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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

#DoctorWho #TenLittleAliens Mini Spoiler-Free Book Review


Stephen Coles is an ex contributor to a magazine about Agatha Christie stories, and his writing show's this. It often feels like a cross between the pseudo-scientific romps of the Doctor and the ever twisting and turning tales of a good old fashioned murder mystery.

My experience with the original Doctor in the TV series is limited, but Coles does an excellent job of representing this Doctor as I would expect; old and slightly frail, a little pompous and intelligent in a calculating consulting detective kind of way. The companions in this story, Ben and Polly, are also represented well, Ben feeling like a kind of old time London cockney version of the 10th Doctor's Mickey, and Polly a colourful, miniskirt wearing 60s kind of hipster.

In the story, the Tardis takes the trio in to the middle of what is supposed to be a training exercise for a post Earth militia, currently in an ongoing war with a force known as the Schirr who are in turn collaborating with the evil and mysterious masters known as the Morpheians. Of course, the Doctor knows better than to attribute the strange goings on that occur down to magic, and contemplates these mysteries from the off.

The military crew all feel believable, all with their own place in the story and enough of a history to make them feel real. The descriptions of settings are suitably creepy in a world overtaken by a glowing weed, much like I imagine the weed from War Of The Worlds to be.

There are scenes of grotesque violence in the book, and for a Doctor Who novel I felt these were particular adult themes, some points making me feel quite sick. The crew begin to fall ill and the description of the symptoms can be quite graphic. The story takes a number of twists and turns, and about 4 chapters from the end, using a headband style device, the crew with the added extras of Ben, Polly and the Doctor are able to share in real-time their own vision and perspective on events. At this point the book requires you to do some legwork, shifting around the chapter dependent on who's perspective you need or want to see next. This is a really interesting way of vamping up the pressure, and I found myself utterly gripped.

The book ends in a typically neat Doctor Who fashion, but not without some well included plot twists first! In all I was greatly impressed by this book. It was scary, similar to perhaps the Star Wars novel Red Harvest, believable and interesting, making the entire story gripping, tense and engaging.

A definite must for Sci-Fi and Doctor Who fans.


#PaintYourDragon by Tom Holt Mini Spoiler-Free Review

Paint Your Dragon is a very untraditional tale about the traditional forces of good and evil and some very popular misconceptions about these to poles of morality.

Sculptress Bianca is tasked with creating a statues to take pride of place in Birmingham's Centenary Square (Set in 1999). When the 2 subjects, George and the Dragon, independently vanish and reappear, Bianca somehow finds herself in a age old dispute and some good old fashioned gambling rigging.

In a version of our universe where time is bought and sold, demons go on coach trips, haunted word processors take over souls and where famous statues seem to come seemingly at to life, are all apparently commonplace events, Tom Holt does a fine job of creating a witty tale weaving between different and well described characters almost seamlessly. Things do get a little confusing about 2 thirds of the way through, but if you soldier on it all comes together eventually in a nice, rounded, albeit unusual conclusion.

I like Tom Holt's style of writing - it's relaxed, and using the actual location of Birmingham I was able to picture a lot of the scenes especially vividly. It is funny throughout, and feels like watching a cross between Harry Potter and the sitcom Spaced.

It's not my favourite Tom Holt but it's definitely worth a go, and can be picked up dirt cheap. Go for it!