Everybody’s favorite elfin spaz-dancing rock n’ roll messiah Thom Yorke has ended the speculation over what new sonic concoction he was spinning on his turntable the other day by announcing a new solo album, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. And no, he’s not invading your iTunes without permission. In a letter co-authored with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Yorke explains that the album, which fans can download immediately for $6, will be distributed via torrent service BitTorrent in a bit of an experiment to see how the general public can handle the modern download designs. Read it below:
As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record.
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.
Oh yes and it’s called
Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.
Thom Yorke & Nigel Godrich
*
Listen to the album below!
Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes tracklist:
01 A Brain In A Bottle
02 Guess Again!
03 Interference
04 The Mother Lode
05 Truth Ray
06 There Is No Ice (For My Drink)
07 Pink Section
08 Nose Grows Some
In the meantime, Radiohead are still at work on a new album, and the internet is still at work making some supremely weird-ass Thom Yorke pics.
