Most Atmospheric SNES Music: #14 - Mining Melancholy - Donkey Kong Country 2

I think the Donkey Kong series might have the best ambient music on the SNES. It amazes me how immersive each track is and and how each really is catered to the particular level's environment.

"Mining Melancholy" from the second game in the series is an excellent example of this. The industrial clangs and clashes combine with the strangely sorrowful humming/buzzing (1:25) to create a truly sublime gaming experience. It's for this reason that the mine levels are among my favorites in the entire game.

This is going way too in depth, but whenever I hear this song I think back to a music class I took a few years ago. The professor told us about a type of song that groups of slaves used to sing to help the time pass during tough manual labor - using no instruments but their voices and the sounds of tools to create a melody. Could this song be a DKC example of that? I think it's plausible and it makes me feel bad for all the Kremlings forced to toil away in the mines (and it would certainly explain the "Melancholy" part).

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• most
• atmospheric
• super
• nintendo
• music
• song
• mining
• melancholy
• donkey
• kong
• country

[Ae0nRising]

Holy nostalgia.. DKC2, what a classic! SNES was, imo, the golden age of video games.

[chuckzway]

i love th song in the brambles! :D i wish you could enter it in your rank

[MaximillionT]

I used to play this game with an Ex of mine. I love this sooo much, and this brought back SOO many memories....wow. Thanks! :D

[Batmaaaan23]

Great pick! 0:35 is the best part of the track! This is my favorite DKC2 track besides Bramble Blast!

[mjkittredge]

Extra thumbs up for the scimitar dual wielding crocodile in the background!

[causeis3002]

Snes best memories ever....missed that times

[limegreensquid]

Sort of an evolution of DKC's .... oil, machinery ... fiery barrels .... levels ... can't remember what they're called now... but that was always one of my favourites. And DKC2 just created even more awesome music.

[wcsplayer23]

Intro sounds like something that could be in a Phil Collins song

[DMonkey123]

This and Stickerbrush Symphony...too good.

[dardo1790]

SNES music was, is, and will be awesome