After a week of teasing fans with pictures on social media, Thom Yorke officially released his blippy new solo album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes. Yorke released the album using a new version of Bit Torrent as an experiment:
"The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files. The files can be anything, but in this case is an 'album'. It's an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around.
If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work. Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves. Bypassing the self elected gate-keepers.
If it works anyone can do this exactly as we have done.
The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or 'cloud' malarkey. It's a self-contained embeddable shop front. The network not only carries the traffic, it also hosts the file. The file is in the network."
Purchase Tomorrow's Modern Boxes as a Bit Torrent bundle here. A deluxe vinyl version of the album pressed on 180 gram white vinyl is also available to order here. The vinyl is pricey (50 dollars U.S.), but comes with a download code (mp3/flac/wav) and is a thing of beauty:
"A record born of silver darkness, pressed onto heavyweight 180g white vinyl completed with undersize 75mm centre labels, housed within heavy white board inner and outer sleeves. These are printed with a metallic silver laminate then multi-tone black and a striking neon green; the whole is enclosed in a bespoke anti-static shield bag - a metallised laminated material usually used by the electronics industry for protecting components from electrostatic interference. The bag is printed with neon green on both sides, and has a resealable grip closure."
Stream the album's first track "a brain in a bottle" plus grab a free download of the song and video here (click link then scroll down the page to the "free" section).
Published September 27th, 2014 @ 4:50 PM