NEW ALBUM: MARK ROBSON | WATCH THE SOUND WITH MARK ROBSON (APPLE TV + ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK)

Mark Ronson is best known for “Uptown Funk,” his hit single with Bruno Mars, but the producer’s fingerprints have been all over music in the 21st century. England’s Mark Ronson is doing something intriguingly different with his AppleTV+ series “Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson.” Each episode tackles a different piece of music technology: autotune, sampling, reverb, synthesizers, drum machines, and distortion. Sophisticated yet accessible with six episodes, each one focused on a different aspect of modern sound recording, “Watch the Sound” informs even as it dazzles with a roster of musicians, legends like Sir Paul McCartney and sound engineers. Ronson mixes personal stories about the music of his childhood (his stepfather is Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones), and his working life and interviews and side trips, like the one Ronson, takes to the Inchindown Oil Tanks in Scotland, home to the longest reverberation in any artificial structure. The highlight for many fans, however, will be Ronson talking and making music with guests including Paul McCartney, Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, members of the Beastie Boys, 80’s new wave icon Gary Numan (who seems surprised and flattered to get his historical due) and Gang Starr’s DJ Premier, a personal favourite of Ronson.