In what has become a bit of trend for finding new and exciting ways to release music in a tangible form, the record label Ghostly will be releasing Matthew Dear’s upcoming album ‘Black City’ in their new ‘Totem’ form. Each one will be embossed with a unique four-character code that will allow visitors to access a private page on the internet, from where they can stream the complete album or download it.

From Ghostly:

The MDBC Totem is both a sculptural representation of the themes explored in Black City and a symbolic conduit to the music itself. Vaguely reminiscent of one of the soot-blackened skyscrapers that might populate Dear’s creeping, nameless city, the stacks upon the totem also call to mind the many shaped prongs of a universal power adaptor. In this sense, the totem is not simply a miniature building, but an abstract key to an unknown door. The branding of the totem has been purposefully reduced to its bare essentials—only the letters MDBC and unique three-digit suffixes are included—so that the totem’s meaning remains discernible only to its beholder.

It’s be cool if Ghostly did all their new releases in this form, allowing you to build up a ‘city’ of music, everyone’s being slightly different. It’s unlikely the majority of people will actually do that, but it’s a nice idea anyway. I’m all for tangible forms of music, the more inventive and fun the better!

Below is a video of the ‘making of’ the Totem, which is just the kind of thing I like!

via core77