Well now. A spectacular splat of mud-splaying has been playing out this past week between dance heavyweights Ministry Of Sound and easy-listening-crud heavyweights Syco (Simon Cowell’s company. See what he did there?).
Ministry Of Sound have signed young dance sensation Avicii, a.k.a Tim Berg, a Swedish DJ/producer who’s tipped to be the next David Guetta, though I don’t remember putting in a repeat order. Anyway, clearly somebody did, as Avicii’s been making waves with his track Fade Into Darkness, formerly known as Penguin. It’s an undemanding piece of popshine, pretty much perfect for mass consumption.
According to Ministry Of Sound, while Penguin was notching up the radio play from the likes of Pete Tong, Annie Mac and Scott Mills, they had been working with Avicii in order to develop the track from a cheerful instrumental (Penguin) to a smash hit vocal (Fade Into Darkness). In the course of MOS’s seeking out a suitable, top-end songwriter, the demo found its way to Syco, and before you could say “One David Guetta is quite enough, thank you”, this happened:
This is Leona Lewis’ “new” song, Collide, which doesn’t so much take inspiration from Penguin/Fade, as clone it in its Pastel Basement of Doom.
Here’s where things get splatty. The folks at Syco believe that there’s no issue with their sampling/cloning/cannibalising/whatevering of Penguin, and have apparently credited Avicii as writer/producer. Avicii, on the other hand, claims not to have been consulted at all, taking to Twitter to tell us that
“To answer everyone, the first time I heard Leona Lewis Collide was today. I didn’t produce it and neither me or my manager could approve it… I’m just upset for someone taking credit of our idea before I had a chance to release it… And for the time and effort that has been put into this by my manager and label”.
And Ash Pournouri, Avicii’s manager, said:
We never got to hear the track before it was promoed on radio, how could we clear anything? We’re not amateurs – we don’t sign papers without knowing what [we're] getting into.”
It’s a sticky wicket, as the agave-covered wicket salesman said. Is it mere misunderstanding between record companies, permission presumed when not expressly given? Is it fair game to pluck samples from demos doing the rounds, especially when the demos themselves contain samples? After all, Avicii was credited. Is it a case of a smaller record label trying to drum up sympathetic publicity for a new track? Or is it just plain plagiarism? Ministry Of Sound, no minnows themselves, are not letting this rest and as far as I’m aware, the Leona vid above has been up and down on YouTube due to potential copyright infringement. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Leona Lewis is a huge artist, and this is potentially a very embarrassing mistake for Syco.
My personal opinion? Both are pretty bloody awful. Leona’s reign of doe-eyed, tonsil-pulsating terror continues apace, and there’s quite a bit more to making compelling dance music than throwing smiles n’ sugar n’ repetitive beats at a mixing desk to find a lowest common denominator. In general, though, dance music producers have a hard time being taken seriously by many outside of the community, with the uninitiated believing that there’s somehow no effort at all in making electronic tracks, that it’s just samples looped by computer while its producer nips out the back for a spliff. I don’t think Penguin/Fade is an intricate enough track to convince them otherwise. Expect sneering tossery by Leona/Simon fans with no interest in trying to understand a process they believe happens automatically whenever Leona opens her gob in a studio.
Oh, and just to feck some credit where credit’s due, Penguin/Fade (legally) samples Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Perpetuum Mobile…
Aw. Nicest of the lot, isn’t it?
As far as dance music goes, i’m pretty clueless…and yes both are rubbish (i could do better myself with FruityLoops on my laptop), though I am kind of reminded about Banksy throwing an apparent hissy fit because another graffiti artist had ‘vandalised’ a work of his, even though it in itself was illegal graffiti to begin with (though was later declared ‘art’ by the fixed grin-wearing council). Great post as usual Sweary!