Thom Yorke releases new record ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’

Thom Yorke has released a new record called ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’ via a new BitTorrent client.

An email - addressed from Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich - explained the process, stating that the record is available via a new network that hosts the record’s files.

The album is on sale now here, priced from $6. Those who purchase the files can immediately access a stream of the record (below), and the ‘A Brain In A Bottle’ video is viewable below.

‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’ is being made available on *that* white vinyl - it’s being “printed with a metallic silver laminate then multi-tone black and a striking neon green; the whole is enclosed in a bespoke anti-static shield bag - a metallised laminated material usually used by the electronics industry for protecting components from electrostatic interference. The bag is printed with neon green on both sides, and has a resealable grip closure.” It’s available here.

Earlier this week Thom Yorke posted an image of a mysterious ‘white label’, hinting at new material.

He subsequently confirmed that Radiohead had begun work on a new album and were currently in the studio.

The email in full reads:

“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”