The bad news? The collaborative
Dark Night of the Soul project - a three way between Gnarls Barkley main guy Danger Mouse, the ever underrated Mark Linkous' Sparklehorse and David Lynch (David Lynch) - has been shelved. The good news? Just download it.
Seeds of the superstar project first came to light in a 2006 Pitchfork interview with Sparklehorses' Mark Linkous regarding the state of his affairs. Danger Mouse had produced some of the tracks for his then latest CD
Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, and Linkous mentioned that the two would continue working together. In a follow up interview in 2008, Linkous revealed more of the plan, saying it would be an album made up of mostly guest singers, including Nina Persson (The Cardigans), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) amongst others. Sweet.
Then at SXSW this year,
Dark Night Of The Soul popped went up around Austin with a slew of high profile names attached to its credits. Persson, Rhys, Lytle, Vic Chesnutt, Black Francis (The Pixies), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega, and the Shins' James Mercer. And David Lynch. Awesome. Soon after came reports that Lynch's involvement would not be a film as first thought, but a book of photographs to accompany the album. (Which, if it was anything like his NSFW
fashion advertisements, would come in plastic wrap). The package was to be released by publishing company
www.powerhousebooks.com. The release date on the poster was September 2009. Then two weeks ago, the whole thing was suddenly
streamed online by music publisher Chrysalis.
Therein lies part of the problem. Seems Danger Mouse's record label weren't too happy with their artist releasing music on other people's labels. So understandably, Danger Mouse now won't release it without fear of being sued.
The outcome? An official statement sent from Danger Mouse's management company to a prompt from
thetripwire.com, explained the situation thusly:
“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.”
What this kind've news is skipping is that essentially, it's much more a new Sparklehorse record than a Danger Mouse one. And that's not something to miss, nor be relegated to the annals of copyright infringement. Fortunately then, the whole thing is now floating round the free downloaded blogs for nuthin. Guess that's what the CD-R is for. All we can say is....great album.
For example:
Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse - 'Revenge' featuring The Flaming Lips
The tracklisting looks like this:
1. "Revenge" (featuring The Flaming Lips) – 4:52
2. "Just War" (featuring Gruff Rhys) – 3:44
3. "Jaykub" (featuring Jason Lytle) – 3:52
4. "Little Girl" (featuring Julian Casablancas) – 4:33
5. "Angel's Harp" (featuring Black Francis) – 2:57
6. "Pain" (featuring Iggy Pop) – 2:49
7. "Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It)" (featuring David Lynch) – 3:10
8. "Everytime I'm With You" (featuring Jason Lytle) – 3:09
9. "Insane Lullaby" (featuring James Mercer) – 3:12
10. "Daddy's Gone" (featuring Mark Linkous and Nina Persson) – 3:09
11. "The Man Who Played God" (featuring Suzanne Vega) – 3:09
12. "Grim Augury" (featuring Vic Chesnutt) – 2:32
13. "Dark Night of the Soul" (featuring David Lynch) – 4:38
Dark Night Of The Soul - teaser