DJ Defacto presents a special Mayor Radio mix to celebrate 20 years of SimCity 4!

[fugosushi 41]

Music from the SimCity franchise has always had a very special place in my heart, especially SC3000 and SC4. And I wanted to do something special for the 20th anniversary this year, so I put together a playlist of music that I've been collecting over the years with an uncanny resemblance to the official Maxis soundtracks. It's got everything from bright and brassy bebop, to laid-back and cool jazz, to that unmistakable blend of late 90s/early 00s trip hop, downtempo, and atmospheric drum n bass, and everything else in between!

Almost 9 hours of continuous city-building music, featuring: Henry Mancini, St Germain, The Irresistible Force, Herbie Hancock, Spactime Continuum, A Forest Mighty Black, HNNY, Cannonball Adderley, Fila Brazillia, Greg Foat, Lemongrass, Michel Legrand, LTJ Bukem, The Cinematic Orchestra, Andras, Sweatson Klank, Art Blakey, Session Victim, Jimpster, Hank Mobley, Air, Mo' Horizons, Tosca, Pharoah Sanders, Hidden Orchestra, Mr. Scruff, Photek, Pig&Dan, Miles Davis, Folamour, Ken Ishii, Les Baxter, Oliver Nelson, FaltyDL, and so much more!

Please enjoy listening to it, and let me know what you think.

SimCity vibes:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3z0uFhT3Q9ryiRs6KGtEDh

 

  Edited September 23, 2023 by fugosushi  
fixed a small typo

[dragonsteincole 1,402]

The vibes are impeccable. This strikes such a specific tone amazingly well. Nicely done.

[hugues aroux 3,879]

.. souvenirs ... That's exactly right! Well seen and great playlist, fans and nostalgics of this period are in for a treat! Bravo DJ DeFacto

[Ke|is 3,338]

Thanks for sharing, I will give it a try next time playing the game.

[fugosushi 41]

10 hours ago, dragonsteincole said:

The vibes are impeccable. This strikes such a specific tone amazingly well. Nicely done.

Thanks so much! I'm so glad you like it  

10 hours ago, hugues aroux said:

.. souvenirs ... That's exactly right! Well seen and great playlist, fans and nostalgics of this period are in for a treat! Bravo DJ DeFacto

That's very kind of you 

[Haljackey 17,440]

Great playlist, and neat to see a pic of one of my cities on the cover

[fugosushi 41]

On 6/13/2023 at 1:44 PM, Haljackey said:

Great playlist, and neat to see a pic of one of my cities on the cover

Oh wow, thanks! I found that picture a few years back (possibly on Google images or maybe Tumblr). I was looking for a nice image of SimCity for a wallpaper on my desktop. When I saw that I thought it was perfect, even thought I didn't even know who made it. Glad you like it for the cover image. It's a great image, and an awesome looking city too!

[TheMurderousCricket 5,153]

SC3000 truly had one of the best soundtracks in the history of gaming.

It is difficult to write music for games. A soundtrack for a game cannot be too colorful because it then becomes distracting and you cannot focus on the substance and the gameplay. It cannot, however, be too monotone because then you just cannot discern it from background noises.

SC3000 had a very good collection of tunes for every occasion as some of them were energetic (starting a city), some glamorous (rich downtown) and also soft and tranquil (like on a sunny Sunday residential morning). Masterpiece.

Great avatar @fugosushi. 

[fugosushi 41]

On 6/19/2023 at 1:52 AM, TheMurderousCricket said:

SC3000 truly had one of the best soundtracks in the history of gaming.

It is difficult to write music for games. A soundtrack for a game cannot be too colorful because it then becomes distracting and you cannot focus on the substance and the gameplay. It cannot, however, be too monotone because then you just cannot discern it from background noises.

SC3000 had a very good collection of tunes for every occasion as some of them were energetic (starting a city), some glamorous (rich downtown) and also soft and tranquil (like on a sunny Sunday residential morning). Masterpiece.

I completely agree. While SC4's soundtrack has a lot of great moments in it, and SC2000's has quite a few charmers, it's SC3000's soundtrack that I believe defined the series. There's not a bad song in the whole bunch. And indeed, it is among one of the best video game soundtracks of all time.

On 6/19/2023 at 1:52 AM, TheMurderousCricket said:

Great avatar @fugosushi. 

Thanks. I like to think of him as my little "catstronaut" or even a "space cat-et" 

[anonymous1234 216]

I love SimCity's music. It has got that "institutional" vibe that makes you feel you're dealing with key duties. It clearly creates a special atmosphere.

[jonnboy1976 220]

What a wonderfully creative, fun idea and addition to the game!  I got SimCity 2000 when I was in college in 1996, and the music was almost hypnotizing!  And it continued to be that way for me with 3000 and SC4. Thank you for sharing your playlist with us!

[fugosushi 41]

Since I shared this playlist, I've added another 30 or so tracks to it. And people seem to really be enjoying it! I'm getting a lot of good feedback about it. Thanks everyone! 

[StarMan 6]

awesome! thanks for sharing 

[fugosushi 41]

I just wanted to let anyone who's interested know that I've added another 20 tracks to this playlist recently 

And if you liked this playlist, you might also like another one I just finished. It's an epic 50-hour long playlist for sim and tycoon games in general: 

Sim Games Megamix
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cGD0G5rsjDgjE24OV3fPZ 

Lots of house, jazz, downtempo, and chill lounge, all designed for creating flow states and generally happy, positive vibes. Let me know what you think!