Essay
Yutaka Yamada: Sounding Nothingness and Living Death
November 2025
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses the musicalisation of purgatory in Japanese sci-fi series Alice In Borderland
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses the musicalisation of purgatory in Japanese sci-fi series Alice In Borderland
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy considers how Justin Hurwitz manipulates, distorts, multiplies and caricatures jazz traditions in his collaborations with director Damien Chazelle
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy considers the ways in which Bobby Krlic’s psych-horror scores trap the audience in Ari Aster’s protagonists’ terror
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy considers Michael Abels’s musicalisations of Black aspiration in Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) and Us (2020).
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses the techno roots of Irène Drésel’s unrelenting score to Eric Gravel’s 2021 social critique Full-Time (À Plein Temps)
Philip Brophy analyses the musical rendering of emotional and cultural deception in Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s scores for Smile (2022) and season one of The White Lotus (2021)
In the third instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses two horror scores by Gazelle Twin – Black Cab (2024) and Nocturne (2020) – and considers how psychological turmoil can be expressed in sound
In the second instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury’s scores for the Alex Garland films Civil War (2024) and Annihilation (2018)
Philip Brophy sets out his intentions for the return of his long running Wire column on film music
Frank Sinatra’s atmospheric vocal classic finds an unlikely afterlife in reggae’s deepest nyabinghi cuts
Why are there so few Jamaican versions of jazz standards, asks Chris Lane in the latest instalment of his guide to reggae versions
Chris Lane’s latest version excursion through Jamaican music arrives at a botched take on a jazz standard
From Christian rock to reggae via soul, Chris Lane’s latest column follows the strange journey of a slept-on Jamaican classic
The next stop in Chris Lane’s survey of launchpads of Jamaican song is a novelty pop flop from Liverpool
Chris Lane goes island hopping with the crown prince of reggae in his ongoing odyssey through Jamaican music classics
Chris Lane checks in with “undisputed king of ska” Mongo Santamaria in his latest version excursion
Next stop on Chris Lane’s tour of the extraordinary versions of Jamaican popular music detours via UK TV police show Echo Four-Two
A moody funk instrumental by The Meters echoes through reggae in versions by Coxsone Dodd, Lee Perry and Harry Johnson, discovers Chris Lane in his latest column
In the next stop in his journey through reggae music’s extraordinary versions, Chris Lane checks in with Curtis Mayfield’s game-changing vocal group The Impressions
In the second of his journeys through reggae’s extraordinary versions, Chris Lane goes to the Far East with Don Drummond and Judy Garland