Teen Agent: The Root of All Evil / Teen Agent: The Root of All Evil / Teen Agent: The Root of All Evil

Artists:

audio fidelity (101)
Brandon Strader (102, 104, 106, 205)
Vampire Hunter Dan (103, 107)
OCRE, Brandon Strader (105)
bill cakes, Brandon Strader (201)
superjoe (202, 204)
Brandon Strader, prophetik, Usa (203)
Flik (206)
OCRE (207)

Teen Agent: The Root of All Evil
Comments from album director Brandon Strader, and artists audio fidelity, Vampire Hunter Dan, bill cakes, superjoe, Flik, and OCRE

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This album is an arrangement of the soundtrack by Radek Szamrej from the Polish adventure game, Teen Agent. Although the soundtrack is fairly short, there is a lot of diversity between each track, and the artists involved did their best to do justice to this great work.

I remember playing through Teen Agent as a kid, and I had fond memories of the game and its soundtrack. I decided to find some friends in the OverClocked ReMix community who would be interested in "modernizing" the soundtrack. We wanted to do the material justice and make it sound as good as possible while experimenting and expanding on these themes.

~Brandon Strader

P.S. Kindly destroy this note upon reading.

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audio fidelity - "i.n.t.r.o."
This track was something I was inspired to throw together for Brandon for his diligence and courtesy in asking me to help his project. I am not familiar with the game nor soundtrack, but after hearing "Intro A," I immediately felt a desire to give it a dirty electro feel, haha. I came onboard telling him I could only find the time to take one day to put this track together. So, 7 hours later, this is what came out. I have been very inspired by the sounds of Paris electro and wanted to do something pretty aggressive.

This was a first attempt at the style and I'm quite happy with how it turned it and had a lot of fun doing it. :D

Brandon Strader - "Trapped"
I always thought the "Prison" theme would sound awesome in a "Supermassive Black Hole" style. That's sort of what I was shooting for with this remix. I went a little overboard with the idea of being trapped in a prison. In the game, the main character stays in a small cell very, very briefly, and easily escapes.

Vampire Hunter Dan - "A Village's Welcome"
My experience with this game began just a short while ago, but in that time, I've come to learn that its composer had quite a knack for writing arrangement-friendly melodies. The "Village" theme is rich in melody and catchy chord structure (not to mention its bass lines), and orchestrating it has truly been a great experience for me, as I rarely arrange light-hearted/major key pieces. Hopefully, the fun I had will reach each listener.

Brandon Strader - "Lingering Lust"
"Lovers" was always one of my favorite themes, and the song can loop infinitely and still be enjoyable. I used minimal orchestra elements to add depth and also to more smoothly follow Vampire Hunter Dan's brilliant song that precedes this one. I wasn't planning for percussion, but ultimately chose to put some sparse ethnic percussion along with live tambourine that I recorded here.

OCRE, Brandon Strader - "A Mouse in the Hole (Radio Edit)"
OCRE: This is more a faithful arrangement of the source tune than my other track on the album and was inspired by the Cave track from the Amiga version of Teen Agent. The title of the arrangement references the only scene in the game where the song is heard, where a mouse is placed in a hole in the cave wall in order to solve a puzzle.

Brandon Strader: I worked with notes that were sequenced by OCRE for this somewhat avant-garde version of the "Cave" theme. Strangely, a few edits here and there made the song sound a lot like one of my favorite bands, Dargaard. A very atmospheric type of orchestrated music that builds within its own soundscape for a while.

Brandon Strader - "Of Darkness"
One dark night, I decided to attempt a version of the "Cave" theme using primarily tribal instrumentation. The result sounded frighteningly convincing. Or maybe just frightening... maybe a little menacing.

Vampire Hunter Dan - "Lovers' Suite"
Once again, this fairly last-minute arrangement opportunity was an exercise in exhilaration, along with a chance to work with some truly fantastic melodies (which were screaming for added harmony parts). The source being fairly short left me with the impression it'd be difficult to produce anything over 2 minutes, but again, the music lent itself well to a repeat of the main melody without sounding too redundant. Completing a piece about "Lovers" by Valentine's Day's end became a personal goal just 24 hours prior to achieving it.

bill cakes, Brandon Strader - "Mark Hopper"
I liked the simple progression of the song and I wanted to match it to a Latin beat and try some rhythmic changes. It sort of progressed from that basic idea. I improvised bass and rhythm parts based on the drum patterns and tried not to get too fancy. I enjoyed creating the extra harmonies for the leads as well. Mr. Strader did quite a bit on this song. He handled many of the synth lines, the end solo, and final mastering.

superjoe - "Celtic Wedding March"
I watched a speedrun through Teen Agent on YouTube when Brandon invited me to join this project. I thought the part with the commando army guy was pretty funny, and this song suited it. I couldn't help infusing the 2/4 march time with techno synths and beats. There's some pretty goofy stuff in there, but I think it turned out OK.

Brandon Strader, prophetik, Usa - "Sax of Gold"
Brandon Strader: I asked prophetik to record a saxophone performance for the song, and later asked Usa if he would be interested in recording percussion. I would also like to thank Joshua Morse for the inspiration. This arrangement uses a somewhat vague interpretation of the source focusing less on its melody and more on structure.

superjoe - "100% Juice"
This is the second song I attempted for the Teen Agent project. I wanted to give the 8-bit soundscape a go, and I had just discovered the bitcrusher effect plugin. Then I just played around with wacky synth sounds. This song is like a cranky 2-year-old that gets in your face because he desperately wants your attention. Then he gets spanked and shuts up.

Brandon Strader - "I'm on a Boat"
This mix is pretty true to the original. It's a reggae jam that starts off a bit slow and builds up with a wild little heavy solo bit for good measure. This was the first reggae song I made, so it may not be that traditional. It was an experiment that led to me falling in love with the genre.

Flik - "Memories Within the Walls"
Not being on a project in a while, I decided to say "what the hell," when Brandon asked me to join. Aside from sanity, there wasn't much else to be lost, so away I went on attempting to make a remix again. I spent some time working before I realized I hated the direction I was taking, so I started over from scratch to go for the feel that the final track takes. There's always a billion elements I wish I could have figured out and added in, but in the end maybe it's best not to push it. I guess imagine traversing some old ass castle with a dim flashlight and being able to feel the past coming back to life as you walk.

OCRE - "Army Base Infiltration"
I tried to go for a bit more of a departure from the source than I usually end up doing with my arrangements. I think it turned out sounding like something you'd hear in a Genesis/SNES-era game. See if you can identify the music reference in the ending.