creative deconstruction

Danger Mouse Releases ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ As Blank CD-R

Posted on 16. May, 2009 by refe in NEWS

Danger Mouse – real name Brian Burton – was a relative unknown until he produced the Grey Album, which took the vocal tracks of Jay-Z’s a capella Black Album and laid them over beats that he created using samples of the Beatles’ White Album. The Grey Album couldn’t be sold commercially, but quickly spread across the internet and was called the ‘ultimate remix album’ by Rolling Stones. Since then he has produced and contributed to albums by Beck, Black Eyed Peas, The Rapture and Sparklehorse among others, and is one half of duo Gnarles Barkley.

Burton has become infamous in many circles due to his apparent disregard for copyright law. Not only did the Grey Album take advantage of 100% copyrighted material (without permission) he and graffiti artist Banksy also once replaced 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s album Paris with their own special version which contained altered artwork and and a forty minute oringinal song featuring sound bites of various Paris Hilton quotes. I’m sure Paris was thrilled.

Well, Burton is being dogged by legal troubles again. In collaboration with Sparklehorse and David Lynch, Burton’s Danger Mouse will be releasing a new album called Dark Night of the Soul. The album features contributions from the Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, the Strokes, the Shins, and Black Francis, and is accompanied by a 100+ page book of photographs by Lynch. You can find it on sale here. And if you do click that link and purchase the album, you will likely notice that there is something else unique about this album. There is no music.

That’s right – due to an ongoing copyright dispute with record label EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release Dark Night of the Soul  for fear of legal action. So instead, Burton decided release the album, the packaging and the extensive book of photos along with a blank recordable CD-R labeled with the album’s title in black permanent marker. The inclusion of a blank recordable CD-R carries some pretty clear implications, but if subtly isn’t your thing the artists’ intentions are spelled out pretty clearly in a recent press release:

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.

 It’s not exatly clear why Dark Night of the Soul would earn a lawsuit, but Danger Mouse and EMI have been at odds since the Grey Album. The move is getting a lot of attention because Danger Mouse is obviously encouraging fans to get their hands on the music “by whatever means,” yet there is at this point no way to download the album legally. Moral dillema aside, I can’t imagine that this will play well with EMI. In the meantime, you can check out the album at the NPR website where they are streaming it for free.

All that being said, I can’t help but wonder if this whole thing is one big publicity stunt. If you read the article alongside the free stream at NPR.org, you’ll see that Danger Mouse and co. have gone to great lengths to create an air of mystery around this album:

It all started back in March, at the South by Southwest music festival and conference. A number of us on the NPR Music team had noticed strange posters around downtown Austin, Texas, that read “Dark Night of the Soul.” They looked like movie posters and had David Lynch’s name on them, alongside names of some of our favorite artists, like Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, Vic Chesnutt, Jason Lytle and more. We wondered if it was some sort of musical film.

Soon after our Austin trip, NPR Music received copies of the mysterious posters in the mail. No return address. Someone was messing with us. I tried to find out more, but had zero success.

So you can see why I might be a little bit skeptical of the whole situation. Either way, Dark Night has already created a frenzy among the artists’ fans and throughout the ranks of the anti-copyright crowd, and EMI is again largely to thank.

Tags: bands, copyright, emi, intellectual property, music