The final beat they create is sparse, off-kilter, and haunting. It doesn’t sound like a club banger. It sounds like a heartbeat slowing down. In a season filled with casino politics (Big Teak’s death), erotic thrillers (Hailey’s double life), and religious hypocrisy (Pastor Woodbine), Episode 7 forces the viewer to sit in a small room with a broken heart.
— A masterclass in using sound design to articulate the unspeakable. Stream all episodes of P-Valley on Starz. p-valley s02e07 mpc
Using a vintage MPC (the drum machine), Clifford begins to chop the sample. They isolate their grandmother’s voice. They pitch it up, then down. They try to force the audio into a beat, to create a track that captures the feeling of a love that was never quite soft enough but always present. The final beat they create is sparse, off-kilter,