February 09, 2005 - Ulster, North Ireland based quartet Ash (Rick McMurray, Tim Wheeler, Charlotte Hatherley, Mark Hamilton) have more or less achieved the level of Jedi sonic masters, at least in terms of video game status.

The latest Lucas Arts Star Wars videogame, Republic Commando, which will hit stores on March 8th, will feature Ash's latest single "Clones" as the game's title track. The song is culled from the band's most recent album, Meltdown, which was originally released overseas in July 2004 and will receive its domestic release on the same day as the game. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Nick Raskulinecz of Foo Fighters and System Of A Down fame.

Interestingly enough, Meltdown has already gone gold in the UK and Republic Commando has also gone gold. Granted these terms mean entirely different things--going "gold" for a record means 500,000 copies of an album were sold, while going "gold" for a video game means that the game has finished development, but hey it's coincidence nonetheless.

On a more historical note, the inclusion of "Clones" marks the first time that Lucas Arts has ever used a band's song in anything Star Wars related.

In the interim between the release of the album and game, you can check out the actual score to Republic Commando in the MP3 Downloads area of the official Star Wars Republic Commando website (go to the site, click on "Navigate" then "Downloads" and finally choose "MP3" and you'll be able to check out 15 tracks from the in-game score).