The Music of LBP

We get asked the question “what’s the name of the music track you’ve used in that thar video” a lot.

An awful lot.

So, in an effort to take the strain off of our overflowing inbox, this post contains a definitive rundown of all the music in all of the trailers that have existed thus far (that I know about – cut me some slack :) . All of the music listed here appears in LittleBigPlanet – you will hear it in the Media Molecule created levels which come with the full version of the game, and you’ll be able to collect them as you play through those levels (if you’re clever enough to hunt them all down!) and then use them in your own creations.

A few points to note. There have been plenty of videos created by Sony or even by third parties which have used library music that does not feature in LittleBigPlanet – don’t make the assumption that because it has appeared in a video that it will appear in the game! If it’s not listed here then I don’t know what the music is and have no way of finding out. This is not a definitive list of all the music in the game – this is just a few of the tracks that have happened to be used in videos. LittleBigPlanet features 136 minutes of music, 2 hours of which you’ll have access to. That’s a mixture of licensed linear tracks, original linear tracks, and original interactive tracks. The original music in the game was written by the marvellous Mat Clark of Sonica Studios, London, the delectable Daniel Pemberton and the modest me.

OK here goes:

The one that kicked it all off – the GDC 2007 presentation which unveiled LittleBigPlanet featured Get It Together by The Go! Team, from their album Thunder, Lightning, Strike. It’s incredibly rare for a non-bespoke piece of music to gel so effortlessly with an unrelated project. But by some fiendish alchemy, much like the use of The End at the start of Apocalypse Now, somewhere it was written that Get It Together and LittleBigPlanet would be betrothed. Magic.

The SCEE PlayStation Day 2008 trailer made great use of Atlas by Battles, from their album Mirrored. An energetic ear-worm with indecipherable lyrics – what more could you want?

The E3 2008 trailer teamed up with Jim Noir’s My Patch, from his album Tower of Love. Expect much jumping around of sack folk to this awesome track when you get your hands on the game in a few weeks time!

The Leipzig Games Convention 2008 trailer featured the hypnotic beats and mesmerising synth lines of the late Ananda Shankar’s Dancing Drums. This track can be found on numerous compilations.

The Sackboy + POP-IT video uses a cheesy little number I wrote for you called Disco’n'Tinued. Now you know why I like the Ananda Shankar track so much :)

The Playtime trailer showcases the hot, Latin sounds of Corn Man from Kinky’s self-titled debut album.

The Life in LittleBigPlanet: Part 1 trailer has elements from three different interactive music tracks by Mat Clark, a couple of different pieces of library music (not in the game) and a few bars of the Kinky track.

The Life in LittleBigPlanet: Part 2 trailer starts off with Tapha Niang from Toumani Taibate’s beautiful Boulevard de l’Indépendance album. There’s a little bit more Disco’n'Tinued, my Skipping Syrtaki (which will be familiar to those of you that have played the Beta!), and a load more library music (again, not in the game).

And finally, although this isn’t an official video, the intro level in the LBP Beta uses Left Bank Two by Wayne Hill, performed by The Noveltones. This is a piece of library music which was institutionally etched in to the mind’s ear of millions of children in the UK over several generations by its use in the TV shows Vision On and Take Hart. To be honest, this track was licensed before we even had a use for it – we just had to have it, what with it being an intrinsic part of the nostalgic, creative entertainment we were trying to distil into LittleBigPlanet. So, the fact that Left Bank Two was frequently used during said TV show’s ‘Gallery’ sections, and that the intro level is a kind of “gallery” of all of our ugly mugs is pure serendipity. The last time I heard this tune was as part of a hideous financial loans advert, so its nice to have rescued the poor little blighter and returned him to his rightful place surrounded by craft materials, glue and smiles.

Phew! I think that’s us all up to date!