nearby village, and an unsettling Argentine drama about Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele living under an assumed identity in Patagonia and insinuating himself into the lives of an unsuspecting family.
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 4
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the fourth installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the fourth of 2013, explores seven outstanding scores from recent months, including a raucous horror-comedy about a pair of bumbling bank robbers who run afoul of a coven of cannibalistic witches in the Basque country, an ingenious thriller about a concert pianist who discovers that a sniper will kill him if he plays a wrong note during his comeback performance, an epic historical television series chronicling the life and reign of Queen Isabella I of Castile, a bittersweet drama about a soldier and the mule he adopts during the Spanish Civil War, a sweeping television drama about a Madrid seamstress whose life is transformed by war, espionage, and political intrigue, an apocalyptic science-fiction thriller in which a mysterious epidemic leaves humanity terrified of venturing outdoors, and a boisterous family adventure about mischievous twin brothers who form a secret gang at summer camp and embark on a hunt for hidden treasure. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 3
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the third installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the third of 2013, explores eight outstanding scores from recent months, including a Polish science fiction comedy about a young couple who discover a time-travelling elevator and find themselves face-to-face with Adolf Hitler, a biographical drama about celebrated Polish poet and wartime resistance fighter Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a hugely popular Polish television series following a group of friends struggling to survive in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a Russian biographical drama telling the story of pioneering cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and his historic journey into space, a nature documentary about brown bears living in the Carpathian Mountains, a Polish family drama about two teenage girls who discover that they are twin sisters separated at birth, an epic historical drama about a Polish family deported to Siberia during World War II, and Roman Polanski’s French-Polish adaptation of Venus in Fur, an erotic comedy-drama about the shifting balance of power between a theater director and an actress during an unusual audition.
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