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"From out of the dark"

From Out Of The Dark

From out of the dark is a collection of 6 songs finished during the infamous Covid lockdown of 2020, drawing musical influences from many different genres and based on different themes close to my heart.

Some with a narrative, others about how I felt a particular junction in life, playing music, writing and recording songs has been a great outlet for me and helped me deal with and express myself in a productive fashion.

With no single genre over the six songs I decided to put them out as From out of the dark, to show how something good can come from the darkness. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making them.

I appreciate so much all the friends and family who have helped critique these tracks ready for public consumption. Thanks also to my younger sister, Hannah, for providing her vocal talents and lyric writing on two of the songs.

Please listen below and follow me on all of my social networks using the links above.

Matt x

#Alpaca Trekking

Recently, my good friend Rosie and I have been attempting to expand our social activities in an effort to take part in more unusual and interesting things. We've joined the National Trust; been for interesting meals; gone to see unusual plays and films and attended museums and art galleries.

Most recently, Rosie convinced me to accompany her on an Alpaca Trekking experience she booked for £10 a ticket via the gift website buyagift.co.uk.

I'm always open to new experiences, and I'm a big fan of walking and the outdoors anyway, so I thought why the hell not. Our experience took place at Lucky Tails Alpaca farm in Atherstone, not far from Coleshill in the West Midlands. As well as Alpacas, they keep chickens, ducks, rabbits and there of course the mandatory dog and cat milling around the place.


During our time there we were treated to a bit of background knowledge from the owner about the farm and about the farming of Alpacas, including information about their origins, farming and of the differences between them and Llamas.

We were then taken to meet and greet all of the Alpacas of the farm, being introduced to all of them on a first name basis. After hearing a little about each of them, we were able to select one to go for a short walk with. I chose Dodge whilst Rosie went for Norman.


We took our Alpacas on a short and gentle walk up the field to meet some of the newest additions to the Alpaca clan at Lucky Tails, talking about them on the way, then slowly meandering back to the paddock where we were given some food with which to feed all of the Alpacas, though Norman was pretty adamant he was going to get the most food...

As an experience, I really enjoyed my time at Lucky Tails Alpaca farm. It was interesting to learn about the Alpacas, but they're also insanely cute and great fun to walk, stroke and feed. The staff their were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable and it definitely makes for an interesting and unusual morning out!


We were at the farm for just shy of 2 hours, which is plenty for what the experience entails, and especially using the Buy A Gift vouchers, it's pretty good value for money. I would recommend totally recommend having a go at this at least once!

For more information, you can visit the Lucky Tails Alpaca Farm website at www.luckytailsalpacafarm.co.uk

Thanks for reading!



#PressStartToPlay mini Spoiler Free book review


Press Start To Play is an anthology of short stories about our relationships with video games, with stories selected by Daniel H. Wilson (Robopocolypse) and John Joseph Adams (The Mad Scientist's Guide To World Domination), with a forward written by Ernest Kline (Ready Player One, Armada).

The stories range from the comedic to the horrific; the retro to the modern; the norm to the downright bizarre and not one story is the same as another.

Covering genres such as role playing games, virtual reality, artificial intellifence, text adventures and more, all of these stories will appeal to your inner geek in at least one way or another, brushing past typical dorktastic references from 80s scifi onwards, making sure to keep your nerdgasms in full flow. 

Some stories are more traditionally written than others, too. Some are written like the loop in a piece of code; other's, like the progressive journey through a text based adventure running from a floppy disc, where as some are good old fashioned stories with relatable characters. Being short stories, you may think they'd scrimp on their structural integrity, but I found all of the compositions to either leave me succesfully crying out for more, or suitably satisfied at their conclusion. 

The stories in this compendium appeal to me as a lover of innovative, interesting writing styles, as well as to my inner geek. Some are short and punchy, but some are detailed and descriptive enough to have even possibly evolved into a novel in their own right. 

If you're in anyway a geek or gamer, I would recomend this book highly, as a support of genuinely brilliant story telling, writing and a homage to all things geek and gaming. An excellent read. 


#LightweightRPGs? #FinalFantasyExplorers #LegendOfLegacy #StellaGlow #3DS impressions


Much like the original DS, Nintendo have done a sterling job recently of getting a number of lavish & visually beautiful RPGs on their brilliant little 3D handheld lately, including the likes of Final Fantasy Explorers, Monster Hunter, Rune Factory, Etrian Odyssey, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Bravely Default 1 and 2... The list goes on. if you're an RPG fan, you'll no doubt already have begun dedicating hours of your daily commute to staring at your device and getting hooked in beautiful anime art, brilliant battles and marvellous menus galore.

For me, the only downside to this is not actually having that far to travel to work... And therefore little time to dedicate to the often story rich efforts of some truly great developers. I have always been big on my RPG games, ever since playing Zelda: Link's Awakening on the Game Boy Color, and Alundra and Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1, so it does sadden me to have less and less time to lose myself in these games.

Luckily, a number of these games seem to have managed to slot themselves into quite a niche category - that where the story isn't completely paramount, making it manageable to drop in and out of the game for shortish bursts. Perfectly ideal for someone in my situation, and I've found it doesn't always compromise on the quality of story for this either.

There was firstly, Final Fantasy Explorers, Square Enix's approach to a Monster Hunter style game. I love Monster Hunter, but really enjoyed this kind of light weight approach to a similar concept, wandering in Square Enix styled environments killing big beasties for fun. 





It feels a bit like a cross between Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker. No bad thing. It doesn't look the best for the recently beefed up NEW 3DS though the soundtrack is excellent.




 There could be more variation in battle and enemy animation, but it's polished enough for those quick bursts I like so much. The collector's edition came with a nice Explorers XL carry case and soundtrack CD.



My second 'dip-in-and-out-of'' game for me has been The Legend Of Legacy by Atlus. This looks and sounds exquisite, which is why I'm so glad I've got the collector's edition which comes with a lovely little art book and soundtrack CD.



The graphics are also ace, typical Atlus RPG style with beautifully hand drawn characters and locations mixed in with the CG stuff. The story feels quite light here at the moment (though I'll confess I'm not massively far in and need to get back to it!) and gradually see's you uncovering different character's stories as you recruit and utilise them.



You can explore the world non chronologically it would seem as long as you're skilled enough, and though you do discover things about your characters, the main focus seems to be exploring and filling in the maps (which is auto done for you - no drawing them here like in Etrian Odyssey).




The combat is also immensely satisfying, but can be brutal making saving regularly essential from the get go. I'm looking forward to getting back in to this, but I'm currently focussing on...



...Stella Glow, another stunning delivery from Atlus again with beautifully hand drawn characters and maps, with 3D battles. Predictably, I plumped for a gorgeous looking collector's edition (actually twice, accidentally ordering it twice...), with art book and CD soundtrack. This time, the game feels more story focussed, but it's light enough to remember what's going on at most times and what's more the game gives you a short summary as to what you've been up to every time you load up. Useful!

The characters you work with quickly become likable, and I found myself soon to be emotionally invested with the mix of fighters and witches. Once more the baddies are all interesting enough to feel like they pose a threat but not be annoyed by their inclusion. A good balance.
Exploring the world gives you stints between free time, where you can upgrade items, work for money, or build affinity with the other characters. The mission time is then reserved for battles, and combat here is a simplified version of the tactical RPG formula such as Fire Emblem. It's probably more similar to the likes of Project X Zone, but there are some tactical advantages to be had from character placement and different elemental resistances. The game also has an option to turn off the battle animation, so once you've seen all the pretty attacks, you can turn them off to get in some grinding. Win!


I love my #3DS - it's the game console I play the most - the games are better and more varied than ever before and as somebody with less free time to devote to one of his favourite hobbies now, these RPG's allow me to enjoy my favourite genre of game without the massive time investment needed for earlier generations.