Melancholic piano lines, atmospheric synths and filtered vocals.

The view from her garden

'Dust the place for fingerprints' is the opening track from 'Filmic', the latest album by Analogue Hashtag. The album is a collection of would-be film themes, inspired by the likes of John Carpenter, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Goblin. 'Filmic' is available through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all the usual outlets.

Dust The Place For Fingerprints

'Observed from Orbit' is another track from 'Filmic', the latest album by Analogue Hashtag. The album is a collection of would-be film themes, inspired by the likes of John Carpenter, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Goblin. 'Filmic' is available through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all the usual outlets.

Observed From Orbit

'The hypnotist' is another track from 'Filmic', the latest album by Analogue Hashtag. The album is a collection of would-be film themes, inspired by the likes of John Carpenter, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Goblin. 'Filmic' is available through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all the usual outlets.

The Hypnotist

'The Redemption Gate' is another track from 'Filmic', the latest album by Analogue Hashtag. The album is a collection of would-be film themes, inspired by the likes of John Carpenter, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Goblin. 'Filmic' is available through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all the usual outlets.

The Redemption Gate

'The haunted school of dance' is another track from 'Filmic', the latest album by Analogue Hashtag. The album is a collection of would-be film themes, inspired by the likes of John Carpenter, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Goblin. 'Filmic' is available through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all the usual outlets.

The Haunted School Of Dance

The 'Mission Impossible' TV show followed the exploits of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a crack team of secret agents involved in covert operations, usually against overseas dictators and various all-round bad guys. At the start of each episode, team leader Jim Phelps would be delivered a taped message which would outline the problem that his agents would be required to solve. Insisting on secrecy and discretion, the authorities would always issue a disclaimer stating that they would deny all knowledge should Jim, or any of his team, be captured by the enemy. The tape, of course, would self-destruct in 30 seconds. This tune features a polite nod to John Barry’s original ‘James Bond’ theme, while at the same time trying to channel the melodic grace and slinky motion of something that Burt Bacharach might have written (had he ever been asked to write the theme for a spy show). Our production team, at least, had the notion that these influences were being channelled; the listener can make up his or her own mind. The photograph was taken by sep-ygirl, whose excellent work is available through the website unsplash.com.

One of our agents is missing

Your Mission, Should You Decide To Accept It

Our agent has been arrested and brought for ‘questioning’ to the Ministry of Information and Truth, an imposing concrete death star set in a bare, neglected suburb of the city. The grey people within are working tirelessly on behalf of the revolution. No citizens would dare articulate any doubts about their integrity or their tireless devotion to the cause, but few would imagine that these government employees are au fait with the terms of the Geneva convention. Many of those called to the Ministry for questioning end up mysteriously ‘re-locating’ to other parts of the country. There are rumours of forced labour camps, but locals consider it unwise to speculate about such things. The government agents, grey men in dingy clothes and militaristic haircuts stick diligently to their tasks and will eventually pull together all of the evidence they need to recommend ‘re-location’ for our man. The musical mood is conveyed by a bubbling synth and a creepy piano; there is both menace and malice in the sinister playground nursery rhyme motif. And is that the sound of tools being moved around, a tray of instruments being arranged? Whatever tools, pills and potions these anonymous agents have, you can be quite sure that their intentions are invasive. The accompanying photo is by Mitchell Luo, whose work is available at unsplash.com.

The Interrogation Room

Towards the end of Terry Gilliam’s dystopian cult classic ‘Brazil’, the hero (Sam Lowry, played by Jonathon Price) is captured by the intelligence services. After interrogation, Gilliam sets the viewer up with a fake happy ending, as we see Sam cavort in a gloriously pastoral setting with his cute girlfriend. Did he escape, we wonder, or was he released? Or perhaps this sunny outdoors scene is set a few days or weeks after the interrogation? Perhaps the authorities were so satisfied with his confession that they allowed him to assume something that looks like a normal, healthy, happy life? The answer, alas, is: none of the above. After a few minutes, the extent of the dystopian nightmare is revealed: Sam is still strapped to a chair in the interrogation room and has, in all likelihood, been lobotomised by his captors. His bliss, therefore, is illusory, probably even insane. Perhaps his brain has retreated to insanity to protect him from the horror of this new reality. As he sits in the chair smiling vacantly and humming the theme song "Aquarela do Brasil", we realise that Gilliam has left us with a depressing illustration of the warning George Orwell issued in 1984: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever”.
This track was lovingly recycled from a song by the Eisenhowers (Chinese Whispers, released in 2008) and taken on its audio journey by channeling the spirit of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s album (co-incidentally, from 1984), ‘My life in the bush of ghosts’. So … the game is up for our agent. His trance-like state might provide the odd brief moment of respite, but it is, emphatically, not an escape; he is still tied to that chair.

Whisperama

A track from the sessions for the second Analogue Hashtag album, due for release in the spring of 2021. The vibe? Air versus Jean-Michel Jarre, with commentary by the Pet Shop Boys. The video features some bonus added killer-clowns.

Creatures Of Habit

A chance to indulge in a love for warm analogue synth sounds and atmospheric textures. Listen out for the ‘cut-up’ vocals layered across the landscape of this piece, sitting somewhere in the background like a not-so-distant memory. The image is by Israel Sundseth at Unsplash.com.

Relentless

Analogue Hashtag is the brainchild of Raymond Weir, a Scottish musician, writer and producer. The debut album ‘One of our agents is missing’ was inspired and influenced by some of the iconic TV theme writers of the 60s and 70s, in particular composers like Edwin Astley, Barry Gray, Lalo Schifrin and Ron Grainer.  The second album 'Filmic' features music inspired by various film soundtracks from the 70s and 80s.  ‘Haunted School of Dance’ could be the theme for an Italian gothic-horror classic from the 70s, complete with psychosexual sadism, surrealist camera techniques and, of course, lots of blood.  The John Carpenter-esque analogue synths of ‘Giornio del cacciatore’, evoke a post-apocalyptic landscape in which societal values have broken down in the wake of a deadly virus, while ‘Observed from Orbit’ could be the theme for a low-fi sci-fi classic about an aborted space mission to the outer edges of the galaxy.  Both the sparse melodicism of ‘The Redemption Gate’ and the elegiac dissonance of ‘Empires turn to dust’ evoke the spirit of Vangelis, while the insidious ‘Swarm’ conjures up a creepy mood of b-movie schlock.  
The photos you can see on this page were taken by some very talented photographers who make their work available through the website unsplash.com.

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