Bananner Nababber - Soundtrack
21Game created by Lazrool:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2099440/Bananner_Nababber/
Composed and arranged by Kyle Riley & Jacob "UltraJDude" Ritz:
https://anjin.bandcamp.com/album/bananner-nababber-ost
Album cover by Francis Coulombe:
https://twitter.com/FrancisCoulombe
Been meaning to share this for a while! It was a blast to work on this, and I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed working on it!
Track List:
00:00 01 - A Long Time Ago Today
01:28 02 - Banana Nanana Nana Nababa Bababa Baba
02:30 03 - Select Your Dude
03:02 04 - Gremnants
05:01 05 - Dentist Chair Nightmares
06:18 06 - Skitterbrained
07:51 07 - Luddites and Losers
09:20 08 - Balls to the Walls
10:42 09 - The Bits of Babel
13:03 10 - Nababa Forever in Our Hearts
Track notes:
01 - A Long Time Ago Today: Surprisingly, this was one of the last songs written for the game, just before the credits and finalizing the final boss. Kyle and I approached this with an ominous sense of foreboding to set the mood for the Elder Demons' horrible crypto schemes!
02 - Banana Nanana Nana Nababa Bababa Baba: I wanted this one to sound like something you might hear in the opening of a really off-brand 90s tv show or something. I always think of how big beats and corny hip-hop was used endlessly to show stuff or sell things back then and thought a game that feels like a tribute to 90s B-games and boss rushes needed something to match. This is also the first time players will hear "the lick", even though this was not the first song composed for the game to use it.
03 - Select Your Dude: I wrote this one in like.. an afternoon, something about the idea of using repetitive voice samples also screamed 90s vibes. I probably spliced together 10 or more clips of just casually saying "select your dude" or "select your boss" til it all came together.
04 - Gremnants: Oh man, this track is where it felt like the sound of the game was starting to come together. Kyle did a piano piece for this and Dentist Chair Nightmares before passing it off to me and I got to arranging both. The song ended up named as it is as it features just the tiniest hint of the infamous Gremlins midi that crept it's way into the original Banana Nababa while building up a bit of an epic rock and choir vibe that trails throughout the OST. Towards the end of the track is also an original motif that weaves it's way in and out of the ost at various points.
05 - Dentist Chair Nightmares: Roughly the first finished song for the game after Kyle and I got the sound established, the hybrid of somewhat silly and somewhat epic really comes out in full swing between the Crash Bandicoot-esque synth bells and the rising strings during the song's climax.
06 - Skitterbrained: Fun tidbits of knowledge about this one, most if it was composed from ripped up sections of old and unused songs from other games Kyle and I had worked on in the past. After seeing the Plague Beetle's big trick was constantly summoning the undead, it only felt fitting to give it a track that was, in a way, back from the dead itself.
07 - Luddites and Losers: Kyle killed it with this one, I remember getting the initial piano outline and hearing that little arpeggio rising in my head like a mysterious creature was about to strike. I started layering up horns and organs after fighting the boss a couple times for myself and this track really sprang to life in ways I wasn't anticipating.
08 - Balls to the Walls: And so we arrive at the first track I tried working on for Bananner Nababber! Kyle and I actually set this one aside for a bit and tried doing some more experimental and even downright goofy songs for the game, but in the end we circled back around to the sound presented here. The 5/4 rhythm wasn't intentional either, I was just hammering out fun rhythms on my bass and tossing it into FL Studios to see what I could layer around it til the whole underlying chords and melodies were done, then Kyle laid these ripping solos over it all. Fitting for, arguably, one of the most difficult fights in the game and certainly the most dramatic upgraded fight compared to the original Banana Nababa.
09 - The Bits of Babel: So where DID "the lick" first work it's way into the soundtrack? It was this one, despite being the final boss track, the piano midi laid out by Kyle was completed as one of the first few songs. We ended up rolling with the idea that a demon GPU would mindlessly belt out memes, and there's no bigger meme in music than "the lick". This was the final song completed for the game other than the credits, with the latter minute or so being written just a matter of days before the game officially released!
10 - Nababa Forever in Our Hearts: The final song in the game, you can rest easy, heroes... Or can you? Kyle and I felt the final flourishing touch to match each of the ending texts would be to mix the two weaving motifs from the game and sprinkle the teensiest melancholy on it.
Thanks for listening!