Eino Keskitalo

Shell Shocked project had been going on for a while when I thought trying to make a rearrangement for it might be fun. I had, after all. played and enjoyed Turtles in Time back in the day, plus, as a KNGI forum regular, the project was kind of dangling there. The "major" sources were gone by then, so I started listening through the smaller ditties. I thought I could take the bassline of Hyperstone Heist's "High Score Display" and develop it into some sort of nasty dissonant proggy progression. I fired up Renoise, transcribed the bass, killed the swing feel, reinterpreted the lead line to the new rhythm, wrote the first "proggy bit" and had the basic idea for the piece. I added "Warming Up" as a source to have a bit more material to work with, and sent the first version to Kyle.

From there on, it was a long iterative process of first completing the structure, then working on the instrumentation, layering sounds, and mixing to flesh it out and polish it up. I've got to thank Kyle for demanding quality here! An important point was when Tuberz offered to contribute guitar, adding a rhythm track, a tasty solo at the end of the bridge, and a key moment to the track, the guitar scream in the beginning. Mr. McGee brought a lot of life to the piece and was great to work with, responding very well to my feedback and concerns and improving the take greatly with each iteration. His contribution inspired and pushed me to put a lot more effort to polishing the track than I would have otherwise. I also was inspired to record a little of my own humble guitar playing - a little solo at 1:15-1:24 and a little riff that plays throughout the "Warming Up" bridge.

Thanks to Kyle, Magellanic and Monobrow on the KNGI forums, and Pleiade, Rami and my beloved Pirjo (always with the key insights) in real life for feedback during making the piece. Extra special thanks to our daughter Pihla, for enjoying the tune and for the wonderful dances!

Tuberz McGee

When I first heard the track in its original form, I found that it was exciting... yet bare. There was something missing. Something that I tried to contemplate a fix for. After several hours of recording cat meows, it dawned on me that perhaps cats WEREN'T the answer! It was guitars! So I threw together a sloppy punky rhythm geeee-tar to chuck into dat mix. Turns out that it was just what the mix needed. And after Eino here loaded up his "anti-bad-ify" plugin into his mixer, my guitar part was good to go in his excellent mix.

Tuberz McGee

Man, Chernabogue is the mang. This is a solid track and I love being a part of the aesthetic. Jurassic Park/10 would velociraptor

Stemage

It doesn't take much to make TMNT rock any more than it already does. The original idea was to go more "pirate" with this track, but I have no idea what that even means. Regardless, it did not pan out. "Skull & Crossbones" just rocks too hard.

The eventual goal was to adhere to a standard "pop" structure and leave room for a fun Rush-like solo as a bridge. There were many more arrangement ideas that were purged to keep the song short and rockin'. Viking Guitar and I have been trading leads for years, so it seemed appropriate to bring him on for a guitar paddle battle. He played all lead guitar except for our back-and-forth solo bit and some harmonies. Slide in a few modulations, tack on a heavy outro, throw in some extra penicillin, and we have our poop deck pizza party theme song.

Viking Guitar

I love this game. I remember being young when it came out, and my little sister and I would play through it "co-op" (or, at least as "co-op" as two siblings can play a game). We actually beat the Nintendo Power speed-run record when I was like 10 and she was 7. I've never been a beat-em-up guy, but this game is an exception.

When I first heard about this project, it was already pretty booked, and nothing I was interested in was open. However, Stemage was kind enough to let me handle some lead guitar work on his awesome track, and that sated my turtle-hunger. For a while.

A few months later, Kyle hit me up and let me know that "Bury My Shell at Wounded Knee" had opened up. As much as this is probably the most offensive name for a level in any video game ever, it's also the level with my favorite music from the whole game. So, I got to work. The main melody in this song is so cool, and I really wanted to showcase it. I toyed around with trying to mix it with the "Fei Long" Street Fighter music (which is VERY similar), but eventually ditched that idea. Instead, I decided to take the melody through a few different genre iterations to showcase how universally awesome and applicable it really is. The trick was doing this in a way that didn't cause any whiplash for the listener, and I think I did an alright job. If nothing else, it's definitely a different sort of take on the source material.

Everything was recorded and mixed in Reaper. For the intro, the acoustic guitar was some cheap Yamaha steel string. Percussion was made by drumming on the guitar and on my jeans, clapping, and rattling change in my hand. I wanted to make the whole thing sound like percussion that cowboys could improvise while on the trail. All of this was recorded with a Behringer B-1 condenser mic through a Line 6 UX2.

For the heavy segment, I used a B.C. Rich Warlock with an EMG 81/85 pickup combo for the rhythms. Recorded direct and dry, with amp simulation (Poulin LeCto) and cab simulation (Poulin LeCab with some Marshall 1960 impulses). Leads were on an Ibanez JS100 with a Breed/Fred pickup combo. Recorded dry and then amp sim with POD Farm. Bass was an Ibanez soundgear 4-string with a Duncan Blackout, also through POD Farm.

The surf segment was recorded with the same bass and a Squier Vintage Modified Strat for both rhythm and lead work. All direct and amped with POD Farm. Sounds pretty good for a $300 guitar!

Drums for the whole thing were layered DFH and EZdrummer Pop/Rock kit, because I'm an unimaginative dickbag. Mastering was through Stillwell Audio Major Tom compressor and iZotope Ozone 4.

And of course, the gang vocal "hey" shouts were provided by the undauntable Omigadrive.

Prince uf Darkness

I was asked to take this track over from SnappleMan as a favor because he didn't have time to finish it. At first, I was kind of regretting throwing yet another track onto my plate, because the last few months of each year are always my busiest, but as I started arranging the track, I found myself enjoying it moreso than most other remixes I've done. The source lends itself to what I was doing, which was surprising since I'm used to the crotch-rock of the earlier games.

Andreas sent me a very early WIP of his arrangement, which didn't contain much other than just some basic MIDI clips. He told me he had been working on it in a sort of T-Square style, so I decided to start over and do just the same, but I also tapped into my heavier, over-the-top antics of my MGS2 remix "I Need Scissors! 61," and I also dropped the tempo quite a few beats to make it groove a little more. Even though I recorded everything on the track and the arrangement is mine, the idea to do a drum solo in 5/4 was in Andreas's WIP as well. Credit given where credit is due!

The SnuggleMen

A transcontinental collaborative project involving the massive number of four musicians, with three different accents, from as many as two sides of the Atlantic, the SnuggleMen (briefly known as the far catchier CarboSnappleDrive_CatM, until a cease-and-desist order informed us that the name already belonged to a Japanese bossa-nova-core band) find their origin in SnappleMan's desire to make people suffer in the name of awesome music. Starting with a balls-to-the-wall, high-energy take on an already rocking source track, Andreas first brought in Omigadrive to proggify it into almost six minutes of insanity (with polyrhythms). Then, with only two weeks left until the deadline and plenty of recording to do, CarboHydroM and Wild_Cat were summoned. The former to finish the arrangement and duel Omigadrive on guitar, the latter to provide a bass line for them all to rock on.

Amidst bleeding fingers, dwindling caffeine supplies and silenced cries for mercy (because, as Danny Trejo would one day quote him, "SnappleMan don't slow down"), the musicians died and were reborn as the SnuggleMen, ruthless predatory creatures with a keen instinct for cheating, punching in, and ultimately delivering a shell-kicking piece of rock that, as far as we know, no turtle has headbanged to before.

Do a Barrel Roll!

"It really was an honor to be chosen to perform the final boss music for Turtles in Time on this compilation, and we are very proud to be a part of it." ~Zero

"Super Shredder Shelldown" -- in addition to being an intense tongue-twister -- is a special track in that it was performed and captured completely live. Every sound you hear in this recording, including the samples, are played in real time by the 8 members of the band. There is no MIDI quantization, overdub, or touch-up of any kind used here. This is a one-shot, LIVE performance of DABR!'s original arrangement.

The sound of this track is really the signature of Do a Barrel Roll! A huge, organic wall of rock bulldozes its way in with guitar harmonies and dead on drums, blending with synths and violin to create their well-layered, ferocious sound. The speed and intensity of this composition really lend themselves well to the energy and technical precision of the band.

During the break, the Shredder squares off with the Turtles as they exchange some dialogue, leading up to Tinface's imminent transformation into the Super Shredder! Writing a theme to represent that transformation was really exciting.

The second half of the song features original material intended to bridge the gap between the aggressive music of Turtles in Time and the funky, upbeat nature of the fight scenes in the first two TMNT films from which the voice samples are cut. This section was inspired by that first encounter with Shredder in the first movie during which each turtle takes a crack at the Shred-Head. This time around, we are dealing with more confident reptiles, but also a more powerful adversary. There are four lead sections to represent each turtle -- the order being Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

In the end, our green heroes rally together for one final attack to send Tin Grin packing. Creating this song was immensely enjoyable, and we absolutely love the response that we get when we play it live!

Mutherpluckin' B

This song is a mixture of several tunes from Turtles 4 and Hyperstone Heist, the main parting consisting of "Flyin' High" (a.k.a. "Staff" or "Pizza Power"). This not being the game's most melodic of tracks, I tried to aim for sheer funk rock (and pizza) power, with inspiration coming from artists like Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Deep Purple and The Undisputed Truth.

Tuberz McGee

Man, this was just like a fun little ditty to make, y'know. Just chilling being all like, "Man, I should join this whole Turtles in Time project, yeah, that'd be fun," and then Kyle's all like "Yeah, you're on every track now or something, bye, lol."

Only mild hyperbole there, folks.

Rexy

Turtle Soup Injection, to best describe it, can be the only way you'd hear a Brit chick, a Frenchman, a Kiwi and a Tyne Cowboy in the same virtual jamspace showing their stuff. Originally, Rexy worked out the arrangement alone and hoped to get a live guitar player involved, but little did she know that it would turn out to be one heck of a pizza party. With Tuberz's bluesy personality, Wild_Cat's precision and technical guidance, and Omigadrive's raw energy, it turned into more than just a collab - it turned into a timeless celebration and one to show great joy at the returning face of the Statue of Liberty.

Cowabunga, dudes!

Tuberz McGee

Man, Rexy is a true baller. This Turtle Soup Injection is comin' at you hard and in a definite undiluted form. I had real fun delivering some really raw solos here. Here's hoping that this isn't the last you hear of TSI.

Wild_Cat

Tuberz already got the gist of it. The old-school rock n' roll is coming straight for ya, to the point where I'm sad I can't play the upright bass, because that would have been legendary.

Omigadrive

I like pizza.

Tuberz McGee

Why did I think this would be a good idea? I organised this thinking it would be a cool way to show off some guitar solos and get involved with some cool dudes in the community.

THEN THEY WERE ALL BETTER THAN ME.

My self-esteem took a brutal hit in this Sparring Match and it's the kind of wound that ONLY PIZZA CAN HEAL.

KyleJCrb

For some reason, the multiplayer versus theme was the one track for the album that was difficult to recruit a remixer for. Nobody seemed to be interested in it at first, so this track was born out of the idea of getting as many people on the project as possible involved in remixing it. Tuberz did a great job taking up the reins with the arrangement, and both he and myself coordinated the soloists. The voiceovers were a last-minute idea, to help solidify the live performance aesthetic of the track. I was worried they would sound stupid and out of place, but Tuberz worked his magic, and to be honest, they work a lot better than I expected! I had fun recording them at least, as Tuberz can attest to from the outtakes. It rocks and I'm really glad that I was able to put my own little touch on it!