THE EDGE OF DUTY

HARD TO LOVE. HARDER TO KILL

Obscure media is always a battle, sometimes you have only parts of a finished product.

I thought “The Edge Of Duty” was a 70’s spy movie lost to time, with only its soundtrack remaining.

It turns out that the soundtrack was all their ever was.

I sent Tyler McCauley, the writer and engineer of the Edge of Duty, an email to figure what this album was he helped enlighten me to the origin of his project.

I asked the question, why make an album for a movie that doesn’t exist instead of an inspired by album like other artists?

This was partially because it was fun to imagine the scenes we’d want to soundtrack, and half so we could engage friends of ours who were screenwriters to come up with the characters, plot, and movie names!

Tyler McCauley

This soundtrack was not a simple mimicking of the style of old spy movies, Tyler’s title of engineer is well earned.

Tyler not only made the soundtrack in the style of 60s and 70s spy thrillers, he also put a lot of effort into making it sound like it was made in 60s and 70s.

He writes about the efforts he put in that extensively in his own Medium article.

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We actually wrote an entire treatment of the film with a screenwriter friend, which we then used to come up with the number of tracks we needed. It was a really funny process bringing that treatment back to the band, asking for ideas for different scenes/themes.

Tyler McCauley

He describes the album with the synopsis of the movie.

” A disgraced CIA agent must go deep undercover and assemble a team to clear his name by saving a mysterious nuclear device from the hands of men who wish to tear the world apart - finding love and danger at THE EDGE OF DUTY”

To those familiar with the trappings and tropes of this type of movie you can picture the entire film and how this album would fit in it.

This creative effort turned what could have been just another album on Bandcamp, into something that has a story and a life of its own.

That story not only got me interested in the soundtrack , but set it set itself apart from all but one other album I know of.

“The Mystery Kindaichi Band’s 1977 LP The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke”

That album was made for a series of Japanese murder mystery novels. Which weird and inspired history made me love not only the music but the novels themselves

“The Edge of duty” reminds me of the wonder and creative vision I felt when discovering The Mystery Kindaichi band for the first time.

“The Edge of Duty” uses musical tropes from Spy the genre to make something identifiable while at the same time entirely unique.

It should surprise no one at this point that I bought the poster.

This type of creative energy is what makes me happy to be alive. All the little mysteries and inspirations that bloom into an unique masterpiece such as “The Edge of Duty”.

The music’s blend of Soul,Funk and Jazz all remixed to sound not only like that period of music, but also coming of a recording from that time.This is the type of vintage creativity that I gush about in game and graphic design.

We’re hoping to do another one for a different genre of movie eventually - COVID kinda put the brakes on more recording, but hopefully soon!

Tyler McCauley

From the limited information I can gleam from their Bandcamp page 13 people at the time of writing this article have purchased their music. One of them being me.

If you like any of their tracks or even just enjoyed hearing me talk about their album. I would highly recommend purchasing it, at the very least it is a conversation starter.

After all how many times have you bought an soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist?

I look forward with great anticipation for their next album.

10/10