Danger Mouse, who did a mash-up of The White Album (The Beatles) and The Black Album (Jay Z); titled The Grey Album. Which did stir up some controversy, and even some electronic civil disobedience when people where protesting against EMIs attempts at stopping the distribution of the album. Arguing that sampling should be considered fair use.
The latest album is called Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul. A dark multi layered production featuring lots of artists. It’ll be released as the album+photobook with photographs by David Lynch (limited edition, 5000 made) and a poster. Alternatively you can the CD + poster at a lower price (10USD vs. 50USD).
There’s just one detail. The CD is blank. Blank as in nothing on it, it’s just like a regular CD-R. The explanation is in this press release from Dangermouse.
Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.
The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’
Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.
Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.
In other words. Buy the album and head off to your favourite torrent tracker, music blog etc. to grab the audio files.
The album can be streamed at “>NPR. Well worth a listen. The album can be pre-ordered at the official site.