Dream Warriors: D&D-Inspired Hip Hop

Plus Brute Fort game & soundtrack and "Sunshine Blogger" Q&A

I love the song “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style” by the Canadian hip hop duo Dream Warriors with its fantastic use of samples from Quincy Jones’s “Soul Bossa Nova”. It got a lot of airplay on WFNX in Boston in 1991 when I was working a job where I got to listen to the radio a lot.

I never knew any other songs by Dream Warriors until I recently became aware of their track “Twelve Sided Dice” from the same And Now the Legacy Begins 1991 album that contained “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style.” Check out some of the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired lyrics from King Lou (Louis Robinson) and Capital Q (Frank Allert):

I’ve got a profitable brain, supernatural eyes
Multiplied by
The galactic vigilante strapped twice
What’s your answer, Dungeon Master?

***

Do not attempt to avoid my thoughts
Climb out of the frying pan, you roast in the fire
Cleric, my character, I hope you recall
I am religious to what I believe in
Righteousness takes us away from the wrong
So have no
Right
And have no
Wrong

***

Too unaccented explaining this man
My life could be long, my life could be short
While I’m living I’m playing it smart
A fighter I am, and a fighter I will be
Keeping my hit points high, not low
I think before I move
Right
I think before I move
Left
Then roll the twelve-sided dice

A profile of the group in a February 16, 1991 issue of Sounds explained the RPG influence:

They’re a disarmingly quiet pair, a factor that reinforces rumours that Dream Warriors are big on Dungeons & Dragons. Indeed, games are a metaphor that surfaces regularly on the album. Q acknowledges the debt. “Yeah, it’s just role-playing games. It’s not that we dwell on all these games and things like that. It’s everyday life, everyday living. Things that we did, things that we do. That’s where our music comes from - our background’s West Indian and we live in Canada. It creates a different sound.”

Listen to “Twelve Sided Dice” here:

Sunshine Blogger Award

I was nominated for a Sunshine Blogger Award by Andy from The Vinyl Room. You may have heard of this concept in which nominees respond to 11 questions because it has been making the rounds across many newsletters. I’m a big fan of The Vinyl Room and discovered what a great guy Andy is when I was a guest on his “Vital Records” series:

Vital Records #4: Constant Companions

So, I’m happy to provide my answers to Andy’s questions…

What’s your earliest musical memory?

I remember listening to the radio with my neighbor Lori when I was 5 or 6 years old trying to figure out if the Paul McCartney and Wings song was “Band on the Run” or “Man on the Run.” We were placing our ears right up against the speaker to settle our minds once and for all.

Was there a specific artist, band, record or event that inspired you to start writing about music?

I first wrote about music in the summer of 1989 in a class I took in college called “Reviewing the Arts.” It was taught by Bill Marx, the theater critic of The Boston Phoenix at the time. Each week, students would write a critique of a piece of art (movie, book, album, etc.). During the class, Prof. Marx would read each person’s work line-by-line, out loud, tearing it apart. It was very tough to sit through but made a big impact on my writing. The writing criticisms were severe, but accurate and fair. The albums I remember writing about included “Workbook” by Bob Mould, “Magnum Cum Louder” by the Hoodoo Gurus, and “In Step” by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

I was tickled when Bill Marx said I was the one person in the class who had a writing voice, and I was offered a job writing music reviews in a local paper as a result of my class work. Like a fool, I turned it down because I was going to school to be an electrical engineer and thought that was the career path I was supposed to be on. I eventually ended up becoming a technical writer, and I credit this course more than anything else for teaching me how to write effectively for that job.

What’s an album you could write treatises on?

To paraphrase Phil Lynott and Gary Moore, I could write you paragraphs about the Imaginos album by Blue Öyster Cult. Others have authored lengthy works on the record, but I think I could add to the canon. Some of my thoughts are included in this video:

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

From the Bill Marx class mentioned above, I learned the value of reading what I have written out loud. It helps to shake out things that are not clear and identifies opportunities to improve the rhythm of the sentences.

What’s the most unusual place you have ever written from?

The hospital. My wife is a cancer survivor and has suffered 10 strokes. We have had many extended hospitalizations, including ten weeks in Baltimore after suffering complications following brain surgery. During much of these times, she has been unable to communicate. While at her hospital bedside, I have written thousands and thousands of words. Often to distract me from my worse fears.

If you could go on tour with one artist or band, current or past, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

Any band that I was in. I played guitar in local bands but never got to tour. I especially would have liked to have toured with my first band, now known as High Tension Theory, as we’re all good friends.

Name a concert you were lucky to witness and one you regret having missed.

It’s not a specific concert, but I feel very lucky that I got to see a bunch of blues legends perform before they passed away. These include Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, John Lee Hooker, Steve Ray Vaughn, and more. I’m also very thankful to have seen the Blue Öyster Cult “hardcore fans only” show in Hoboken, NJ and the Buck Dharma Band at the Ricky Browning Benefit concert in Atlanta, GA.

Regrets? I’ve had a few. I turned down a chance to see a theater show of Guns N’ Roses with Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction opening before GNR broke it big. I decided it was more important to study for a final. I also regret that I didn’t become a fan of Frank Zappa and Rory Gallagher until after they passed and therefore missed any chances to see them live.

How would you define success?

From a life standpoint, I’ve had more success than I ever will deserve. I’ve been married to my soul mate for 28 years and have three kids who have become wicked cool adults. I’ve met and befriended amazing people throughout my life. I am filled with gratitude.

From a professional standpoint, Critical Hit Parader is a success for me if I am able to help people play. Play great music and play great games. I hope to enhance readers’ listening pleasure and inspire their gaming creativity. I think there are more people who love both music and role playing games (or just love the fantasy/sci-fi media that inspires both music and RPGs), so I hope additional like-minded folks discover Critical Hit Parader and join our community.

What’s your main guilty pleasure?

I don’t have any guilty music pleasures. Or guilty book, game, or movie pleasures. I don’t feel bad about any art I enjoy. So I guess I would say eating scones with coffee on the weekends.

A hill you’ll die on?

I don’t think there is one. To quote Robert Anton Wilson, “the universe contains a maybe.” But I would be ready to go out like a soldier in The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie if my family were in danger.

When all is said and done, how would you like to be remembered?

I try to detach from the hubristic notion that I will be remembered. Occasionally, I’m successful.

Brute Fort Game & Soundtrack

Alfred Valley is crowdfunding a dungeon delving card game called Brute Fort that comes with a “bombastic soundtrack of 80s pulp synth.”

Here’s an excerpt from the game’s description:

Brute Fort is an 18 card dungeon delving game for a single player. It takes 10-15 minutes to play.

In this game, your courageous (or foolish) heroes venture into the shadowy recesses of the 𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙. Inside they’ll discover a jumble of fearsome foes and alluring loot. Over the course of play you’ll place cards from your hand to build up the explored rooms of the cursed building.

***

Aesthetically Brute Fort takes inspiration from old forgotten media, like “video nasty” VHS tapes from the early 80s, and the cards themselves lean into dark fantasy grittiness.

A cool aspect of the game is that it is packaged in a “double tape cassette case: a tuck box of cards on one side, a tape cassette soundtrack…on the other side.” Also, the double tape case inlay “unfolds to form a lo-fi play mat.”

The soundtrack was created by Gus BC, who previously created the Sleeping In A Drowning Stone soundtrack for Alfred Valley’s Thousand Empty Light Mothership adventure. Listen to a preview of the music Gus BC created for Brute Fort here:

Pledge your support at the Brute Fort crowdfunding page.