| American McGee's Alice Original Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Chris Vrenna |
| Length | 74:02 |
The American McGee's Alice Original Soundtrack is the in-game soundtrack of American McGee's Alice, which was composed by Chris Vrenna, of Nine Inch Nails fame. The soundtrack was released on October 16, 2001 by Six Degrees Records, titled American McGee's Alice Original Music Score, and features twenty original compositions from the game, a previously unreleased theme, and a remix of "Flying on the Wings of Steam".
Eight unreleased tracks are also available in the American McGee's Alice Unreleased Original Soundtrack.
Development[]
Originally, Marilyn Manson was involved scoring the music for Alice, and his composition was described by American McGee as "very cool" and having "a very beautiful Beatles-in-their-harpsichord-and-Hookah-pipe-days-sound to it." Although Manson left the project early on, his contributions persisted into the final product, notably the influence of alchemy and the character of the Mad Hatter, whose adaptation was somewhat influenced by him. Although not contributing to the final soundtrack, Manson was thanked in the in-game file credits for "staying up with American on those long nights."
The final score for Alice was written and performed by Chris Vrenna, with the help of guitarist Mark Blasquez and singer Jessicka Addams of Jack Off Jill and Scarling. Chris said that the music needed to be "otherworldly" and "creepy", but not "modern sounding".
Most of the sounds used in the tracks were created using antique toy instruments, music boxes, clocks, and doors. Female voices were sampled and manipulated into nightmarish soundscapes, including instances of them laughing maniacally, screaming, crying, and singing in an eerie, childlike way in order to create an eerie-sounding choir. A couple of the tracks, including "I'm Not Edible", features the melody of the chorus of a children's song, "My Grandfather's Clock".
Tracklist[]
Downloads[]
There were three MP3 downloads related to the OST available from Chris Vrenna's old website, tweaker.net, on the Downloads page (archived link here):
- Flying On The Wings Of Steam
- Pool of Tears (tweaker remix)
- Fortress of Doors (tweaker remix)
All three files were 160kbps. "Flying On The Wings Of Steam" is identical to the OST version, while the two remixes have never been released by any other means, and were only available for around 2 years before being removed from the site. More details are available on Discogs, including notes on the timings of their availability.
Remixes[]
In addition to the remix of "Flying On The Wings Of Steam" available on the soundtrack, and the two downloadable remixes from tweaker.net, two other remixes have been released: "Wonderland Woods (Tweaker Remix)", and "Skool Daze (Alec Empire Remix)".
A list of every remix is given below. A playlist featuring the 4 rare/unreleased tracks is on YouTube here.
| Name | Release | Info | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flying On The Wings Of Steam (Remix) | OST | Discogs | Youtube |
| Fortress of Doors (tweaker remix) | tweaker.net | Archive.org (2003) | Youtube |
| Pool of Tears (tweaker remix) | tweaker.net | Archive.org (2003) | Youtube |
| Skool Daze (Alec Empire Remix) | Limited Vinyl | Discogs [wax0006] | Youtube |
| Wonderland Woods (tweaker Remix) | Limited Vinyl | Discogs [wax0002] | Youtube |
Trivia[]
- Some of the song names are nonsensical. For example, "Battle with the Red Queen" doesn't actually play during the final battle, "The Centipede" does not either, etc. In addition, much of the music order is nonsensical. For example, "Pool of Tears" is near the end of the list, despite that it is one of the earlier levels. For a more natural order that also features absent music, click here.
- Two tracks "Taking Tea in Dreamland" and "Flying on the Wings of Steam (remix)" are not in the actual game.
External links[]
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