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Friday 23 December 2016

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 

Saturday 26 November 2016

Updates and Plans Moving Forward

Why So Quiet

Okay, I know this is a long time coming but there is a few reasons for this. The first being the issue that you may have seen me tweet about a few times, if not below are some examples:


This problem which really got me down a fair bit and honestly had me stuck at one point was that one of the modules we have to take was planning on making all of us do a PledgeMusic campaign. Why is that such a problem you may ask, well ill explain briefly.

One problem that immediately struck me was that im not a huge fan of the platform personally. This being the Kickstarter or Indigogo type of method in which you put an idea out to the world and promise a product in return, or you simply make what you want yourself and promise a load of merch instead for rewards etc. Think Dragons Den essentially but without having five or so very wealthy business people stare you down and evaluate your idea. Instead these web platforms allow you to ask for the money from anyone who clicks on the project. It sounds cool and I like some of the stuff ive seen on there myself although ive not backed anything myself.

Why do I have an issue with it then? The issue is that I dont have a compelling idea currently to really put out there and ask you for money simply put. I was thinking of doing some re release work for older projects and also the newest one "Growing From The Concrete" and prints of artwork that was done for that project. Maybe I can be swayed into doing such a thing but I am working on something to remedy that as I know some people have been asking for Vinyls etc. But I was told that was a no go, then it was fine, now im not sure.

Picture from the PDF booklet of "Growing From The Concrete" Drawn by Lauren Speirs

Another issue with this was that the course was going to get me to start up my own label of which I am essentially already that and have connections if I wish to release on iTunes and other platforms but more on that later. Along with this I was really worried about the actual quality of the music. Most of you who are reading this know that I like to take time and really work on making it as good as possible to really sit with it day and night almost. This is something that along with doing academic work would not be 100 percent possible I feel and I could be wrong but if im going to release something or promise to you and have you pre-order then I want it to be the best it can be. I felt that managing the pledge campaign and other assignments might have taken away from this.

The second reason is mainly ive not been feeling too great about nearly everything it seems. Im always feeling that im not really doing good enough and I manage to get down about everything I make which in turn halts some progress on new material as I try and figure out what to do next.

I have this annoying habit of going a bit quiet after a release I did the same with Until The End and it seems its happened this time around aswell. I feel like the artists I watch, they put out an album then go on a massive tour so their Twitter feed goes quiet or limited at least for a bit its really odd because im not that guy well not currently, would be good though. I also worry about posting way to many links, like I want to get the work out there as much as possible but I can sense sometimes its a bit much which I guess I shouldn't care about but im way to honest about this I suppose.I want to give you me and also the links too at the same time so I suppose I need to mix it up a bit better perhaps.

Thinking of how exactly to approach the future is also a tricky one a I like to plan a structure to follow. Now I will say that despite these issues I have been planning for the new year, Im nearly always planning or coming up with concepts and ideas. 

New EP

For 2017 I am planning on releasing a new EP which will be the first to be released (hopefully) on iTunes and generally for sale as everything ive put out thus far has been for free or name your price. The reason for that other than sampling is that I believed them to be more Mixtape quality (if your a hip hop fan the comparison makes a little more sense). 

Im planning on around 6-8 tracks for the EP, ive already got a core concept and idea to approach musically and creatively. I am afraid however to say this may take a while to come out as im exploring other ideas alongside this but we shall see.  

Other Projects/L.D.C.N Collaborations 

In addition to this EP im also thinking of releasing some unreleased material as I had alot of demos for the last project that didn't end up getting used plus early versions of tracks that sound very different to their finished counterparts. 

Also ive been doing a few bits of work for other people since the release of "Growing From Concrete" including some mixing work, remixes and proper collaborations with other artists. These have been a change of pace and have been having some fun so ill most likely continue doing some work like this, however when they are released is down to the person im working with if they have a release planned etc. 

Some of you know that I also have dabbled in song writing and that's something ive really been itching to pick up again and work fully on instead of just having it off to the side. That's going to be a main focus in the new year unless something changes. 

Thank you for reading this far in, I appreciate you. 
Until next time.


- L.D.C.N

Sunday 11 September 2016

Growing From The Concrete

Growing From The Concrete Coming September 18th


The 3rd full length project by L.D.C.N titled "Growing From The Concrete" is finally around the corner and will be releasing in a weeks time. Check out the cover art below, the tracklist as well as the tracks that have been released from the album thus far. 

It was a long journey filled with alot of different emotions and events some of which prevented me from working on this project for a while. The digital booklet the album comes with dives a little deeper into what they were. 

I hope the wait will be worth it.



   

  Tracklist: 

1. Awake
2. 95
3. The Drive
4. City Lights
5. Vibe
6. Dusty
7. Youth
8. The Garden (ft. Engine Farm)
9. Sunset
10. Another Night
11. Life Is Strange 
12. Today
13. Looking Back Once More
14. One Last Moment 
15. The Long Way Home (ft. BFOS)

Total Length: 1:04:43


Monday 15 February 2016

A Journey To Anywhere: An In Depth Look/Album Update (Feb)

                                        Artwork created by 3dtorus





Whats the project about?

A Journey To Anywhere is in essence just that, a trip to the unknown. There is no structure to the project as a whole and no narrative here like I have conveyed in past projects. Instead this series of mini EPs will be comprised of material that either didn't make the cut of previous projects or tracks that I worked on but don't fit the overall sound or vibe of my next project "Growing From The Concrete". The series of EPs will then be collected into an entire albums worth of material later this year with some bonus tracks as well. I want to thank 3dtorus for making this possible. 

Approach to the project

For these new tracks like in part 1 they will mainly be synth based as ive been experimenting more with that lately just to keep things different and refreshing. Of course since im known for more of a sample based approach I may put some tracks in there that are mainly sampled based but my main thing for this is to showcase a different style while still keeping the L.D.C.N approach to production. I think the overall synth based approach for me has just grown from making my own tracks without samples in general, alot of people on twitter who follow me make their own synths or experiment a ton and its just been a challenge I want to set myself and see where it goes. 


Since most of the tracks here are experiments and also full tracks that wont be on my next project they wont really have a cohesive element like my previous work has. They will be ordered somewhat decently when it comes to them being put into a the full volume collection later this year to highlight the changes. But for now we shall see as they are just being developed as separate EPs. 

Update/Plans for the year

Overall for this year I want to finish off "Growing From The Concrete" and of course finish this project. Im not sure on dates for either yet so just watch this space ive had a lot of work come up lately and its hard to get to work on music but im devoting some time for it soon and shall be working hard during the time I do get. Expect the album out this summer and maybe this series finished during the winter months (December for example). But that may change. When the albums finished im planning to spend summer hopefully getting interviews/reviews and generally promoting the project as ill have a ton of free time as University will be done for a while and that takes up 90 percent of my time it seems. 

Thats just a brief overview anyway but look out for "Growing From The Concrete" this summer and another part of "A journey to Anywhere" soon.


L.D.C.N Links: 

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

Twitter

Youtube 

Facebook Page


Mobuis Spin links: 

Bandcamp

Twitter 

website

Soundcloud

Hear Part 1 of "A Journey To Anywhere" below: