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News Archive (2001)

30/08/2001:10 new fan songs

The fans are alive
Finally, I've found some time to put the Fan Music Section up to date again! In the meantime, the fans of LucasArts music haven't slept: That's why our Fan Music Section has got 10 (in words: ten) new entries today.
Please note that some of these songs aren't completely new, since they have already been published on other places some time ago. But since our Fan Music archive should be as complete as possible, they have been added now... better late than never. Anyway, I bet most of you haven't discovered all of these songs yet, and besides, five of them haven't been published elsewhere yet!
So, it's definitely worth to have a look at our Fan Music Section! Here's the summary of the new entries:

3 songs by Highland Productions (from Sam and Max, Indy 4 and Monkey 3)

1 song by Bart Klepka (from Tie Fighter)

1 song by Eduardo Gouveira (from Monkey Island)

3 songs by Mameluke (all from Grim Fandango)

2 songs by Sukotto Hanei (from Monkey Island and Star Wars)

iMuse
But don't forget to try out the old entries either!
I'd especially like to thank Mameluke and Sukotto Hanei for submitting their work... and please apologize that it took me so long to put it online!
Contest ending soon
Our contest where you had to recognize 15 short music snippets from LucasArts games will end on the 5th of September. If you still want to make it into our "Top Ten", hurry up and submit your answers now!

01/082001:Interesting MP3s

EMI Cutscene music
Remember the huge cutscene towards the end of Escape from Monkey Island? You know, the one where Ozzie tries out the Ultimate Insult on Pegnose and where the giant LeChuck statue fights against the monkey robot... Remember the fantastic score of that cutscene? It contains the LeChuck theme, the Ozzie theme, the Pegnose theme and some dramatic orchestral parts.
Well, you can now listen to the soundtrack of the whole cutscene, since the short, 37 seconds long sample featured at the official site of CB Studios has now been replaced by the full 7 minutes score! Download it now and enjoy!
Star Wars meets Day of the Tentacle
Besides, at the end of their Super Bombad Racing review, the International House of Mojo has also published two MP3s of that game. These two songs were composed by Maestro Peter McConnell, who was contracted
through CB Studios to complete the score he had started while still an employee at LEC. The songs are based on famous Star Wars themes from John Williams (e.g. The Imperial March, The Cantina Tune, Duel of the Fates), but are arranged in a jazzy and cartoony style that reminds me a little bit of Tom and Jerry or Day of the Tentacle (cf for example the car trip at the beginning).
New composer at LucasArts
During the official chat with LucasArts president Simon Jeffery, the following question has been asked:
"telarium: With the departure of the original LucasArts music composers and the promise of new original games, will LucasArts continue its emphasis on amazing musical scores? And what is the status of new music composers to replace the ones who left?
Simon Jeffery: Music has always been a big part of the high production values we put into our games. We have recruited some incredibly talented new musicians, and you'll get to hear their work in the near future."
So LucasArts has hired own musicians again. Perhaps we'll have to wait for a while before we'll hear their first work, since LucasArts has a lot of Star Wars games in the pipeline that will perhaps rather rely on the film score.
By the way, the fact that LucasArts has hired their own musicians won't exclude the possibility of another collaboration with CB Studios for some projects.

16/07/2001:Top Monkey 4 Cue: Result

Our series of polls to find out the best cue from Escape from Monkey Island is over. After almost 3 months, 5 polls and 196 total votes, I declare... THE SCUMMBAR THEME ... to be the top cue from Monkey Island 4. Arrgh, grog me, barkeep!
You can have a look at the complete poll results here. And you can download an MP3 of the Scummbar theme (without background noises) at CB-Studios.

29/06/2001: Final Round

Finally, you'll have the "once in a lifetime opportunity" to vote for the big winner. Pick the best song of the best songs now! (But please be fair, and only vote once...)
And the winner of round 4 is...: HERMAN TOOTHROT!

16/06/2001: Round 4

"No island smells as bad as..."
Yes, you're right, it's time to move on to the Monkey Island round in our series of polls. (By the way, this round also contains the two cues from the showdown of the game.)
And the winner of round 3 is...: THE MICROGROGGERY!

27/05/2001: Round 3

Finally, the third round of our poll is online (sorry that it took so long)! Once again, it will be a tough choice... So go ahead and tell us which song you liked most on Jambalaya Island / Knuttin Atoll!
And the winner of round 2 is...: THE PROTHESES SHOP!

26/04/2001:Round 2

In the second round of our poll, you can now vote for the best song of Lucre Island. Believe me, I already had some trouble to pick 10 representative cues for this Island! (I hope your favorite is listed...) I guess that voting for one of them will be even harder...
And the winner of round 1 is...: THE SCUMMBAR THEME!

20/04/2001:Top Monkey 4 Cue

Which cue from Escape from Monkey Island is the best? Difficult question, since there were so many good songs in the game... However, only one can be the big winner in our new series of Quick Polls. Vote for your favorite song for each part of the game, and vote for the big winner in the final round! (If you don't remember all the songs, you can listen to them again by following the instructions of our Monkey 4 article.)
By the way, don't forget to check out our old poll results too.

16/04/2001: CMI Playlist

The Tingler has gone through all the songs from The Curse of Monkey Island and has written a complete playlist. You can check out the playlist in our forum. You need Scumm Revisited to rip the songs from the game.

09/042001:Visit CB Studios

The official page of Clint Bajakian's company CB Studios (www.cbstudios.com) has received a face lifting. The site now contains many interesting facts, like for example a complete list with all the products Clint has worked on. Especially the Samples page is very interesting, since it contains some great cues:

Final Showdown from Escape from Monkey Island: A short extract from the great cutscene music that can be heard towards the end of the game... without any voice or sound-effects!

Scumm Bar for Pirates from Escape from Monkey Island: Hear the famous Scumm Bar music in its full quality without any background sounds! (It's not the synthetic music heard in the Monkey 4 demo, but the authentic "live music" that can be heard in the full version. It really sounds awesome!)

Lost Tropical Lagoon, Russian Freighter and Underwater Temple from Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine: Although these cues are rather short, they really sound very nice. Especially the ambient Lagoon cue is fantastic... not to mention very relaxing!

Outlaws Main Theme from Outlaws: Well, most of you should know this song. For those of you who never had the chance to play Outlaws, I only have two pieces of advice: First, enjoy this great sample. Secondly, buy the game ;-)

Some cues from several Star Wars games (from LucasArts and LucasLearning): Especially the Cantina Tune and the Calypso Dance Tune are well worth a download!

The Chase and First Class at Last from The Upgrade, a film Clint has written the soundtrack for. Especially First Class at Last is a song of its own class ;-)

Urban Grove from the Lampa Studio Website Clint has written the background music for. A short, atmospheric cue with a certain "Science Fiction/Bronx/Jungle" atmosphere...

x
I really urge you to visit Clint's website. It's definitely worth a visit for every music fan!

19/02/2001:Exclusive Interview wiht Clint Bajakian - Lead Composer of Monkey 4

We proudly present you an exculsuive Interview with Clint Bajakian! Clint Bajakian was involved in the music production of many LucasArts games, such as Monkey Isaldnd 2, Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Dark Forces... He also composed the entire score of the award-winning Western shooter Outlaws. Recently, his new company "C. B. Studios" produced the score of Escape from Monkey Island, Clint Bajakian being the lead composer.

"The music in Escape from Monkey Island sounds very authentic. Did you use a lot of live players?
Many live players came through the recording studio at LucasArts. Larry the O did a great job recording these folks. His recordings are always clean and natural. The overall approach was similar to that taken by Peter on Grim Fandango or Michael on The Curse of Monkey Island, that is, selectively layering live playing over a MIDI sampled foundation to get an authentic sound while staying within schedule and budgetary constraints."
Thanks to all the people who helped me out with this interview: Trapezoid (from www.mp3.com/trapezoid/), Swordmaster (from lucasfans.adventuregamer.com), Karl Thorson (from actors.mixnmojo.com) and last but not least Michael Land!

31/01/2001:Che, Ooop, Eeeeeek!!!

Ben Whatsisname, known from The Kickstand, has produced a nice fansong. It is called Monkey Kombat and combines music from Mortal Kombat with sounds and voices from the Monkey Kombat in Escape from Monkey Island. The song can be downloaded from our Fan Music section.

29/01/2001:Better Sound

On a request from LogicDeLuxe (the one who wrote the cool CMI-Music-Patch you can find in our Tools section), Highland Productions were so nice to release their Underground Tunnel Remix in a higher sound-quality. You can download the 192 kb/s version by following this link! Thanks to LogicDeLuxe for this information!

26/01/2001:The Dig Soundtrack???!

It is known that the official soundtrack-CD has become really hard to find, since it's sold out almost anywhere! That's why Roy Margalit wrote an email to the LucasArts company store, and while he was at it, he also asked if there were any plans for a Monkey Island soundtrack. Here's what they replied:
"Roy,
Thank you for your inquiry. The CD soundtrack for The Dig is no longer available from the Company Store. However, we have heard from fans who have obtained the soundtrack via special order through Sam Goody or Musicland Music Stores. The CD was put out on Angel Records. Best of luck!
At this time, we don't have a Monkey Island soundtrack available. However, if one were to become available, that information would be posted on our website. Please let us know if we can assist you further.
LucasArts Company Store
Vivian
www.lucasarts.com/companystore"
Thanks to Roy for sharing this information with us!

23/01/2001:New music from the Zak McKracken 2 Project

Besides the (very good) music from Daniel "Wolk" Strandberg that has already been published some time ago, the first samples from the live band Mocca FX are now up too.
My personal comment: I really like the idea behind the two airport songs. They have the same basic tune, but with specific extras for each location. I also recommend you to download the special.mp3, that song really features nice saxophone tunes. Finally, the Brazil theme is nice too, but it has definitely not been composed for Zak 2. It's a very famous Bossa Nova which I've already heard a dozen of times before.
You can download the songs directly from the music section of the Zak2 Page. Don't forget to tell your opinion about these songs in their forum!
(Please also read our interview with Daniel "Wolk" Strandberg!)

07/01/2001:Another one!

Good to see that it didn't take another 500 days for Highland Productions to bring out their next update! This time, it's an orchestral arrangement of the music that plays in Governor Phatt's room in Monkey Island 2. You can download the song directly from our Fan Section...

01/01/2001:It's alive!!!

Does the name Highland Productions ring a bell? Well, it definitely should! They were the site for LucasArts midis... (Over 90% of the midis in our Download Section are from Highland Productions, by the way!)
But then, something tragic happened! Highland Productions didn't update for over a year!
But now they are BACK!!! With a BRAND NEW remix!!! Ladies and Gentlemen... please welcome.... the one and only...
UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRAL REMIX!!! (famous from Monkey Island 2)
Staring: Andrew "telarium" Langley as ripper, mixer and performer
Special guest: Invisibelle on the flute
You can find the MP3 at Highland Productions (under Monkey Island 2) or in our Fan Section.

30/08/2001:10 new fan songs
The fans are alive Finally, I've found some time to put the Fan Music Section up to date again! In the meantime, the fans of LucasArts music haven't slept: That's why our Fan Music Section has got 10 (in words: ten) new entries today. Please note that some of these songs aren't completely new, since they have already been published on other places some time ago. But since our Fan Music archive should be as complete as possible, they have been added now... better late than never. Anyway, I bet most of you haven't discovered all of these songs yet, and besides, five of them haven't been published elsewhere yet! So, it's definitely worth to have a look at our Fan Music Section! Here's the summary of the new entries: 3 songs by Highland Productions (from Sam and Max, Indy 4 and Monkey 3) 1 song by Bart Klepka (from Tie Fighter) 1 song by Eduardo Gouveira (from Monkey Island) 3 songs by Mameluke (all from Grim Fandango) 2 songs by Sukotto Hanei (from Monkey Island and Star Wars) iMuse But don't forget to try out the old entries either! I'd especially like to thank Mameluke and Sukotto Hanei for submitting their work... and please apologize that it took me so long to put it online! Contest ending soon Our contest where you had to recognize 15 short music snippets from LucasArts games will end on the 5th of September. If you still want to make it into our "Top Ten", hurry up and submit your answers now!
01/082001:Interesting MP3s
EMI Cutscene music Remember the huge cutscene towards the end of Escape from Monkey Island? You know, the one where Ozzie tries out the Ultimate Insult on Pegnose and where the giant LeChuck statue fights against the monkey robot... Remember the fantastic score of that cutscene? It contains the LeChuck theme, the Ozzie theme, the Pegnose theme and some dramatic orchestral parts. Well, you can now listen to the soundtrack of the whole cutscene, since the short, 37 seconds long sample featured at the official site of CB Studios has now been replaced by the full 7 minutes score! Download it now and enjoy! Star Wars meets Day of the Tentacle Besides, at the end of their Super Bombad Racing review, the International House of Mojo has also published two MP3s of that game. These two songs were composed by Maestro Peter McConnell, who was contracted through CB Studios to complete the score he had started while still an employee at LEC. The songs are based on famous Star Wars themes from John Williams (e.g. The Imperial March, The Cantina Tune, Duel of the Fates), but are arranged in a jazzy and cartoony style that reminds me a little bit of Tom and Jerry or Day of the Tentacle (cf for example the car trip at the beginning). New composer at LucasArts During the official chat with LucasArts president Simon Jeffery, the following question has been asked: "telarium: With the departure of the original LucasArts music composers and the promise of new original games, will LucasArts continue its emphasis on amazing musical scores? And what is the status of new music composers to replace the ones who left? Simon Jeffery: Music has always been a big part of the high production values we put into our games. We have recruited some incredibly talented new musicians, and you'll get to hear their work in the near future." So LucasArts has hired own musicians again. Perhaps we'll have to wait for a while before we'll hear their first work, since LucasArts has a lot of Star Wars games in the pipeline that will perhaps rather rely on the film score. By the way, the fact that LucasArts has hired their own musicians won't exclude the possibility of another collaboration with CB Studios for some projects.
16/07/2001:Top Monkey 4 Cue: Result
Our series of polls to find out the best cue from Escape from Monkey Island is over. After almost 3 months, 5 polls and 196 total votes, I declare... THE SCUMMBAR THEME ... to be the top cue from Monkey Island 4. Arrgh, grog me, barkeep! You can have a look at the complete poll results here. And you can download an MP3 of the Scummbar theme (without background noises) at CB-Studios.
29/06/2001: Final Round
Finally, you'll have the "once in a lifetime opportunity" to vote for the big winner. Pick the best song of the best songs now! (But please be fair, and only vote once...) And the winner of round 4 is...: HERMAN TOOTHROT!
16/06/2001: Round 4
"No island smells as bad as..." Yes, you're right, it's time to move on to the Monkey Island round in our series of polls. (By the way, this round also contains the two cues from the showdown of the game.) And the winner of round 3 is...: THE MICROGROGGERY!
27/05/2001: Round 3
Finally, the third round of our poll is online (sorry that it took so long)! Once again, it will be a tough choice... So go ahead and tell us which song you liked most on Jambalaya Island / Knuttin Atoll! And the winner of round 2 is...: THE PROTHESES SHOP!
26/04/2001:Round 2
In the second round of our poll, you can now vote for the best song of Lucre Island. Believe me, I already had some trouble to pick 10 representative cues for this Island! (I hope your favorite is listed...) I guess that voting for one of them will be even harder... And the winner of round 1 is...: THE SCUMMBAR THEME!
20/04/2001:Top Monkey 4 Cue
Which cue from Escape from Monkey Island is the best? Difficult question, since there were so many good songs in the game... However, only one can be the big winner in our new series of Quick Polls. Vote for your favorite song for each part of the game, and vote for the big winner in the final round! (If you don't remember all the songs, you can listen to them again by following the instructions of our Monkey 4 article.) By the way, don't forget to check out our old poll results too.
16/04/2001: CMI Playlist
The Tingler has gone through all the songs from The Curse of Monkey Island and has written a complete playlist. You can check out the playlist in our forum. You need Scumm Revisited to rip the songs from the game.
09/042001:Visit CB Studios
The official page of Clint Bajakian's company CB Studios (www.cbstudios.com) has received a face lifting. The site now contains many interesting facts, like for example a complete list with all the products Clint has worked on. Especially the Samples page is very interesting, since it contains some great cues: Final Showdown from Escape from Monkey Island: A short extract from the great cutscene music that can be heard towards the end of the game... without any voice or sound-effects! Scumm Bar for Pirates from Escape from Monkey Island: Hear the famous Scumm Bar music in its full quality without any background sounds! (It's not the synthetic music heard in the Monkey 4 demo, but the authentic "live music" that can be heard in the full version. It really sounds awesome!) Lost Tropical Lagoon, Russian Freighter and Underwater Temple from Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine: Although these cues are rather short, they really sound very nice. Especially the ambient Lagoon cue is fantastic... not to mention very relaxing! Outlaws Main Theme from Outlaws: Well, most of you should know this song. For those of you who never had the chance to play Outlaws, I only have two pieces of advice: First, enjoy this great sample. Secondly, buy the game ;-) Some cues from several Star Wars games (from LucasArts and LucasLearning): Especially the Cantina Tune and the Calypso Dance Tune are well worth a download! The Chase and First Class at Last from The Upgrade, a film Clint has written the soundtrack for. Especially First Class at Last is a song of its own class ;-) Urban Grove from the Lampa Studio Website Clint has written the background music for. A short, atmospheric cue with a certain "Science Fiction/Bronx/Jungle" atmosphere... x I really urge you to visit Clint's website. It's definitely worth a visit for every music fan!
19/02/2001:Exclusive Interview wiht Clint Bajakian - Lead Composer of Monkey 4
We proudly present you an exculsuive Interview with Clint Bajakian! Clint Bajakian was involved in the music production of many LucasArts games, such as Monkey Isaldnd 2, Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Dark Forces... He also composed the entire score of the award-winning Western shooter Outlaws. Recently, his new company "C. B. Studios" produced the score of Escape from Monkey Island, Clint Bajakian being the lead composer. "The music in Escape from Monkey Island sounds very authentic. Did you use a lot of live players? Many live players came through the recording studio at LucasArts. Larry the O did a great job recording these folks. His recordings are always clean and natural. The overall approach was similar to that taken by Peter on Grim Fandango or Michael on The Curse of Monkey Island, that is, selectively layering live playing over a MIDI sampled foundation to get an authentic sound while staying within schedule and budgetary constraints." Thanks to all the people who helped me out with this interview: Trapezoid (from www.mp3.com/trapezoid/), Swordmaster (from lucasfans.adventuregamer.com), Karl Thorson (from actors.mixnmojo.com) and last but not least Michael Land!
31/01/2001:Che, Ooop, Eeeeeek!!!
Ben Whatsisname, known from The Kickstand, has produced a nice fansong. It is called Monkey Kombat and combines music from Mortal Kombat with sounds and voices from the Monkey Kombat in Escape from Monkey Island. The song can be downloaded from our Fan Music section.
29/01/2001:Better Sound
On a request from LogicDeLuxe (the one who wrote the cool CMI-Music-Patch you can find in our Tools section), Highland Productions were so nice to release their Underground Tunnel Remix in a higher sound-quality. You can download the 192 kb/s version by following this link! Thanks to LogicDeLuxe for this information!
26/01/2001:The Dig Soundtrack???!
It is known that the official soundtrack-CD has become really hard to find, since it's sold out almost anywhere! That's why Roy Margalit wrote an email to the LucasArts company store, and while he was at it, he also asked if there were any plans for a Monkey Island soundtrack. Here's what they replied: "Roy, Thank you for your inquiry. The CD soundtrack for The Dig is no longer available from the Company Store. However, we have heard from fans who have obtained the soundtrack via special order through Sam Goody or Musicland Music Stores. The CD was put out on Angel Records. Best of luck! At this time, we don't have a Monkey Island soundtrack available. However, if one were to become available, that information would be posted on our website. Please let us know if we can assist you further. LucasArts Company Store Vivian www.lucasarts.com/companystore" Thanks to Roy for sharing this information with us!
23/01/2001:New music from the Zak McKracken 2 Project
Besides the (very good) music from Daniel "Wolk" Strandberg that has already been published some time ago, the first samples from the live band Mocca FX are now up too. My personal comment: I really like the idea behind the two airport songs. They have the same basic tune, but with specific extras for each location. I also recommend you to download the special.mp3, that song really features nice saxophone tunes. Finally, the Brazil theme is nice too, but it has definitely not been composed for Zak 2. It's a very famous Bossa Nova which I've already heard a dozen of times before. You can download the songs directly from the music section of the Zak2 Page. Don't forget to tell your opinion about these songs in their forum! (Please also read our interview with Daniel "Wolk" Strandberg!)
07/01/2001:Another one!
Good to see that it didn't take another 500 days for Highland Productions to bring out their next update! This time, it's an orchestral arrangement of the music that plays in Governor Phatt's room in Monkey Island 2. You can download the song directly from our Fan Section...
01/01/2001:It's alive!!!
Does the name Highland Productions ring a bell? Well, it definitely should! They were the site for LucasArts midis... (Over 90% of the midis in our Download Section are from Highland Productions, by the way!) But then, something tragic happened! Highland Productions didn't update for over a year! But now they are BACK!!! With a BRAND NEW remix!!! Ladies and Gentlemen... please welcome.... the one and only... UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRAL REMIX!!! (famous from Monkey Island 2) Staring: Andrew "telarium" Langley as ripper, mixer and performer Special guest: Invisibelle on the flute You can find the MP3 at Highland Productions (under Monkey Island 2) or in our Fan Section.

News Archive 2000
News Archive 2001
News Archive 2002