Some writing music: Part 108

Hey there inmates!

How’s your week going so far? Got over your Halloween blues? I for one am missing it terribly. I had an amazing weekend with some equally amazing friends and I’ll remember it for a while. I hope that all of your weekends were as joyous. I’m still not feeling completely 100% as this week has ground on, but I’m surviving. It’s allowed me plenty of time to think about writing subjects unimpeded. I hope that has shown through the poems this week.

As for todays post though, it’s time for the Harlequins writing music once again. I posted a clue for the theme over on my social media earlier on today. Did any of you see it? If not, I sincerely hope that you’ll consider following me over on those sites too. There’ll be links at the end of the post. Anyways, todays musical theme is machinery!

Yep, that manmade marvel that makes the human world go round! It is part of all of our lives, I’d say almost as much as more “techy” pieces of apparatus. Shifting gears, winding cogs and pistons. They aren’t seen as often, but are always working behind the scenes. In our automobiles, our elevators, our bridges. Musically, the magic of machines has inspired all sorts, even a genre or two. Ever heard of Steampunk or Dieselpunk for example? The rhythmic drum of engines, combined with mathematics and industry can inspire musical structure, as well as musical subject matter. Let’s see if I can demonstrate what I mean…

Join me as we delve into the musical minds of industrious artists the world over!

Fear Factory – Linchpin
https://fearfactory.com/

Battles – Atlas
https://www.bttls.com/

Daft Punk – Robot Rock
https://daftpunk.com/

Steam Powered Giraffe – Brass Goggles
https://steampoweredgiraffe.com/

Wintergatan – Marble Machine
https://wintergatan.net/

And there we have it once again! Let me know how much you enjoy these choices, or if you didn’t as well of course! I think I managed to get a pretty varied selection this week, while keeping fairly tightly to the theme. What do you think? Oh also, be sure to check out all of these artists if you get a chance, they all deserve the attention!

Speaking of attention, I mentioned social media earlier. The asylum has a page over on Facebook of course, an account on Instagram and a page over on Twitter. Please consider following me over on those pages too, it really helps me out. Also, if you really enjoy what I do here at the asylum, please consider supporting me over on the Ko-Fi page. Thanks for everything!

Until next week, have a very crazy day inmates!

Gatling

This battle has ground on too long,
Our leaden provisions are loaded,
A thousand metal hailstones,
Placed carefully into our artifice of death,
Our own mouth of hell,

The power I have at hand is grimly palpable,
I need only turn this crank,
And hundreds of lives will end in gore,
Rotate sight and fire,
They told me there was honour in battle,

The order is given,
It’s us or them,
Rotate sight and fire,
Our engine of death rattles in rage,
Cutting down uniforms like chaff,

Despite the hellfire,
I feel cold,
There is no honour in this,
Warfare has become manufacture,
Rotate sight and fire.

Android

I read of a callous man,
Who sought to be more than a man,
He began welding and fixing all sorts of changes,
Supercomputer intellect and mechanised physicality,
Steel replacing sinew,

Changes had to made,
These bloody organs had to go,
Their expiry was too impending,
First his heart torn out,
Feelings and all,

Humanity twisting into electricity,
His family values and dynasty melted down,
To become ore for his new frame,
Friendships thrown in the furnace,
His love for life became science fiction,

He slept in an old junkyard in the city,
He dreamed in binary,
Putting two and two together and getting seven,
Conclusions made in angst,
Errors in code,

True he is now more than a man,
Now he’s just man-made,
Now he is just metal,
Now he’s just a ghost in the machine,
Lost to data.