flexible films – Hugh Carson Music

July 2021

THIS MONTH’S AUDIO UPLOADS:

Victorious (Anlg) – SKETCH – 1996:

Victorious gets us underway this month. It’s a rough sketch of what I’d imagined to be a celebratory theme to open a Winter Olympics or something along those lines. It’s just an old analogue cassette recording with a couple of glitches in it, and only an incomplete rough sketch of an idea! So, do excuse the lack of polish.

Always Be There (Mason Techno Remix) (Anlg) – 1995:

My old University mate, Jim Mason, was the second person to add their own special colour to my Always Be There track, with this high-energy German-style Techno Remix. Jim was very much the king of the synths and electronica back then and probably still is to this day. It’s sadly just an old analogue cassette recording as the original digital master has yet to be found. Still love this rendition to this day.

Sassy Queen (Alternative Mellow Mix) – 2008:

Another, slightly less in-your-face mix of this exotic theme that the eagle eyed/eared amongst you will already recognise from a couple of different mixes that have been uploaded to this site in previous months.

The Moon The Stars & The Planet Mars (Late Version – 2021 Edit) – FINAL DEMO – 2012:

The full story behind The Moon The Stars & The Planet Mars (MSPM) can be found in the A-Z Section of this site, so I’ll save repeating myself here. South African/Swedish singer Linnea Södahl provided the vocals. This particular demo mix was tweaked a little in 2021. There still is no definitive mix in existence of MSPM. It remains to this day the classic abandoned track with any number of demo takes clogging up Gigabytes worth of hard drive space.

Bluebird – 1991:

I remember as clear as day programming the backing track (on my trusty Yamaha QY10) for this piece, in a common area of a Youth Hostel I was staying in, somewhere on the West Coast of the USA. Probably Seattle, come to think of it. It was only once I got to the studio at Dartington College of Arts in 1992 that it fully came to life thanks to the guitar playing of Jim ‘Pasty’ Thomas. Another cut from that first ‘album’ Just Enough. Absolute frantic bedlam. Enjoy!

Incidental Music For Animation (Karma 4 Beginners) – 2010:

Here’s one I’d almost forgotten about. A project that came up on the now defunct site, Humtoo. It was requesting incidental music to accompany an in-progress animation. This was my submission which, admittedly, clearly borrows heavily from Henry Mancini’s theme and incidental music to the Pink Panther cartoons. I thought that this choice of inspiration might work against me, but lo and behold, the music that was ultimately used for the animation not only miraculously used exactly the same source of inspiration, but was a version that appeared to have been composed by a deaf three year old. It was properly shit. Can’t help but feel that my idea(s) were taken on board and then the animator had badly re-worked them via whatever means, so as not to pay me a commission fee. Perhaps I’m wrong. Not that I’m bitter or anything!

Hardest Part – 1992:

Written for an ex-girlfriend of mine, Hardest Part, is the slow cut from the Just Enough album. It’s a production mess owing to its roots being a busy Yamaha QY10 backing track, which has subsequently then been swamped by Korg M1 overdubs, but I like to think that the emotion and sentiment still shines through.

Flexible Films (Customer Care Theme) – 2010:

Another main theme to accompany one of Sybil and Russ’s excellent mental health initiative films for the NHS.

Unrepenting Heart – SKETCH – 1997:

This early set of ideas gives us an insight into the creative process that ultimately led to the track, Unrelenting Heart. One for the HughCarsonMusic anoraks out there, if anyone, I suspect.

Upbeat Song Backing (Anlg) – SECTIONS – 1994:

I could hum you the melody if you like, but Lord alone knows what the lyrics were or even the name of this song. Fortunately, the backing track, though a little warped in places, stands up fairly well on its own as an instrumental. All composed on my old Yamaha SY85 workstation linked to an old Atari 1040 STE.

April 2021

This Month’s Audio Uploads:

Double Piano & Glock Study – 2012:

Double Piano & Glock Study actually started life as “G.C.S.E’d“, a piece that I was commissioned to write as a soundtrack for a charity marketing campaign. Ultimately that project never reached fruition, but the process of creation was a particularly enjoyable one as it introduced me to larger-than-life character, Donald Banks – a true entrepreneur if ever there was one.

Wayward Wolf Media Showreel – 2012:

I slaved away on this showreel video for absolutely hours during my time working at Specific Media in 2012. That’s the same Specific Media, in conjunction with Justin Timberlake, of the ill-fated $35 million attempt to revitalise the ailing social media platform, MySpace. I barely left the premises to be honest. By professional standards the video’s not really up to scratch, but as a relative editing amateur at the time, I was quite pleased with the simple but effective results that it yielded. Voice-over was courtesy of the lovely Lauren Wentzel.

Price Of Life – 1992:

The opening slice of nonsense from the Just Enough album. Here it is, folks, in all of its 29 year-old crusty glory. Price of Life, was written, along with many other tracks, during my six-month travels around the good ol’ U.S of A, back in 1991. Subsequently, it was recorded at Dartington College Studios by way of a mash-up of an old Yamaha QY10 dry backing track that had been captured on C90 cassette, some 16-Track recording through a desk, and some Korg M1 synth overdubs. Despite nearly deafening the odd session musician here and there due to my studio ignorance at the time, somehow I wasn’t lynched, and a final mix was ultimately achieved, and this is it. Thanks to Jim ‘Pasty’ Thomas for the axe contributions, and more recently to Graham Joiner for rescuing the audio from an old Sony DAT master tape that I wasn’t even aware existed until relatively recently.

Flexible Films – Restraint – End Titles – 2013:

This is the rather sinister-sounding closing theme for Flexible Films‘ powerful Restraint film which I was involved in some years back.

Right From Wrong (Anlg – 2021 Edit) – DEMO – 1995:

Another rough-cut demo from the mid 90s. The one-shot vocal was intended for guide purposes only, so excuse the plethora of issues with that. It’s another song with a sound which very much anchors it in the 1980s / early 1990s, but it’s a pretty momentum-filled memorable little number. Go on, admit it!

The Chase – Section – SKETCH – 2014:

A lively little sketch intended to be used as upbeat energetic library music for any particular project that might require such a thing.

Wrong (Delpy Song) – Section – SKETCH – 2006:

Was it Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise or Before Sunset in which the film’s chief protagonists ultimately find themselves in Julie Delpy‘s apartment and at which point she proceeds to play Ethan Hawke a little whimsical musical ditty that she’d written? Well, anyway, it was that film which inspired this little idea for a song – “Wrong“. I’ve no idea why, but no sooner had the DVD concluded, I was plugged into the studio once again, playing around with my own equally whimsical flights of musical fancy. It’s a song that never got beyond the quick sketch stage, and is, as you will hear, largely lyric-less. See what you think.

80s Style Slap Bass Song Backing Track (Anlg – 2021 Edit) – 1994:

Catchy little track name, don’t you think? Spot the early Mark King / Level 42 influence, as well as my mild obsession with throwing in 70’s-esque sort of Charlie’s Angels French Horn lines! Magic. Lord alone knows what this song was actually called, or how the vocal melody was meant to go, but fortunately it’s a backing track that stands up pretty well on its own as an instrumental.

Intergalactic – SKETCH – 1996:

One of the numerous Yamaha SY85 Workstation instrumentals that I threw together in the mid 1990s. It was intended to conjure an atmosphere of vast infinite intergalactic nothingness. Or something.

Walkabout – Section – 1996:

Nik Kershaw‘s “Walkabout” is one of the two or three stand-out tracks from his oft-overlooked 1987 album, The Works. Tasked with doing a cover version that stayed faithful to the track’s original format and instrumentation as a part of my university degree, I ventured forth bravely into Studio A in Salford. This track was an absolute pain in the arse to put together from start to finish as there were some severe restrictions imposed upon me, and there really are so many things that I’d have done differently had I been given the scope to flesh the production out and go with my own ‘vision’ of things, but it is was it is, and indeed was what it was. A particular highlight was having to punch-in one or two bar segments of bass line at a time for the track’s entire duration, as that particular instrumental part was a little beyond our bassist at the time. I forget the bass player’s name, but fair play to him, he hung in there and we kind of got the job done in the end! I forget the vocalist’s name too (decent effort by him), but it was definitely Jimmy Drew on drums (summoning the spirit of the late, great Jeff Porcaro – the original drummer involved on this track), and probably Nick Rundall on guitar, but I couldn’t swear by that. At the end of the day, it’s a passable impression of what is actually a really great song, even if Nik Kershaw, himself, had some serious reservations about that album, in general.

March 2021

This Month’s Audio Uploads:

Vortex of Despair – 2010:

Vortex of Despair was an attempt at something of a ‘Film Noir’ theme. It’s always very tricky to make anything predominantly orchestral sound in any way convincing in a studio, particularly when you’re not in possession of prohibitively expensive orchestral libraries. And even then, it’s very easy to distinguish between the real thing and the synthetically created. That said, I’m fairly pleased with what I’ve achieved here.

Yeah Me, Yeah You – 2009:

Another from the CGN Songs catalogue, Yeah Me, Yeah You, is a commercial teen punk-ish theme written by myself and Peter Godfrey as a commission for some project or other, I forget, but it was most notably used in a scene from a Brit-flick starring a whole host of A-list actors and celebrities (ahem), including: John Altman (Nasty Nick Cotton, son of Dot Cotton in the long-running English soap, East Enders), Kerry Ingram (of Game of Thrones and Matilda fame), and even a cameo from snooker legend, Jimmy White, himself. I’ve never seen the film in full, but I’m reliably informed that it is Oscar-worthy stuff, yet it was somehow overlooked in that year’s awards ceremony. Ain’t that always the way?! NB: The above clip also features Red Hot, another track plucked from the CGN Songs catalogue.

Emergencia – 1996:

In my mid-90s quest to write as many theme tunes in as many TV styles as possible, I wrote ‘Emergencia’. I’m pretty sure that this track was my own version of a ‘Casualty’ or ‘Holby Central’ type of theme. It was all thrown together using a Yamaha SY85 synth and an Atari 1040 STE-powered Cubase sequencer. And I’m fairly certain you’ll sleep better for knowing that.

Night Driving (Anlg) – 1995:

Although I sang on this track and helped out a little with some melody and harmony vocal line writing, Night Driving is in fact a Jim Mason composition. Jim is an old mate from my University days. This track was Jim’s excellent SY85 programming synced to some vocal lines that we recorded on my old cassette-based Tascam 644 Midistudio. Sadly there are some syncing issues here which have thrown my vocals a little out of sync with the backing during the middle phase of this song. Trust me on this one, not even I could sing that far out of time.

Deadly Funk Shade (Anlg) – 1994:

This track was created using literally just one sound source, the ‘tschh’ sound of a can of fizzy drink being opened. This was a University project involving a few of us – Jacqui Attwood (Rose) and Phil Mayers included? – to take the aforementioned can-opening sound and process it through an Akai sampler and come up with an entire composition. And voila, Deadly Funk Shade was created. It’s amazing what you can do with a little technology and a rudimentary understanding of what constitutes sound.

4/4 SY85 Song Backing (Anlg) – SKETCH – 1996:

Normally, even if I’ve forgotten a song that I was working on, when I once again listen to the backing track the vocal melody / lyrics etc. usually all suddenly re-materialise in my head. But no matter how many times I listen to this old mid-90s song backing sketch, I cannot for the life of me fathom what the melody was, nor the lyrics, nor the song’s title. So, for now, it’ll have to remain a mystery. Thankfully, this backing track kind of stands up on its own.

Time To Die (Anlg) – 1993:

Whilst this song wasn’t actually inspired by any personal memories of “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion,” Time To Die was, however, loosely inspired by Rutger Hauer’s closing lines in Ridley Scott’s brilliant film, Blade Runner. If you can see past the track’s appalling ever present feedback buzz, Time To Die will hopefully come across as being a calm but mournful lament, and an acceptance of death. You know, the sort of thing that most twenty-one year old songwriters tend to have high on their priority lists.

Ramon – SECTION – DEMO – 2012:

I believe that this track began life as an attempt to create a theme tune for a fictional TV detective series. I’ll leave it up to your own ears as to whether it succeed in its intentions.

NHS Seven Role Plays Main Theme (Flexible Films) – 2009:

This very basic theme was the first that I threw together for Sybil and Russ of Flexible Films. It served a purpose, but it’s hard to get enthusiastic about something so elementary.

Where Does My Heart Go Now – SKETCH – 2012:

Without recourse to any suitable female singers at the time, I had to resort to pitch-shifting my own vocals up an octave in order to get a rough idea of how this song would work within the required vocal register. Alvin & the Chipmunks impression-aside, I rather like this very basic sketch of a song idea, and it’s one that I intend to do something with in the hopefully not too distant future. Don’t hold your breath though.

November 2020

This Month’s Audio Uploads:

Life Is An Open Door – 2009

Not to be mistaken for the popular song from the movie, Frozen – namely: “Love Is An Open Door” – LIFE Is An Open Door was written a couple of years prior to the aforementioned Disney ‘classic’ for a CGN Songs media commission.

This Memory – 1996

This was an instrumental written as one of my University projects back in 1996. Although a little clumsy in places, production-wise, I like to think that this piece has lasted the test of time rather nicely. Recently rescued from an old DCC tape, it’s nice to have this one back in the fold once again.

Grand Brand – Section – 2010

Grand Brand was a grandiose theme I wrote for a hypothetical high-end car advert.

Fuggers (Opening Credits) – 2010

Ten years ago, my CGN Songs partner, Peter Godfrey, and I, attended the London Premiere of the pilot episode of a sitcom for which we’d written the theme tune. Fuggers was its name, the brainchild of actress, author and ‘creative bohemian’, Vanessa Leah Stevenson. Sadly, it never got properly off the ground, but it was fun putting the quirky music together at the time.

Givin’ It Up (Anlg) – Section – 1998

Back in 1998, my old mate, Nick Rundall, and I, worked on some tracks for a short four track demo with a view to getting these heard via one of Nick’s relatives, who was an influential music industry contact. I forget the singer’s name. She had a nice tone to her voice, but I remember it being quite the battle to adapt her Jazz and Musicals singing style to the more straight forward, tight-groove pop style that we needed. I recall Goldie, Roni Size, and Drum and Bass in general being quite a big influence at the time, and we tried to infuse a flavour of this into our demo, along with some of the mainstream pop sounds of the time, like The Brand New Heavies, Olive and the like. Listening back, there’s plenty I’d have done differently, but the song is pretty strong, radio friendly and has lasted well, I like to think.

Muchly Crutchley (Revisited) – 2013

A fun reggae-influenced theme. Could be used for anything, and was named after my good friend and fellow Friday night footballer, Rob Crutchley. Rob is a bit of a reggae aficionado, so hopefully my lending his name to this piece of light-hearted nonsense is not too offensive to the man’s highly evolved, cultured reggae tastes!

Flexible Films Incidental Theme 1 (Cello Mix) – 2012

A sort of dream-like soundscape of a theme, written to be used for any projects really, but with the kind of background incidental vibe required of some of the Flexible Films projects that I’d been involved with.

Coast Guard (Anlg) – 1996

Acquiring an Akai S2000 sampler in the early-mid 1990s was a game changer in many ways for me, and Coast Guard was a track of which I was rather proud, incorporating as it did sampled string lines, gull sounds, brass stabs and vocal wailing, in conjunction with my trusty Yamaha SY85 library that tended to comprise the bulk of my core sound at that time. It’s taken from an old cassette (Anlg – Analogue) recording which thankfully, twenty-four years later, remains relatively unscathed. I have the original DCC master tape of the track still, but it refuses to play. Rubbish ‘modern’ digital technology.

Benn Gone Barmy (Anlg) – 1993

On listening back to this track in 2020, it dawned on me that I was probably subliminally inspired by a section of incidental music taken from the children’s classic television programme, Mr Benn. (Scroll to 2:33 in the video for the brief theme in question). Granted, it’s only a tenuous likeness, and my track is altogether more deranged, but given that I was a huge fan of the programme as a kid, and can still sing you each and every piece of theme music from it to this day, there’s definitely a strong liklihood that my hunch of subliminal influence is completely accurate.

Fuggers (Closing Credits) – 2010

A slight alteration to the words here for an otherwise identical piece to that recorded for the opening credits.

June 2020

THIS MONTH’S AUDIO UPLOADS:

HIGH RISE – FULL VERSION – 2012

The first version of a track written for an ambitious charity video. A fusion of piano, strings, synths and samples with orchestral overtones. Ultimately it was not used although my next attempt was.

HCM Dividing Line

CGN SONGS SHOWREEL – 2010

A quick 3 minutes and 34 seconds taster of Hugh Carson and Peter Godfrey’s songs-for-media project, CGN Songs. Songs for any and all media.

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NIGHT LIGHTS – SECTION – SKETCH – 2014

A brief snippet from a library track.

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RESTRAINT (Three Themes) – SECTIONS – 2009

One of a few soundtracks composed for Flexible Films. This one was also in conjunction with CanDo Films, a well-being community film group, working in partnership with the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

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THE RIVER – SECTIONS – SKETCH – 2007

Sections taken from an idea that I had for an elaborate musical ‘voyage’ down a thundering river. Probably somewhere on the continent of Africa.

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SPIRIT WALTZ – FULL VERSION – 2014

A theme inspired by the idea of a ghostly swirling waltz of the spirits. This was one of two main versions that I ultimately completed.

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THE END OF THE INNOCENCE – SONG SAMPLE – 2012

A rather easy-going cover version I made of this Don Henley / Bruce Hornsby classic. No particular reason.

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ORBITALESQUE – SECTIONS – SKETCH – 2013

Some sections taken from a rough sketch of a library track that borrows heavily from the kind of sound that Orbital might use.

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CARERS (Main Theme) – 2009

Music composed for another Flexible Films project in association with The Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

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AND YOU KNOW IT – SECTIONS – DEMO – 2006

A ‘hopeful’ 6/8 theme from back in the day.