"Maggot" - Liner Notes - August 30, 2000

Sand, sand, sand. If there is an unsung instrumental hero of the Diablo soundtrack (for both games), it would have to be the humble maraca. Though the exotic, droning tambura and the lovely sitar both make appearances here, this track is really all about that sand.

Much like the sewers, where the dripping of the environment almost wrote itself, the insectoid tunnels of the maggot lair demanded the full complement of rain sticks, guiros, thumb pianos and other scratchy percussion effects. The primitive quality of the architecture in this level - worm tunnels and icky green doors - would have been mismatched and overwhelmed by bombastic brass or epic strings. Hence, I tried to underplay the music in this track. It seemed silly to suggest anything terribly triumphant when you are burrowing through sand and killing overgrown insects. This is exactly the kind of musical enviroment where something positioned could be fun in the game context - it would be fun to drop those 5 second rain stick loops in different places throughout the tunnels themselves.

Although big percussion stacks with little or no harmonic structure may be musically shallow, they are incredibly fun ear-candy. In a world where I have more talent, this would sound much like Takemitsu's "From Me Flows What You Call Time".

- Matt Uelmen

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