"Maniac Muzak"
Play Remix
Download MP3* Note: this track is not available for free download due to the fact that it is part of the licensed American Pixels album. The project is available through Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon.
Maniac Mansion! Edisons! Hamsters!
I love this game. And for years, I've wanted to arrange the iconic, wacky, and delightfully mad "Edison Theme." There's just something about it, when you're playing the game and suddenly that music kicks in, you just KNOW something is about to go down.
The problem was... it seemed perfect. It didn't need instruments to improve the effect, it wasn't limited by the square waves, etc... it was just an amazing theme.
Then one day, I was listening to the Fight Club soundtrack by the Dust Brothers, specifically the "Corporate World" theme. I love that track; it takes muzak, and then ramps it up with electronics to where it kinda makes fun of the genre, while at the same time making it more awesome, if that makes sense. In turn, I wanted to try that. Then, it clicked that the Edison theme just might be the perfect track for that...
So, I doodled it. I liked it. Muzak with some enhanced jazz elements. Somehow it just felt right with flute on the lead, which then evolved into the idea that this could be a flute solo.
Then... I got stuck. This one literally sat, with the intro finished, for over a year, before I finally came back and started work on phase two. It seemed the missing piece was an environment to tie the two together, so, it was enhanced to sound like an office. Cute elevator muzak plays over the speakers, and then... the office catches on fire, insanity ensues, and then the music ramps up to match. Seems like something that would happen if Weird Ed Edison went to work in the corporate world. :)
On flute, we have the very talented Maho Azuma lending her considerable skills to the piece.
As far as the voice actors go, they are folks who opted for the "join the choir" pledge level during the Kickstarter campaign, where backers opted to lend their voice to the project as an actual reward! In the end you can primarily hear Rob Hirschboeck - known for his portrayal of Henry Stauf in "The 7th Guest" (I'm still geeking out about that), Ed Keller - the CEO of EarQ, Chris "Flik" Serani - an active contributor to several other projects in the same scene, Julia Getman - my lovely wife, and Audrey, Erich, and Heidi Suehs - my sister, brother-in-law, and niece, respectively. Oh, and me. (I do the voice of Weird Ed.)
