M. Son of the Century (Soundtrack by Tom Rowlands)

[ThePumisher]

The sudden change in topic to Oasis is weird

Tom Rowlands has already worked on commission for some directors such as Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan and Joe Wright for a theatrical production and for the film Hanna, in the latter case paired with Ed Simons

So Ed was not involved in Danka Jane and Electric Hands?

[whirlygirl]

The sudden change in topic to Oasis is weird



So Ed was not involved in Danka Jane and Electric Hands?

Hahaha, right, that was certainly a way to change gears! If Noel Gallagher is reading, he'd be a mensch if he could get Tom's kids some tickets to see Oasis.  

I would think Ed was involved in Danka Jane and Electric Hands since the Chemical Brothers are credited on Black Swan. But yeah, the wording does raise the question.

[inchemwetrust]

This is the freshest thing I ever heard at the start of the new year! Invigorating yet it's like nothing I ever heard before! SOE, Black Dam,Victim, TWVSB, Avanti are stellar!  

Every texture, crunch, bite, is savored tastefully and methodically! This OST goes to so many places. This is Tom's olympic pentahlon for your ear holes, and Tom is medaling in all the events! 

Can't wait for a physical release!

[ThePumisher]

Making Of (completely in italian)

I think at 32:45 they start to talk about the music

[ThePumisher]

Any info on physical release

View this post on Instagram

[Stefan]

No CD apparently

But I'm seriously happy for all of you vinyl afincados, that sountrack deserves a place in your collections!

[whitelabel84]

No CD apparently

Fear not @Stefan - Milan Records have done CD releases, their last was for 'The Brutalist'.
So there is a very good chance there will be one, hopefully a Special Japanese release too 🤞🤞🤞

[Joslyn]

Totally hoax when posted on April 1st...(although I recently ordered Los instrumental from Schallplatlenfabrik)

[Wolkenkrabber]

Anyone watched the series besides me?

I've done a 'little' review just for you Chembase people.  I'm going to have some very light 'spoilers'. This is of course history (more or less), rather than the plot for the new Star Wars film. I don't think anything I say here will impinge on your enjoyment of the series. BTW this is an inherently poitical show with M turning to the camera in Ep 4, saying "Make Italy Great Again" (yes, it's a bit on-the-nose). So, I hope I don't get banned for reviewing it!

MUSSOLINI SON OF THE CENTURY - A REVIEW
Ahh, the birth of Fascism -fun times (for some)! Here's the guy who literally invented the term and proudly named his party after it. We get up close and personal with Mussolini right from the start (well, after we've jumped forward in time to his execution). He befriends us in the first ten minutes as he breaks the fourth wall and confides his thoughts and intentions.

Mussolini, a former member of the Socialists (and editor of socialist newspaper, Avanti) becomes frustrated with the socialists' "all-talk, no-action" behaviour. He sees a nation (and many ex-soldiers) disillusioned after WW1, seeking a strong leader, and he decides that movement and action are the way forward, however illegal those actions may be. Mussolini aims to win over the "lost populace"; he's interested in their "hearts, not their minds". Yep, M is the orginal populist Fascist, and he's proud of it.

Joe Wright isn't afraid to use every weapon in his arsenal to engage us with the details of this story. And at almost eight hours in length, he has more time than a typical two hour film would. As well as fourth wall breaking, Wright uses black & white footage -both real and contrived, he uses theatrical looking sets as well as some beautiful building interiors, he uses weird and wonky camera angles, puppets (he did this in Life of Galileo too) and of course Tom's soundtrack. Most of the time, it all works.

Oh and did I mention Luca Marinelli's central performance? Hugely powerful - as he portrays "a man... dogged by self‑doubt and only ever one bad piece of oratory away from losing the faith of his followers" Yes, I've nicked that straight from this Guardian review. And it's true that we watch Mussolini struggle and often appear close to failure. At one point he has his bags packed, ready to flee to Switzerland and leave his co-conspirators behind. Mussolini seems to be constantly teetering between success and failure - like a high wire artist who likes to bark and swear a lot.

Wright bravely decided to keep this story in Italian, having considered using English. If you've ever wanted to learn the Italian words for dickhead, cocksucker and wanker, well this is the show for you! I do wonder how this (choice of Italian) may affect it's commercial appeal though.

So we have met the "who". As for the "how", well... there's Chaos for starters; Mussolini loves a bit of chaos. And contradiction too (one day M is against the concept of elections, the next day he loves them). Mussolini is happy to make statements that he knows he can't back up (does this sound familiar?). And then there is boundary shifting. M explains how, by saying something that's way outside of accepted political boundaries, he can now shift the whole conversation in one direction, so that when he shifts back a little bit, his ideas don't seem so unreasonable. This reminds of me of a 2017 Vox video about Moving the Overton Window.

Oh and the other big "how"? The violence of course. The Blackshirts are portrayed as a bunch of bloodthirsty hooligans, only too happy to come together -like a militarised version of the droogs in A Clockwork Orange- to engage in some ultra-violence. Many of them are ex-soldiers, discarded and seeking purpose.
 The Blackshirts are a double-edged sword for Mussolini though, causing him problems when he gets into Parliament. Tom's "The Violence Must Stop" actually soundtracks Mussolini berating the Blackshirts after they killed a priest (amongst other people). M can't really control the Blackshirts - because they're bloodthirsty hooligans, and now that he's in Parliament, they're kinda tainting his 'respectability'. 

I have to say that after each episode I felt a little worn out. Perhaps from reading the subtitles, or perhaps from the combination of the loud central performance and all the other tricks that Wright throws at us. Tom's music is up front in the mix, and I can imagine that might divide some viewers. Personally I liked it, and it felt appropriate that Tom's soundtrack might bash us on the head occasionally - after all, that's what Mussolini and the Blackshirts were doing.
I can't imagine binge watching more than two episodes of this at a time. The Guardian reviewer says "It is a long grind...". And I get what he means. It may be aprropriate for the book (784 pages!) but there are times when it feels a little long winded.
Do I feel like reading the book now that I've finished the series? Well, after reading almost eight hours of subtitles, no not really! Although I could be tempted to read books 2 and 3.

If there are going to be adaptations of Books 2 & 3, then it may all make sense in the long run. If not, then I would have actually preferred a ten or twelve part series that covers all three books.
When we reach the end of episode 8, it is a particularly dramatic and sombre moment (I won't say why, here). My first thought was: "Can't wait for episode 9!" But there is no Episode 9. It feels incomplete. So I very much hope that somebody will adapt books 2 and 3.

M doesn't quite get five stars from me, but it is good. If you're open to all the bells and whistles from Joe Wright, if you're happy for Tom's score to jump into the foreground, if you don't mind the regular breaking of the fourth wall, then don't hold back; seek this out.   4 stars out of 5.




Incidentally some of the music is noticably different - either in the edit or the actual sounds/production. And there is additional stuff here that's not on the released OST. I might do a separate post on that in the next day or two.

Some additional reviews/articles that I found worthwhile under the spoiler tab:

Spoiler

The Guardian, G Mumford review: "gripping"
The Guardian Aug 2024, Joe Wright: "I want the audience to be seduced"
The Conversation: "Democracy is extremely fragile..."
Medium: Defending Mussolini ("it  accidentally glamorises fascism")

And after you've watched the show:
Guardian's Caroline Moorehead think piece
Guardian letters: a response to Caroline Moorehead

HOW TO WATCH
I mentioned previously that Sky TV are owned by Comcast these days - the same people who own NBC in the USA. After the credits, there's an NBC Universal Global Distribution logo. So you might imagine that NBC would eventually show the series in the US. For now, it does appear to be available on Prime Video in the US (but not Canada or Mexico). So, Americans I think your wait is over, and possibly has been for a while now.
For other countries: Where Can I Watch This.

[Stefan]

So far, the series is not available in Austria :/

@Joslyn: that doesn't seem like something Tom would joke about

[whitelabel84]

Just finished the first episode here in Australia. 

Streaming for free on the SBS On Demand service. 

The soundtrack fits in so wonderfully and makes sense watching it and how it is incorporated within the show 👌👌

[Bosco]

HOW TO WATCH
I mentioned previously that Sky TV are owned by Comcast these days - the same people who own NBC in the USA. After the credits, there's an NBC Universal Global Distribution logo. So you might imagine that NBC would eventually show the series in the US. For now, it does appear to be available on Prime Video in the US (but not Canada or Mexico). So, Americans I think your wait is over, and possibly has been for a while now.
For other countries: Where Can I Watch This.

Not available on (American) Amazon Prime yet. We get an alert when clicking your link:

This title may not be available to watch from your location. Go to amazon.com to see the video catalog in United States.

Totally hoax when posted on April 1st...(although I recently ordered Los instrumental from Schallplatlenfabrik)

just stumbled across a few online stores with a release date of June 6th, so I think its real

https://www.allgoodcleanrecords.com/produkt/tom-rowlands-m-son-of-the-century-ost-lp/

https://www.bengans.com/en/artiklar/rowlands-tom-m-son-of-the-century-original-series-soundtrack.html

or just google search the UPC: 0198028924016