Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

greer do you think it would be a crazy dystopian alternate universe future if, in two years from now, it was possible to record a horrible ukelele album, right click on the 64kbps files you made of it & choose compress to paywalled .torrent file, uploading it for people to choose not to buy online, y/n

i guess none of you bought it? (i did, for an assignment.) payment goes through paypal.

that's fair. probably not desperate to go slinging by card details around there either. but a lot of this feels like Problems With Being Alive Now more than it does flaws in this terrible scheme. like doesn't Home Depot periodically haemorrhage card info under pressure? maybe it is shitty & nobody should buy it but I don't think exploring new options in clumsy inchoate forms isn't worthwhile.

confirmation of libertarian overlord ^^ xp

"They got it into their heads ... they had to be first, because of who they are."

The feeling was mutual. "We really, really wanted them to be first, because of who they are."

"Nigel, do you realize who we are??"

first listen, i think it's pretty good. some of the tracks near the end reminded me of tago mago's bullshit tracks.

xxxp what would be the bigger problems musicians are facing these days? i am not a musician and i'd be interested to hear about it.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, September 26, 2014 12:32 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know there are other threads about it, but let's see, people would rather stream for free via Youtube or a subscription service and those are not paying much to artists, general signal-to-noise ratio increasing, hype cycle is crazy, touring is expected to replace selling recordings for professional musicians but that's getting increasingly expensive and hard to do on a dues-paying level. seems like licensing is the only really decent source of money, if you can get it? idk.

i would considering paying, but not for some bittorrent shit. still waiting for mbv to show up on itunes too

marillion did this like 5 years ago (released an album on bittorrent).

payment goes through paypal

LOL

oh yeah, doesn't paypal take a percentage (on one end or the other) anyway? haha.

i wish he would have done bandcamp just to convince more big artists to go through bandcamp because that site rules as far as i'm concerned both as someone who's used it to put out music and someone who's used it to buy music and someone who's used it to stream music

Well, having now heard one track from it ( http://vimeo.com/107265790 ) I'm relieved that it's not as terrible as AfP (though granted that's not that much of an ask).

It's kinda frustrating, because based on that, I think I probably would like to hear more. But not if this is the only way of accessing it, no.

There are tracks all over Tumblr now, so I guess it's a question of rounding them up. I would still prefer to, y'know, buy a CD in a shop like the fucking luddite freak that I am, i guess.

agree to the bandcamp thing.

Atoms for Peace wasn't particularly memorable melody-wise but it's a very rich and distinctive-sounding album imo. i wish King of Limbs had sounded that good, instead of sorta muddy and thin.

3x to Bandcamp.

4th to BC

Found an album stream on Tumblr and I'm about three songs in.

And it's pleasant yeah, in the way that pretty much anything that has Thom Yorke singing over the top of it sounds lovely, even kinda boring garageband electronica. But really, if this were the same garageband electronica with anyone else singing over the top of it (and really, there's no effort at all to integrate the voice into the sonic landscape, like I've been listening the past few weeks to FKA Twigs and Aphex Twin, and c'mon, the ways in which talented producers can wend vocals into the music, try a little harder, y'know?) I don't know that I'd be persisting.

I keep waiting for it to really grab me and lift me above a duty listen...? Maybe this next song will?

Kinda realising now, how much of Radiohead is about the rhythm section for me. And the difference between Thom Yorke singing over the tightest rhythm section in the world vs TY singing over garageband electronica is really quite noticeable.

OK, the 4th track (The Mother Lode?) is quite pretty and spacey and floaty and wibbles on nicely.

I also like There Is No Ice (for my drink), I think.

it's on Youtube now

Is it monetised?

it's sequestered in a gated community run by gangsters

xp (because if it is and Yorke isn't getting a cut, irony)

Soundcloud/Tumblr is still better sound quality for lower bandwidth...

Thing is, it's something that, if I were still ~obsessed~ with Thom Yorke, I would probably put the time into listening to deeply, and getting acquainted with and getting super obsessed with the tiny sounds or the lyrics or something. But I'm just so irritated by the whole rigamarole surrounding it that I'm not going to put the effort or the listens in.

You know, I'll come back to it in 6 months or whatever when they decide to do a normal release, and then I'll come round to it, I guess.

Is it monetised?

pop-up ads. i'm sure he'll get a cut, even if someone else uploaded it.

i guess bandcamp does take a much greater percentage than paypal, but still.

xp Well he can contact YouTube, and they'll redirect all monies earned to him. Just like Nintendo do.

There's the 10% cut that Bittorrent is taking, too: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/09/26/bittorrent-adds-paygate-feature-direct-fan-publishing-platform-bundle-takes-10-cut/

It's interesting, kinda, that I've heard so much about the monetisation and the percentage splits, and so little about the music. (Well, not really interesting, but still, telling.)

OH GOD I HAVE BECOME A HATER. BAN ME FROM THIS THREAD, BAN ME FROM LIFE.

bit torrent isn't rigmarole. it's simple and effective, it doesn't exclude anybody and it isn't associated with deep unpleasantness. the idea of feeling revulsion at something so simple is weird.

Wow, and here comes a man to explain why my emotions are wrong, time to remove the bookmark from the thread and go to bed. Thanks! Goodnight.

here comes another man to explain why your emotions are wrong. oh fuck you're already in bed.

sooooo, i like the warbly, old-cassette piano some of these tracks.

and wow 'Truth Ray'

I don't get the ridiculous track names but Mother Lode might be one of the best solo tracks he has ever released. The whole thing is pretty enjoyable... liking it better than Amok on first listen.

Ok end of the first listen. Highlights for me are: Mother Lode, Truth Ray and Nose Grows Some.

The vocal melodies to some tracks sound like they were quickly improvised over the electronic tracks, they're not very characteristic, but then, I guess they don't have to be.
The electronic production is Thom's best and most interesting yet. Makes his previous efforts sound amateurish there's some great rhythmic stuff going on... it sounds like he is emulating his influences (FlyLo, Burial, Modeselektor, Apparat) with varying degrees of success. It took him three albums but it seems like he has finally achieved the electronic sound he was after.

It seems some of you are too concentrated on the torrent aspect and haven't listened to the thing yet so here's a stream in soundcloud if you guys want to take a listen without paying:

https://soundcloud.com/tyrh/sets/tmb

hey if people are more interested in an artist's self-hyping about innovative content distribution than the artist's work, blame the artist

tell HIM "it's about the music, man"

fripp/dmglive has been releasing all of the cleaned up bootlegs and some studio things via bittorrent for ages. (but not any of the KC re-releases as, probably, they know the fans will pay a premium for the physical object). in any case, it's hardly an earth shattering model.

wouldn't be the first time someone told him robert fripp beat him to the punch

Really? It doesn't seem to me like self-hyping. Unexpected releases available for immediate download are becoming a standard distribution method. None of you are cool for not being impressed; it's not supposed to be impressive in the first place. You are assuming it's a gimmick because this is Thom Yorke.

i take it you didn't read the press release

what part of this sounds to you like someone who thinks they're using a standard distribution method and that you shouldn't be impressed

http://blog.bittorrent.com/2014/09/26/tomorrows-modern-boxes/

or the quotes above from the bittorrent exec about how excited thom and co were about being "first"

i read it as 'hey we thought maybe that was good idea let's try this' more than 'hey i'm changing the music industry my name is thom yorke'

and there is exactly one sentence about the music. point remains that if people are chattering about bittorrent, that's clearly on thom.

Ok, I'll pick the bait:

They are indeed the first to charge for a torrent file are they not?

What do I feel about the distribution method? Reading about his stances on itunes, spotify and his previous experience with big record labels I feel like Thom is honestly trying to legitimize a better means of music distribution, more than the idea of being 'I was there first'.BitTorrent is seen only as an illegal download method. This kind of move by Yorke is trying to show future artists that they don't need itunes etc. It is truly not about the money with this guy. He just seems to have a personal war against the current consumption of music and is using his fame to explore these paths.

Of course, having money helps not caring about the money. Thom is one of those artists that could put out an album inside a jelly donut and people would buy it, so he can use whatever method he wants. For the rest of the artists, you probably need to use ALL the methods simultaneously.

fyi i'm with thom on the fact that the record industry sucks, streaming is a joke for artists, etc etc etc. i just think putting up a "for sale" sign in the middle of a place built off swapped stolen goods is a joke, and if he's not getting anything for all the publicity he's giving bittorrent inc, he's a fool.