Download It Yourself

One of the most anticipated albums this year, Dark Night of the Soul, was to be producer Danger Mouse’s finest hour, boasting collaborations with experimental rockers Sparklehorse and filmmaker David Lynch amongst other stars of the left field. Then suddenly, EMI Music blocked the release of the album due to a contractual dispute. Boo! So instead of letting the major label bully him, Danger Mouse (who made his name producing the widely bootlegged The Grey Album) will be selling his album as a blank CD-R! What kinda David Blaine mind-trick is this, you ask?

For starters, the album will be “released” as a blank recordable CD with a note encouraging fans to download it from an illegal filesharing network. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul features guest spots from the Flaming Lips, the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega, the Pixies’ Frank Black, the Shins’ James Mercer and a handful of others. Fans are encouraged to buy the project’s accompanying book, with photographs by filmmaker David Lynch as a visual narrative, which comes with a blank recordable CD-R.

“All [CD-Rs] will be clearly labelled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will,'” the album’s website states. The limited-edition book and CD-R cost US$50. Fans can also choose to buy a poster and CD-R for just US$10.

More power to the man! Danger Mouse (who is also one half of chart topping act Gnarls Barkley) according to his website, “hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.”

All orders will ship starting 29 May 2009. But the album is expected to start “leaking” online as early as 7 May.