Excursions is the first major, full-length album since 2015's 148. It was also C418's first non-Minecraft album to receive significant press coverage across sites such as Billboard, Fact, and Variety.
Official descriptions
This new project, Excursions, has been a trip down my own memory lane before Minecraft, when I aspired to create music I could hear on a commute to dance to. I’ve tried a few weird tricks for the entire record. For one, I’ve recorded the entire finished product through speakers to give it a roomy feel. Or, the mindset I’ve tried to have making each song. I started with "Beton" as my first song, and then tried to recreate this very song over and over again, but in different locations and with wildly different mood sets. Angry, sad or happy. Turns out that creates completely different songs.
Tracklist
Excursions
Cold Summer
Cold Summer
|
AKA
|
six
|
Length
|
8:10
|
Trivia
TXL
TXL
|
AKA
|
six, Txl
|
Length
|
2:18
|
Trivia
Tingle
Tingle
|
Length
|
6:40
|
Additional artist(s)
|
Kuabee
|
Trivia
- C418 collaborated with the musician Jukio Kallio on this track.
- The track is likely named after Jukio Kallio's dog, Tingle. [1]
Beton
I started with "Beton" as my first song, and then tried to recreate this very song over and over again, but in different locations and with wildly different mood sets. Angry, sad or happy. Turns out that creates completely different songs.
—C418, Billboard
Trivia
- The song was released as a single on 2018-07-19. This was the first single ever released by C418 to promote an album.
- The track is named after Bar Beton, a café in the Netherlands.
AMS
Trivia
Thunderbird
Whenever I obsess over a piece of music, I am out of commission for weeks until I decide that I am done. That doesn’t happen very often, but it did with "Thunderbird." I created it in a coffee shop in Austin, called, well, Thunderbird. They have fiber wire internet and that’s really useful if you compose 13 minute songs and have to wait and test listen for long stretches of times.
Trivia
- The track receives its name from the café it was created in, Thunderbird Coffee.[2]
- At over 13 minutes in length, Thunderbird is the longest track of Excursions.
- The song was released as a single on 2018-08-21.
Aviva
Figure 8
Trivia
- The title of this track may refer to Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors in Austin, fitting with how Beton and Thunderbird are also named after the cafés where they were made.
Fake Triplets
Fake Triplets
|
Length
|
8:02
|
Nest
Home
Trivia
- Home was originally the ending of the album until the tracklist was expanded to sixteen on release day.
ATX
Trivia
- ATX is the code for Atbasar Airport, but it more likely refers to Austin, one of the cities where Excursions was made.
- Along with Leak, The President is Dead, and Hope, this track was revealed on 2018-09-07, shortly before the album was released. These four tracks were not included in the accidental early release.
Leak
Trivia
- This track's title possibly refers to the version of the album that was accidentally released early. As Leak was not included in this version, it may be acknowledging that the extra four tracks are a bonus for those who waited for the official release.
The President is Dead
The President is Dead
|
AKA
|
The President Is Dead
|
Length
|
7:48
|
Hope
Album trivia
- The album artwork for Excursions features a similar pale yellow border to the Dief album cover, but the border is slightly thinner than Dief's, and is also a solid colour instead of having the noise the Dief cover does.
- C418 has alluded to there being more to Excursions than just the album. It is unknown if these hints were intended to refer to the four extra tracks revealed on release day, or if there is still something more to announce.
- The back of the CD release does not list Fake Triplets, ATX, Leak, The President is Dead, and Hope, so it is unknown if these tracks are included on it. C418 has also confirmed that the vinyl release, as with Minecraft - Volume Alpha, contains only a limited number of tracks due to capacity restrictions.
- Additionally, the back of the CD release notes that Excursions was created in the following cities:
- Berlin (Germany)
- TXL was named after the Berlin Tegel Airport.
- Chemnitz (Germany)
- Daniel Rosenfeld was born in Chemnitz in 1989, when it was under the name Karl-Marx-Stadt.
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Nest is possibly named after a bar in Amsterdam.
- Utrecht (Netherlands)
- Beton was named after Bar Beton at the station in Utrecht.
- Schiphol (Netherlands)
- AMS was named after the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
- Vinnytsia (Ukraine)
- The release of Beton as a single was first announced on Instagram while Daniel was visiting Vinnytsia for his brother's wedding. One of the buildings in the album artwork has also been identified as being from the city.
- Valetta (Malta)
- Lisbon (Portugal)
- Austin (USA)
- New York (USA)
- Los Angeles (USA)
- San Francisco (USA)
- Seattle (USA)
Prerelease
- On 2018-09-06, the day before Excursions released, C418 was interviewed on Bandcamp Daily for the first time.
- On 2018-07-12, an early version of the album was accidentally released to some platforms.
- While C418 had previously teased Excursions on Twitter as an upcoming non-Minecraft album, the first knowledge of it was when it was accidentally made available for preorder on Google Play Music on 2018-06-04, with a scheduled release date of 2018-07-13. The preorder was not officially acknowledged, and was removed after a few days. On 2018-07-12 the album was released on the same platforms, as well as Spotify. Later that day, C418 came onto the Discord server to confirm that the release was unintentional and that it would be removed shortly.
- The album was officially announced on 2018-07-19 with the release of Beton, with Daniel confirming the album's title, cover art, and the original twelve-song tracklist. The final release date was revealed to be 2018-09-07.
- On 2018-09-07, C418 revealed in a tweet that Excursions would be released with an additional four tracks, ATX, Leak, The President is Dead, and Hope. The Bandcamp listing was updated to sixteen tracks, and the album was released on most other platforms shortly afterwards. However, this release was listed separately to the original twelve-track version, which still displayed a release date of 2018-09-09.
Gallery
Promo images of the Excursions CD physical release
Promo image of the Excursions LP physical release