Like Henry Mancini and Ennio Moriconne meets the Avalanches

March 10, 2020 10:55 PM

Mellotron Variations: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert --- featuring Robby Grant: Mellotron; John Medeski: Mellotron; Pat Sansone: Mellotron; Jonathan Kirkscey: Mellotron.

Bonus tracks:

The Mellotron: A Keyboard with the Power of an Orchestra (1965) | British Pathé

Paul McCartney demonstrates the Mellotron

The Great British Tron Story

Mike Pinder plays Moodys Classics on the Mellotron

Analysis: Genesis' Mellotron-The Musical Box

posted by philip-random (17 comments total)

funky, but I don't see how they could fit tape loops into those tiny white boxes
posted by scruss at 4:48 AM on March 11, 2020

I agree, are those real Mellotrons, as in, using real Mellotron technology, or some sort of emulated-sound brand theft? This explains a real Mellotron.
posted by bitslayer at 4:54 AM on March 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Only Medeski is playing on an original. I had never heard of this crazy hack of an instrument before, but I certainly have heard it! Thanks for the post.
posted by anthill at 5:07 AM on March 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

The white boxes are digital Mellotrons made by the Mellotron company. So digital sample based, yes, but based on a real Mellotron and made by the same company.
posted by dislegomena at 5:09 AM on March 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Looks more like a Mellotron company. The original manufacturer went into liquidation in the 1980s, and the current manifestation is run by the founder's son. Pretty much in line with the rest of the history of the instrument, which appears to contain the former window-cleaner of the inventor absconding to the UK with two of the devices and a narrow escape from Lawrence Welk.
posted by scruss at 6:26 AM on March 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

good music. interesting music. I don't know from the "mellotron" so I'll just stick with 'synth.'
posted by From Bklyn at 6:36 AM on March 11, 2020

Oh, joy! This is a style of music I adore, and haven't heard in quite some time. The Fibonaccis, a California band that released one and a half albums in the 1980s, were quite good at this style.

Here is their song Ordinary Woman, which is a Wallace Stevens poem set to music.
posted by the matching mole at 8:15 AM on March 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I discovered this tiny concert kind of by mistake. Clicked a link somebody posted to Facebook, forgot about it as I got distracted by the latest onslaught of virus and primary related news, none of it particularly good ... but then I started noticing this music, playful, ethereal, goofy, ghostly, wow ... the ideal soundtrack for an ominous now.
posted by philip-random at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm listening but so far haven't heard any actual NPR Music yet -- at least, accordng to my definition.
posted by Rash at 9:27 AM on March 11, 2020

I love this. So much.
posted by sleeping bear at 10:54 AM on March 11, 2020

>. I don't know from the "mellotron" so I'll just stick with 'synth.'

Continue being wrong then. A mellotron is not in any sense a synthesizer. The old ones are analogue samplers, and the new ones are digital samplers. Samplers are not synths. They do not synthesize sounds; they play recordings.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Dinosaur Jr put the mellotron to good use in Thumb.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:09 AM on March 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

This is so good, love Medeski and my first little plastic bong as a teen was named Mellotron (after the Stereolab song). But... oh my word, I'm most in love with Sansone's hair! Is that a wig? If so, it was a marvelous choice.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:04 PM on March 11, 2020

See also Birotron (as featured on Tormato by Yes) and Chamberlin (as featured on Heroes by David Bowie).
posted by Grangousier at 5:55 PM on March 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

When they tour, all four of them are using original mellotrons, but they used three of the digital remakes for the "tiny" space. That was fun. I'm such a sucker for the mellotron sound. Imagine what it must have sounded like back when it had just come out?
posted by umbú at 6:49 PM on March 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Continue being wrong then. A mellotron is not in any sense a synthesizer. The old ones are analogue samplers, and the new ones are digital samplers. Samplers are not synths. They do not synthesize sounds; they play recordings.

... (Hands thrown up in a Whadda ya gonna do gesture)
Yes, they are not synthesizers or emulators or loopers. They are sui generis. And this group are making good music with these (to me) (waves hands vaguely) keyboard things.

(I did get/understand that the mellotron is an analogue sampler (which is stupendously fucking cool, frankly) and that that is emphatically not a synthesizer ... but ‘synth’ sits in my head as a place holder for ‘electrical Piano key board sound making Thing’.)
posted by From Bklyn at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2020

How are there no Mefites named Mellotron (good), Mellowtron (better) or Carmellotron (ermazing) yet? Get to it!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:18 PM on March 12, 2020 [2 favorites]