C Novim Godom 2022

I don’t think of this song every New Year, but I likely should… my favourite Attila the Stockbroker piece, from student days.

I hope 2022 will be different, because I sure don’t want any more 2021.

Melodica Men

Okay, I guess this has been around for a while but it’s new to me!

Who says we have to be serious around here alla time…..

Strafe fur Kabul

(don’t worry, it’s because the album cover has a picture of a lady’s bare back)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/7/taliban-announce-acting-ministers-of-new-government

Ich habe Tradition
Ich habe Religion
Ich habe Tradition
Ich habe Religion
Ich habe Tradition mehr
Ich glaube gern

Ich habe Politik
Ich habe Strategie
Ich habe Politik
Ich habe Strategie
Ich habe Religion mehr
Ich starbe gern

• “For Mao, Folk and Religion”, from album Santa Maria (1986) by Strafe fur Rebellion

Also, an interesting article by Scott Kelly, in which the writer describes the warlords as the “third rail” of Afghan politics and control. This is what I am talking about in a game about the tricky task of winning the peace.

Don’t ignore the Green faction!

Warlord Diplomacy: Now the Real Struggle Begins

Melodice: playlist for your favourite games

Now here’s a clever thing!

Melodice.org will assemble a Youtube playlist of favourite musical pieces based on player submissions. Let this play while you are playing, to set the mood.

You can search for different games, so here are two I found for A Distant Plain and Colonial Twilight, and two I made for Nights of Fire and District Commander Kandahar:

https://melodice.org/playlist/a-distant-plain-2013/

https://melodice.org/playlist/colonial-twilight-the-french-algerian-war-1954-62-2017/

https://melodice.org/playlist/nights-of-fire-battle-for-budapest-2019/

https://melodice.org/playlist/district-commander-kandahar-2020/

Soundtrack to Civil Power

In the new year a revised version of Civil Power, a tactical-level game I designed on urban riots and mayhem, will be published by a company called Conflict Simulations. I first designed this game back in 1991-92, and it came with a set of scenarios taken from history and then-contemporary headlines… this new version has a lot of changes informed by over 25 years of designing in between, and a whole new cast of global angst and violence.

https://www.consimsltd.com/shop/civil-power

So I thought, why not make a playlist to serve as a sort of soundtrack to playing it? The above is 78 minutes of anti-authority music of many genres (most of them loud and snotty), in an easy-to-handle 44K VBR. Hope you enjoy, even if you don’t order my game!

 

Track listing:

Glory to Hong Kong – anonymous student rebel orchestra
Tommy Gun – The Clash
Fist – Test Department
Solidaritätslied – Ernst Busch Chorus (film clip)
Landlord – Test Department
Ready to Blow – KMFDM
Babylon’s Burning – The Ruts
Wake Up – Rage Against the Machine
Riot – Dead Kennedys
Ghetto Defendant – The Clash
All That I wanted – Belfegore
Smash It Up – International Noise Conspiracy
Kick Out The Jams – MC5
Fight The Power – Public Enemy
Rise Above – Black Flag
Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine
Guns of Brixton – The Clash
Police Truck – Dead Kennedys
Wild in the Streets – Circle Jerks
General Strike – DOA
Clampdown – The Clash

 

A Distant Plain: soundtrack loop

Column of Canadian LAV-IIIs in Afghanistan. (PhotoL CPT Edward Stewart, Canadian Forces)

Gamer and fan David Coutts has composed a brief piece fusing Western rock and Middle eastern instrumentation… sets the mood for a game of A Distant Plain! Free to listen, or you can download if you have a Soundcloud membership.

On my tapedeck

This has been in heavy rotation on my kitchen tapedeck recently (yes, I have this on a creaky old cassette, the same program on both sides).

Almost 30 years later, and the locale of concern has shifted just a bit to the south.

On the same cassette, one of my favourite versions of the Ol’ Standard – Billy’s rewrite: