{"id":9174,"date":"2014-07-08T14:12:37","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T18:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9174"},"modified":"2014-07-09T21:47:25","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T01:47:25","slug":"michael-penns-masters-of-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9174","title":{"rendered":"Michael Penn’s Masters of Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MastersOfSex_S1_BR\"<\/a>Just uploaded is a podcast interview with composer \/ musician \/ songwriter Michael Penn, best-known for scoring P.T. Anderson\u2019s Hard Eight<\/strong> (1996) and Boogie Nights<\/strong> (1997), and deservedly lauded for his work on HBO\u2019s Girls<\/strong> and Showtime\u2019s superbly produced Masters of Sex<\/strong>, which begins its second season July 13th.<\/p>\n

For MOS, Penn made use of the vintage sounds from the Novachord<\/a>, and although this precursor to electronic synthesizers isn\u2019t the dominant instrument in his MOS scores, it\u2019s an important part of the show\u2019s musical palette, linking some contemporary sounds and styles with the soft sounds of the late fifties \/ early sixties.<\/p>\n

Like the Novachord, during the sixties there also existed the Mellotron<\/a>, the British variant of the original American-built Chamberlin<\/a> instrument which itself was a precursor to the concept and application of modern sampling: unlike the Novachord which used vacuum tubes to emulate the sounds of an organ and orchestra, the Mellotron drew its sounds from instrument samples that were played back from magnetic tape loops<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Both the Novachord and the Mellotron \/ Chamberlin resembled organs with their keyboards and foot pedals, and relied on the era\u2019s tubes, but the Novachord was a behemoth. As you\u2019ll hear in our conversation, Penn describes the instrument\u2019s unique qualities, quirks, and how he applied those sounds to his addictive main theme, heard in the show’s Main Titles as a tango set to a naughty montage of suggestive images.<\/p>\n

As with prior podcasts, I\u2019ve added some background visuals for the YouTube version, and in the extract of Penn\u2019s theme music, I created a montage using some original footage which relates to the tape and tube-based instruments in our discussion. (If you haven\u2019t seen the show\u2019s suggestive title sequence, it\u2019s archived on YouTube.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n