Solved: the reason why DKC2's Ice Mine theme sounds almost exactly like Vangelis' Antartica theme.

[ReyVGM]

Finally, a cool "mystery" has been solved as to why Donkey Kong Country 2's Ice Mine theme sounds almost exactly like Vangelis' Antartica theme.

I always thought D.Wise was merely inspired and took some things here and there from Vangelis' music, but the real reason why the track is so similar is becasue the Ice Mine theme was never meant to be used in the final game!

It was all an experiment, you see. He "translated" some of Vangelis's music segments exactly the same to the SNES' sound chip as a test to see what the SNES could do. But the devs needed a music track for a last minute ice level they created and they ended up implementing that test track that was never supposed to be used (for obvious reasons).

I think the GameXplain guys and D.Wise had to have coordinated this specific part of the conversation, because out of all the great DKC2 songs to ask about, Andrew chooses to ask about what inspired D.Wise to create the Ice level music, which so happens to be the same track that borders on copyright infringement?
Vangelis' name was kept out of the explanation of course, but at least that clears up the whole situation. D.Wise ripped off Vangelis, yes, but it was only meant to be an internal test.

Timestamp to the start of the Ice Theme conversation:

 

[lincolnic]

I can't say I was familiar with the Vangelis piece before, but I love stories like this. Good find!

 

[Kishi]

I hadn't been aware of this connection, either. Wise sounds a bit embarrassed about the situation, which is understandable for a professional, but the resulting track is one of my favorite pieces of video game music; I would even listen to it over the source material.

 

[muteKi]

I knew he's cited inspiration from Vangelis before, same with Moussorgsky, both of whom have easy-to-identify influence in the soundtrack, but I didn't think it was intended to be quite so direct a rip from Antarctica. But there we have it

 

[ReyVGM]

I knew he's cited inspiration from Vangelis before, same with Moussorgsky, both of whom have easy-to-identify influence in the soundtrack, but I didn't think it was intended to be quite so direct a rip from Antarctica. But there we have it

Never heard of Moussorgsky, do you have any good music examples?

 

[Issun]

Never heard of Moussorgsky, do you have any good music examples?

Obviously this is the track where Wise shows that particular influence.

 

[muteKi]

For my money Pictures at an Exhibition is my piece of choice of his, but that is the specific pair of pieces I was thinking of.

 

[Violentvixen]

I didn't recognize the name Vangelis and looked it up, he did Chariots of Fire?! This is really neat, and listening to those two themes is fun.

 

[lincolnic]

For my money Pictures at an Exhibition is my piece of choice of his, but that is the specific pair of pieces I was thinking of.

+1, especially the original piano version.

 

[Issun]

I didn't recognize the name Vangelis and looked it up, he did Chariots of Fire?! This is really neat, and listening to those two themes is fun.

He also did the score for Blade Runner. Vangelis and Giorgio Moroder (Scarface, Neverending Story) were both brilliant at incorporating dreamy synth into their scores. Unfortunately the movement fizzled out by the mid 80s but their influence lives on in the music of Stranger Things.