Matt Uelmen Jungle

"Jungle" - Liner Notes - September 20, 2000

"Bandit, look out! The Collector's Edition didn't get the last three minutes of this piece that seem particularly inspired by the uber-cheese we all know and love as the 1970's classic, Johnny Quest. I mean, how can you go wrong with cavemen brainwashed by renegade Nazis? In any case, Johnny Quest -- like Barbarella -- has had a rather horrible influence upon me.

Stieg Hedlund (designer on Diablo 2) was the only one here to correctly identify the absolute devastation that "Jesus Christ Superstar" (also from that era) has had on my musical development (that big pentatonic melody on the tubular bells)! The first part of this track is also a relative moldy oldie from those last few days of my youth in the spring of 1997. Ah, Nostalgia...

Beer with Ben and Patty, a Macintosh that never worked and a strange instrument sold to me by the neighbor of our producer, Matt Householder. This devise, developed by the world famous Sputnik Percussion, it is a stick with a thick rubber band around it, much like a bull-roarer. It is this instrument that is responsible for that neat little 16th note wooshing sound which holds this musical oddity together in the first few minutes, so I can assure you that no animals were harmed in the making of Diablo II."

- Matt Uelmen