As video game consoles came into their own in the 1990s, their soundtracks did as well. Composers like David Wise pushed the hardware to its limits every bit as much as the programmers did, and a new sub-genre of music was born. Wise's most well-known compositions came on the soundtracks of the first two Donkey Kong Country games on the Super Nintendo, which remain two of my favorites, and served as my introduction to his work.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from David Wise.
Week 52: DAVID WISE
#358/420 - David Wise, “DK Island Swing”
As a kid, there were few things I coveted more than my friend’s Super Nintendo, and this game was the reason. Besides being an awesome video game to play, it had one of the best soundtracks of any video game ever at the time and, in my opinion, it still holds up as one of the best ever 25 years later.
Rareware and its team took Donkey Kong from being, more or less, Nintendo’s goofier version of King Kong, to a character with his own vibrant world, full of atmosphere. The impressive graphic innovations and character designs were one way this was achieved, but the music is really what put it over the top.
This is the music from the first level and its multiple phases and moods it achieves are unforgettable from my childhood and it is still music I will pause to enjoy as an adult. It makes for one of the most striking and memorable beginnings to any game from that era and it launched a whole series that remains one of my favorites.
#360/420 - David Wise, “Stickerbrush Symphony”
Regarded by many fans as the best DKC track ever, it is definitely one of my favorites as well, from my favorite game in the series. This music accompanied the “bramble blast” levels, making what could have been a supremely tedious or frustrating experience in some of those barrel levels, instead fairly relaxing. It’s one of many examples of just how significant the music in the Donkey Kong Country games was in terms of building the overall experience, something many games have neglected to do and suffered for over the years.
On its own, I’m not sure that this music necessarily brings to mind launching clothed apes out of TNT barrels through mazes of oversized, thorny vines while avoiding giant spiked wasps, but it’s a beautiful piece nonetheless.
#361/420 - David Wise, “Forest Folly”
Although David Wise was solely commissioned for the second installment in the series on the Super Nintendo, the third game went to Eveline Fischer, who was a co-composer on the original game. While I do appreciate both composers, Wise’s tracks were my very favorites and what really defined the series for me. His presence was missed. Two decades after the original game and years without any main series Donkey Kong games (save for DK64, composed by Banjo-Kazooie’s Grant Kirkhope, another composer I enjoy), Nintendo announced a fourth, Donkey Kong Country Returns, at last, in 2010. I was excited, but slightly disappointed that David Wise was not returning with it. Although, again, I do greatly appreciate Kenji Yamamoto’s work in the Metroid series—it just wasn’t the signature sound of DKC I grew up loving.
Two decades after the release of the original game, the course was finally corrected with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, where Wise returned and composed, in my opinion, one of the very best video game soundtracks of all time, which I listened to heavily—heavily at the time. It was easily the primary music we played around the farm on my first trip to Colombia, which coincided with the game’s release, and still finds its way into my rotations to this day.
The tracks to highlight from the game are abundant, and more than I can list with only 7 spots, but this one from the snowy forest levels is one in particular that deserves recognition. A beautiful piece on par with his best from the originals, this is one of the most peaceful, tranquil compositions to grace any video game, and transports you right into an icy woods with icicles hanging from branches, swaying in a breeze, kicking up small flurries of powdery snow. It’s really a bit of magic what Wise can do here.
I can’t help but marvel that Donkey Kong of all properties has inspired so much fantastic atmospheric music, but this is one of many reasons it really can’t be beat for my money.
#362/420 - David Wise, “School House Harmony”
While the more subdued, atmospheric tracks are often what won me over most from David Wise and DKC, some of the upbeat, bopping tracks are undeniable favorites as well. Both DKC 1 and 2 have some of the best map music from any game ever, but the school house music from Diddy’s Kong Quest had me off the map, popping in to visit Wrinkly Kong way more than was necessary, and then just staying/camping out there for the music.
The sounds implemented here to create this track are truly glorious. The metallic-like, electronic texture and the staccato hits are just infectious and so much fun, like a game should be. This one almost gets buried in the mix among so many other great ones but it is one that did and does stand out to me for sure. Class with Wrinkly Kong is where I needed to be in the 90s.
#363/420 - David Wise, “Forest Interlude”
My favorite track from my favorite Donkey Kong game, and one of my favorite games in general, is this one from the swamp/forest levels known as the “Krem Quay”. This type of track is David Wise’s specialty and his strengths as a composer really shine through here. It is full of magic. Repurposed sound effects of insect and frog-like noises amid warbling electronic sirens just do such an effective job of transporting the listener into the environment, it’s a wonder to behold.
This is the third world where an already very diffcult game really ramps it up in difficulty and this music does such a good job of keeping you as the player in the fight. The game design of course is also krem key in preventing this game from being a frustrating experience, and rather a fun and rewarding one, but man is that music pacifying throughout failed jumps or ill-timed pounces, and even something to look forward to on a second or third or twentieth attempt.
It’s a series I admire for many reasons, but the soundtrack is really what makes it soar to the top of my lists and make these games ones I look back on very fondly. It's sensory and satisfying on a higher level than anything else around at the time and it pushed the Super Nintendo to its fullest capabilities with great success.
#364/420 - David Wise, “Scorch ’n’ Torch”
After a near 20 year absence from the series, the pressure was on for David Wise to deliver on the latest DKC soundtrack. I was not sure that he would be able to match the amazing work he did on the first two games, but when I heard this track leak before the game’s release… whoa. If anything, he stepped it up, and without the hardware limitations of the Super Nintendo, he produced some incredibly lush sounds for the game's environments.
This music from the burning savannah levels is my favorite of all from Tropical Freeze, and ranks at the very top for me in terms of David Wise’s most epic compositions. And it appears in one of the most fun and visually striking levels in the game.
The crashes and clashes of tones and pitches from the various percussion and the slicing, frantic violins all come together as well worthy of the world they inhabit. For being merely the score to a relatively anonymous Donkey Kong level, this manages to outdo many great film scores even. Amazing. A fantastic track.
#365/420 - David Wise, “Aquatic Ambiance”
My favorite piece of music from any video game ever also ranks right among my most very favorite songs of all. The best from David Wise for me is undoubtedly the score to the underwater levels in the original Donkey Kong Country game and it is one with significance in my life attached to it well beyond the game itself.
This track is perhaps almost unremarkable to the uninitiated. It is not here to wow you or be spectacular. It isn’t epic like “Scorch ’n’ Torch” and it isn’t so multilayered like the “DK Island Swing”, but what it is, is incredibly peaceful, soothing, and comforting. And in some of the darkest times in my life as a young man when I faced some of life’s difficult inevitabilities for the first time, like loss through death of family, mentors, and even friends of my same age, seemingly all at once, when absolutely no joy or art appealed to me at all, I found that this song was one of the only things I could stand to listen to. Amazingly and thankfully, I found it was enough to calm me down and allow myself to get to sleep at night, and I listened to it a lot during those times. These notes were just what I needed, and I am grateful to have had them available to me.
Even with this association however, it is not a song I now associate with negativity. It is just as peaceful, soothing, comforting, and, more than anything, enjoyable as it has always been. I just like listening to it.
From the standpoint of the game, I believe this song and the levels it accompanies were designed to be an easier break from the other levels, which were often very, very difficult, requiring precise timing and alertness to succeed. This application transcended the game for me and gave me a break in life. I can’t even really begin to breakdown musically why that is, but I think with the right frame of mind, it is there for anyone to find.
It’s a beautiful little song and from the way I hear it praised from others I both know and don’t know personally, it makes me very happy that I am not the only one who appreciates this little diddy, err, ditty.
Admittedly, I am not very familiar with David Wise’s compositions beyond the Donkey Kong series. While I do have my favorites, I have never been the gamer many others are, and especially as an adult, I am lucky to fit in one new video game per year. But the ones I do get to play and connect with are ones that I think of often with fondness. Games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokémon were childhood favorites that remain favorites and influences on me as an artist in adulthood. I will always appreciate and admire the work of people like David Wise and look forward to the next chance I get to dive into another one of their imagined worlds.
Next on the list is an artist I have been looking forward to sharing for awhile now. I don’t think this performer gets nearly enough credit from my generation and the younger generations to follow, but he is undeniably a legend who influenced many of those we do remember with more prominence. He was one of the greatest singers to ever live for my money, with one of the smoothest, effortless-sounding singing voices to ever grace recorded music. Full of soul and grace, it's the one and only Sam Cooke.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
Week 18: Galaxie 500
Week 19: Simon & Garfunkel
Week 20: Gorillaz
Week 21: Ennio Morricone
Week 22: The Moody Blues
Week 23: Koji Kondo
Week 24: Rob Zombie/White Zombie
Week 25: Paul McCartney/Wings
Week 26: George Harrison
Week 27: Phil Spector
Week 28: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Week 29: Public Enemy
Week 30: The Love Language
Week 31: Barry White
Week 32: Frank Sinatra
Week 33: David Bowie
Week 34: Queen
Week 35: The Offspring
Week 36: Louis Prima
Week 37: The Notorious B.I.G.
Week 38: Nancy Sinatra
Week 39: Stevie Wonder
Week 40: Roger Miller
Week 41: Röyksopp
Week 42: N.W.A
Week 43: Sly and the Family Stone
Week 44: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Week 45: Supertramp
Week 46: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Week 47: The Kinks
Week 48: Eminem
Week 49: Mort Garson
Week 50: Foster the People
Week 51: Pink Floyd
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)