Interesting comments and thoughts.

As I've been through the write/mix/master/release cycle a few times I can say for those not too familiar with it all that no artist would deliberately delay their release date for anything within their control once the mastering has been concluded. There are some exceptions of course in terms of label marketing but this is just in reply to some "woe is this is punishment" comment jokes above. Alas, delays are par for the course in nearly every step of it, from a busted SSL here to a MIA publicity agent there to artwork or even shipping on units.

Its 2007, so lets just get over the torrents thing and accept that everything that will be released will hit the torrent communities quickly. The various closed community ones with 0day releasers obviously were all over this and its passed through to the open communities etc. Again, its 2007, this happens, so no point really speculating on it. People that will buy the album, WILL BUY THE ALBUM. We have long long long reached flashpoint on this element of digital culture. Seeing our own music, or the music of previous projects we have been part of on these sites is odd but not upsetting, its a reality of the industry at present.

As for the delay... its hard. I chose to not listen to anything from this (besides the EBW vinyl/pete tong show etc) before i bought a copy. Hard to protect my ears when even Australia's JJJ radio is featuring the album all week and playing a lot from it. We get a lot of promos and the like, but this just makes it more special to go in and buy a new CB's album and have a fresh listen to it in my studio. Exit Planet Dust inspired me as a 15 year old and i bought an MMT-8 soon after. Thanks to experiences like this I've gotten to travel the world and play our music/live set so Chemical Brothers and Underworld are "buy the album, avoid the torrents" for us. A rare and cherish-able moment like "back in the day" before internet distro when Leftfield, Lion Rock Sound System, The Orb, Orbital or even Prodigy had new bombs coming out.

Sad the artwork delayed even the legit digital releases but thats business, thats the reality of the current distribution chains and thats just how these things can go. CB's are a fucking zeitgeist of dance music so their sales wont be impacted by torrents that will be there no matter what. People like me are such fans we will buy it no matter what. LOL such a fan i was too nervous to talk to them at BDO in Australia in 2005 when the band (Statler & Waldorf) i managed and staged mixed at the time opened Boiler Room the year they closed it. We had a lot of fun taking photos of each other in the 'Brothers "space ship" stage rig before security chased us out. A world of people like us... the album sales will be fine :)

(Cue my next rant: the reality of income from pro rata sales and the ratio of income to performances and licensing... ;)

Hello segwist, welcome to the forum. Glad to see a Chemical lifer on board! I've been reading and liking what you have to say in the other threads and it's been interesting (insider/industry) imput - you just jumped right in, you appear to know your stuff in which is cool. Keep posting!

I agree with what you said ^ up there. People that will buy the album, will buy the album. Downloading is part of the reality these days, but I agree (and have said in the past) that nothing beats the feeling of going out to a store and getting your hot hands on a copy of an album you've been dying to have.