Year End Review (Sort of)

So this year was an interesting one from a musical stand point. I released 3 EP's an Album, a mix and also collaborated with a few different people hopefully those will be out soon! This post will catalog everything that was released in the past 12 months from oldest to newest.


1. Lonely - This track was technically released last year on the "These Days" EP which can only be obtained  by donating £3 or more for "Until The End". However I made one track from that project out of the 7 available for public streaming via Youtube and Soundcloud early 2016. Some of you might find it interesting that this track was the original ending to "Until The End", then it was a bonus track, then I decided it fit to well into the whole vibe of the EP.



2. A Journey To Anywhere Part 1 - Part 1 in what was supposed to be a 3 part series, A Journey To Anywhere was a failed idea. It wasnt failed because of the label or anything like that I want to stress that I had nothing but support shown to me during this project from the people involved. However why this project failed was due to myself and a lack of awareness I feel. I think my ambition was a little to much with the core idea of what this project was suppose to represent. That being a mini series of EP's filled with random experiments and different sounding music to my main projects. However what ended up happening was that I put pressure on myself to make music for this project so not only did it delay my in the works album at the time "Growing From The Concrete" it also just ended up being demos, and unreleased music most of which wasn't really finished. Combine that with the eventual closure of the label and you can start to see why I never put out a Part 3.




3. A Journey To Anywhere Part 2 - Personally speaking this is my favorite out of the 2 and featured music that I feel was a little more fleshed out compared to the first. It also contained a really early look at music from "Growing From The Concrete", most tracks that were played here didn't make it onto the final cut of the album when it released in September.



4. Looking Back Once More - The first single/pre release track from Growing From The Concrete and honestly my most successful track to date with various plays on national radio and a ton of support and plays on Soundcloud. I cant thank everyone enough and im happy that people really enjoyed this one as much as I did making the track. But because this track did so well I really struggled to pick a 2nd single for the album that would match in popularity and also represent the sound of the project well. This track can also be downloaded separately from the album here.



5. Vibe EP - Containing the 2nd pre release track from the album, this EP also contained a first for me, an actual collaboration with a song writer/rapper. This EP will always be remembered by me just due to the problems that were occurring on Soundcloud when I was trying to release this.



6. Growing From The Concrete - Probably my most ambitious project to date, this album was a very personal project to me in not only how it starts versus how it ends but because it was made over a year on and off. A lot can happen within a year and honestly I let that guide the music and concept that went into this project. The album also contained proper featured artists and a mini script that I put together for the way the tracks thread into one another and also for the ending "Phone Call 2 (Full Story) played out. Im really happy that people enjoyed this project, ive not really heard anything negative about it other than it might be a bit long at over an hour but honestly its made me so happy to see the work pay off in that respect. Hopefully this holds people over for a while as this might be the last full length project for a little while as im concentrating on EP's and working with other people.



7. The Long Way Home - The last track on the album, "The Long Way Home" was one of the first tracks that I started working on for the album. It took almost a year to figure out how to end this track as it splits into two different sections on this version (the album version has 3). Huge thank you to Belly Full Of Stars for making this one possible and also for uploading it on her page so people could stream it there. Also big thank you to Alexander Ocho for helping me finish some of the music on this one, it originally sounded completely different on the 2nd section, maybe ill release that version in the future.




8. Cloud 9 Series 11: L.D.C.N Mix - Big thank you to behind clouds for giving this one a home, very few people know this but this was a shorter version of a mix I did back in 2014 which was sent out to only a small handful of people. Then in 2015 it was updated but was never released, then in 2016 I get a message asking if I wanted to contribute a mix and I thought finally this has a home. Other plans for this mix included releasing it on YouTube during the summer last year and also this year, but again it never happened. Hope you enjoy this mix even if it was more summer orientated rather than with Winter in mind.




Big thank you to everyone who listened/downloaded my music this year, also a big thank you to any blogs that featured me and also to radio stations for having me on/interviewing me. A big thank you in general for the support really and to you for reading this far! 

- L.D.C.N 

Retrospective: Strange Minds - Euphoria EP (Released 24th of July 2013)

A look back on the making of, why the series was canned and why it took so long to release it.

Strange Minds was an awkward project for me, on the one hand it was a test to see if I could successfully make a working project, that being one that flowed from each track to another in an interesting way or one that just naturally sounded good flow wise. It was also a test to help me learn music making software at the time that being Cubase and FL Studio. On the other hand however, it was complicated, was it more of a demo of personal work to never be played to anyone ever? Or was it to be released fully as a debut project. Of course we know the outcome to this and for those that don't, it was released. Look here it is - link - But the fact is it was never as simple as that and the project was in fact finished many months before hand. So why did I sit on its impending release for too long?

Wanting to be different

Many don't know but I in fact have other plans and ideas that relate to music that aren't L.D.C.N. While I wont ever reveal them officially yet to everyone, I will however give anyone who guesses what L.D.C.N stands for some info. Anyway, the fact is I wanted everything under one name, to be known for doing all sorts under one alias but this of course wouldn't work out too well unless I just stay a hobbyist as they are known. I looked at examples, take Mac Miller, a name that im sure not many will know who read this but anyway, hes a rapper, producer and just generally a creative type. Mac works under various names that can be all tracked back to "Mac Miller". Larry Fisherman his production name was set up to divide his work, under that name he makes beats and strange sounding instrumentals. And that's the thing people expect that from that name, Mac does the rapping/singing, Larry does the production its what people expect. 

Learning that, I decided that I would make all my ambient and other production stuff under L.D.C.N and the other music under another name. This just makes it easier for people to find what they like and stick with it. Only a few people who I listen to make everything and anything under one name and that's fine but I fear in today's industry that just wouldn't work out so well for me. 

Awkward Development 

Starting work back in late 2012, I remember having just one maybe two tracks that sounded okay and thinking yea ill make a project, why the hell not? Those tracks where "Looking into the Light of Nature" and another that was unreleased.


These tracks were okay but I was particularly fond of Light of Nature and that gave me confidence, something that I find hard these days to express it seems. From there I simply just started work on making random ambient style tracks in my free time during college hours. Over the course of about 3 months it was pretty much finished, I aimed for 8 tracks and made 8, they all had a particular sound and also included some odd track names. The naming process was literally me just playing back the tracks and thinking to myself "what does this remind me of?" I just wish I could have re named "Is there something else" I just feel like its a dumb name for an ambient song personally. Out of the 8 tracks featured 2 were made at home and the rest at college and mostly when I had headaches so perhaps they were like therapy or something, they did help though to my surprise so I kept making them, and no that doesn't mean I can thank headaches for my music just a coincidence I guess.


The Series that never was

"Look for more "Strange Minds" coming soon such as "Echoes of silence" and "project SPACE" as its a series id like to add to more in the future."  - Taken from the Bandcamp description for the EP. (Soon to be changed) 

I had some plans for the series but it just never would have worked the way I would have wanted. The problem being that id have to link each series together and after a while the name just got boring. Strange Minds was supposed to demonstrate how weird I am as a person so to speak, to have EP's that sounded all different but had an underlying theme which would be brought out in their respective titles. This was axed though and I feel that since this my music has been sounding better and coming together more naturally, being free to create own individual projects instead of doing one sequel after the other. I was planning to perhaps return and do a Strange Minds - Euphoria 2 for its one year anniversary, the track "Strange Minds" from my Album "Away From Here" was supposed to be the debut track from it too. But instead it just sat in Away From Here's tracklist.

And that was a retrospective type thing on my first ever project under L.D.C.N hope you liked it. Be sure to check out the links below to keep updated.

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Bandcamp