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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

#LostTribeOfTheSith Star Wars Novel Mini Review


The Lost Tribe Of The Sith is a collection of shorter stories about a group of Sith that get stranded on a remote planet after a catastrophic accident in their ship, Omen.

Set before the rule of two, the Sith clan is made up of multiple factions and families, all striving for supremacy within their new found home exerting their command and subterfuge upon not only each other but the primitive natives and other lifeforms the planet has to offer. Escape is not an option as the world is absent of sufficient resources to make the necessary repairs to their ship.

The short stories are extremely well written and span over multiple generations and the descendants of the Sith families still find themselves in similar competitive scenarios whilst the initial stranded Sith begin to bloom as legend to the later generations.

What's interesting is how the different generations intertwine, and as exciting as the action packed sequences are throughout the smaller stories, the real intrigue lies with the politics in the social order of things, with many varying Sith philosophies striving for dominance over the many years.

The unusual surroundings and lack of technology throughout the stories really make this collection stand out from other Star Wars novels, and I'd sincerely recommend to anyone who likes reading about the expanded Star Wars universe.

#DawnOfTheJedi Into The Void - Spoiler Free Mini Review


Into The Void by Tim Lebbon is the first entry in the Star Wars Novels Legends timeline, and is set in an eror before laser swords and hyperspace travel. Our main character Lanoree Brock is  a Jeda'ii Ranger, called upon by her Masters on her less visited home world of Tython to investigate and seek out her brother, Dal whom she had thought dead.

Teamed up with an unusual 3 Lekku'd Twilekk named Tre, with a dark past an unusual relationship with the a Jeda'ii master, the pair journey over Tyhon encountering interesting and despicable characters on the way in an attempt to find out for certain what Dal's intentions are and his whereabouts, of course encountering well written and exciting altercations along the way. Blasters and technology are still advanced in this era, but Lanoree wields a traditional sword rather than the famous lightsaber, using it to deadly effect often removing her adversaries heads from their bodies.

The story moves between the investigation and flashbacks to Lanoree and Dal's childhood, where as force sensitives they were destined to become journeyers. They are to set out on a pilgrimage to different Jeda'ii temples, each tasked with specialising in and sharing the knowledge of a specific discipline such as combat, force skills or science and alchemy. Lanoree embraces the force, using it to accentuate her natural affinity and talents. Dal shuns it, not liking the invasive and controlling nature or the mystical power. As the story moves on we see their relationship become more distant.

This pre-Jedi story is largely compelling, and there are lots of tense moments, interesting and well written characters and locations, and despite being a prequel, feels steeped in history. Lebbon has clearly thought about the world he is writing into.

The movement between past and present keeps things interesting, and I always felt eager to read on and discover the next series of events.

I did feel however that the conclusion was quite an anti-climax, and didn't reveal as much as I would've liked about the actual birth of the Jedi. Whether this is done in subsequent works such as comic books etc I'll hopefully find out.

Even so, I'd highly recommend this book for fans of the Star Wars universe to get a glimpse of how things began.

Joyotis - Vegetarian Indian Restaurant in Hall Green

Jyoti's, located in Kings Heath on the Stratford Road is a refreshing take on Indian cuisine and one I would recommend to any fan of Indian food, veggie or not. It is exclusively veggie, so if you're too into your meat, then you're silly and should go back to McDonalds. 

It's also half kind of Indian Bakery, selling sweets and puddings and nibbles for you to takeaway. The service was a little cold and stilted to start, but the old timer waiter eventually warmed up and began having some banter. 

I had a lentil curry with chapattis which tasted for lack of a better word, authentic. It was a very thick dish despite being a creamless dish but was extremely tasty. The waiter was also happy to accommodate me when I asked for a mountain of Chillies to accompany my munch. 

The chapattis were also excellent. Support this little unique restaurant, now! 

http://www.jyotis.co.uk/

#FantasticBeasts and Where To Find Them play script - Spoiler free thoughts! #HarryPotter


I remember when the Fantastic Beasts text book was released many moons ago by JKRowling in aid of comic relief. This tie-in, along with Quiditch through the ages were excellent little spin offs, so I was a tad worried when I heard a film was being created on the concept, and when I saw the play script released as a book I sighed and felt it was a bit of a money spinning venture for the Potter series.

The film however, I was pleasantly surprised with. I think that it was created, bar the original concept, from the ground up to be a film that it actually stands up very well on it's own, where as the Potter films I always thought were a bit lacking compared to the books until really The Deathly Hallows. I always prefer books to movies, but The Death Hallows parts one and two felt like proper films in their own rights - not book to movie conversions like the others. Fantastic Beasts is definitely like this, and tells the story of future noted wizarding author Newt Scamander and his trip to America with some rather interesting companions. The film has an amazing cast, soundtrack and is filmed very well, with a good mix of thrills, laughs and plot.

I saw the film prior to reading the book of the script, which I think helped during reading. For some reason, it's just better reading the written words. It just is. I'm not sure why, or even how but there's something about reading the story that really involves you in the plot, despite the inclusion of stage directions and other instructions. It takes what you've seen and somehow enhances it, allowing your mind's eye to add it's own extra details where you deem necessary and essentially creates your own custom version of the film in your head. Of this, I approve!

The hardback copy of the book is also completely stunning - these sleeve with it's emobossed gold patterns and the swirly illustrations of some of the creations included at the beginning of scene's really do enrich things, and I enjoyed this experience as much as I did 'The Cursed Child'.

Definitely recommended for any Potterheads out there, though I know they've all read and seen Fantastic Beasts a gazillion times already!

Thanks for reading!

#TheHangingTree (Rivers of London 6) Mini Spoiler Free Review


I'm a big fan of the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, and the latest entry was just as appealing as the others.

This time, Peter Grant, our resident detective inspector meets trainee warlock, seems much more confident in his magical ability and prowess, and his mysterious senior office Nightingale seems to have more confidence and trust for him to carry out investigation and altercations on his own.

Again, the stories locations around London town are well described and really give the sense of Peter's familiarity with his surrounding area. I especially like the scenes taking place in The Chestnut Tree pub, a sort of Rivers of London version of The Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter.

The story this time sees us eventually discovering the identity of the Faceless Man, and involves lots of action sequences between familiar characters, principally around our magical cast trying to make an illicit bob out of selling important magical artifacts and texts, and everyone else trying desperately to be the first to get them.

Whilst not a lot new occurs here in terms of the wider story arc, and actually I felt I had a few blanks from not having yet read the graphic novels, it didn't really detract from the enjoyment of the thrilling story in this book. Sometimes series get to reliant on the underlying arc (looking at you Doctor Who!) so it's nice for this entry to give some meat to the encounters between characters that we already know of. For me, it just makes it feel more solid as a believable story.

So, whilst not groundbreaking, a definite must for fans of the series, and if you're not a fan of the series - go and become one!