Dylan Malik Orchard's Blog, page 28

Mambo Martian-o

Bit of a revision of my release schedule as vaguely hinted at here but I’m nonetheless glad to say that very soon I’ll be releasing a new (long) short story. It’s a little something I’ve been sitting on for a while and the original plan was to drip feed it through on this site, but as there are bigger projects coming which’ll be sampled here I figured I’d try something new.

So this story, at the moment still untitled, will be released exclusively on Amazon for the low low price of 99p. A bit of an experiment really but as I’m sure you’ll all agree I’m worth at least 40% of the price of a manky cup of coffee from Starbucks – right? And in this brave new world of Indie Publishing you’ve got to try anything short of black market organ trading and prostitution to get by. Hell, even they’re on the list of options should times get particularly hard.

Currently I’m doing the last edit, sorting some cover art for the ebook and doing the assorted mundane bits and pieces that make the whole process that much less joyful. A sample chapter will be coming in due course and I’m not going to say much until then beyond ‘Sci-Fi’ and ‘Strange’, which should be enough for anyone really. What I have done though is run up a little playlist, as is my habit, that I feel frames the story nicely. Plus I get to have a drink and listen to some good music while I line up the tracks, which is never a bad thing.

If you’re interested in knowing more about project ‘Strange and Sci-Fi’ be sure to sign up to the newsletter, follow me on Twitter, carve my name on your chest and sacrifice your first born to me. No American Express though.

And as a bit of a side note – we landed a very small thing on a very far away thing the other day. Humanity, what a species. My endless respect to those behind the Philae lander project and hello to the strange and terrifying life forms we’ve undoubtedly awoken on that comet.

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The Empty Riff

That same old empty riff

played out by a big band

in an empty chest

If Dean Martin’s there

he’ll need a drink

But better by far

if the lights just fade to black

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Grown Children

I’m tentative to write anything serious about war in any form but poetry more than most. There’s plenty of real War Poetry out there from people who have some actual idea of what that actually means and people like me have no more right to comment than politicians do with their sound-bites or armchair generals do when they indulge in cheap jingoism. But given the time of year I thought I’d make an attempt at ignoring my reservations and try to get something down. Although I do so fully aware of my ignorance and urge everyone to look to what’s been written by those with real understanding rather than paying attention to my, or anyone else’s, notions of something we haven’t experienced – and hopefully never will.

—

Johnny was a five year old

playing football in the yard

Ivan was a teenager

flirting badly, trying hard

Tariq was the nerdy kid

sitting lonely in the house

And Saeed was the sporting star

endless trophies still to count

But when the bullets hit them

shells exploding on the ground

the Generals smiled and called them men

sure to hold their ground

Flags were flown at half mast

from Boston to Baghdad

the children they had sent off

made them proud and made them sad

Politicians, they saluted

Passers-by all stopped to weep

Such brave young men they declared

may our kids all be like them

But while a child changes

and grows beyond the games

They weren’t the men we wanted

when they lost their chance to live

Because I still remember Johnny

playing football in the yard

Ivan chasing all the girls

trying far too hard

Tariq learning not to hurt

friends made in lonely times

And I still remember Saeed

always winning from the start

Because they were all still children

and at the final mark

the bullets that destroyed them

sent them nothing but the dark

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Icebergs

On my travels I’ve met many people, millionaires and bankrupts, junkies and dealers, the confusingly normal and the awe inspiringly odd. And all along, the one resounding trait, the one uniting human factor amongst them all? They didn’t write bloody poetry…

—

We’re not the icebergs we want to be

We’re cliffs in denial

Seen by all but ourselves

Ready to break

And only as hard as we are fragile

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The Climb

A routine interlude…

—

It wasn’t a climb out of hell, it was a climb into heaven. That was important to remember because there was no hell, just the climb and then heaven.

After all, look down, do you see hell? Fiery pits and damnation? Of course not. You see what you see in the mirror, a face. A normal, human face. With another beneath that one and another and another – all the way down just human faces. Right down to the bottom. But with nine billion on the climb who could see that far?

And above? Heaven. Obscured by the gently undulating buttocks of fellow climbers perhaps but always up there. The light was enough to see for anyone to know that. And, as an added bonus, even the most dismal of rear ends gained a certain beauty in that divine glow.

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Wha’gwanin’

After a long few weeks glacial progress is being made on two new books, sort of. I’m alternating between the two like an ADD toddler only with none of the focus or drive but out of chaos comes form. Sooner or later, probably.

The first is a full length novel on a Sci-Fi trip. Something which is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me given how easy it is to resort to happy clichés the second you give yourself access to a universe full of spaceships and the like. But also something which, if you like that sort of thing, is an enjoyable world to slip into. And hopefully I’m doing it without falling into too many of the trope filled traps. I do have a couple of related short stories which’ll emerge before that’s done though so keep an eye out for those.

Secondly I’m working on a series of shorts which are more likely to see the light of day this side of 2015 as I’m hoping to publish at least a few of them to this site in the not too distant future. They’re all focused on London, as most things are, and while I can think of absolutely nothing coherent to say about them without just posting them they’re probably more in the direction of Laikanist Times than Crashed America. Which is to say they leave me grinning and cackling like an idiot but may well make no sense to anybody else. As they filter out I’m going to start planning for a proper release which includes the bits that’ll be on the site as well as a whole load of extras, possibly with pictures for the short of attention.

Until then though both of my previous books are of course available and y’all would be doing me a big ass favour if you kept getting the word out about them. The more people read what I’ve already done, the quicker I am to do more.

Anyway, keep checking back for updates and there’ll be more on both projects soon.

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Cracks

There’s a reason why I don’t tend to write poetry but like drinking, smoking, leaving bills unread, forgetting to take the bins out, eating shitey food and never excercising I just can’t help myself no matter how bad the outcome.

—

The cracks are the wall

the bricks aren’t

Prison or castle the weather aged joints are what we mould to

Then when it falls the pattern stays

and so do we.

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Loki – G.I.M.P. (Government Issue Music Protest)

I remember hearing Loki a couple of years back when I was first digging into the Scottish Hip Hop scene. I liked him the and I like him now, so it’s good to see that his upcoming album already seems to be getting a lot of much deserved love. There’s been solid praise from those stopped clock (still right twice a day despite being generally useless) pricks at Vice as well as the likes of NME. Good times and hopefully a sign of a long overdue expansion of the Scottish scene south of Hadrian’s Wall.

Only had a quick listen to the album so far but it’s enough to keep me listening and past form suggests good things. Personal honesty and proud (and realistic) Socialist politics too so far, without straying into beard stroking ‘conscious’ Hip Hop or smug pontification – always good to see.

G.I.M.P. – Government Issue Music Protest by Loki with Becci Wallace

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Hieroglyphics – Heebie Jeebies

I must have been off daydreaming about space dogs or something but apparently I missed a whole new Hieroglyphics album last year. I’m catching up now though and not only was there an album but there are two new tracks coming out featuring the entire crew, which The Kitchen apparently didn’t. And the first of the two, Heebie Jeebies, only just appeared today.

True to the name there’s an air of ‘evil clown with a knife’ menace to the production and as someone who couldn’t give a toss about Halloween this has provided a fitting bit of token seasonal spirit. No mention that I can find of these two being part of a bigger project but who knows? After Deltron II though the promise of more Del is all I ask.

 

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Gone Archivin’

Over the years I’ve run a fair few sites, mostly about free and Creative Commons licensed music but I’ve never been too fussy about straying from the theme. At various points a fair bit of work has gone into finding and reviewing good, independently released music from some very talented people. And while my focus these days is pretty much exclusively on my own work I thought it would be a good idea to keep those archives up here for posterity, especially as quite a lot of the music covered disappeared with far less attention than it deserved.

As a lot of this stuff has been transfered across more than one site there’s every chance that links will be broken, information outdated and images lost. One day I’ll try to fix all of that but today certainly isn’t that day. If you’re an artist or happen to know any updated info though don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll fix what I can. And the same goes for new releases from people or labels I’ve previously covered, I may not review any more but I’m always happy to share good new stuff where I can.

You can explore the backlog under the Archive tab on the main menu.

The Creative UnCommons – Logo design by Allan King

Compilation from the later defunct Net Label Coalition – Click image for download

Not shown: Beat Lizard, AnotherGoddamnMusicBlog

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