Dan Bell vs. Josh Wink

[John Clees]

Dan Bell vs. Josh Wink


Dan Bell's open letter:


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Making it's way though illegal MP3 sites, BBC Radio 1 and being
played by world famous dj's such as Richie Hawtin and Dj Hell is the
new release from Josh Wink "Freak" (or sometimes listed
as "Superfreak" or "Phreek").
If it sounds familiar when you hear it is because it bears more than
a passing resembelence to Daniel Bell aka DBX "Phreak" that was
originally released on Accelerate records in 1992.

Says Bell "I've heard many records copy my sound but this is
ridiculous. I've known Josh for over 11 years and in my opinion, this
is his lowest he's ever gone."

He stands to sell hundreds of thousands of records of this release
without giving any credit to the original . Please help us make the
techno community aware of what is going on.

Enclosed a lettter (with minor changes) that was sent to UFA (Daniel
Bell's publisher for "Phreak"):

It's a difficult thing to establish when an artist is influenced or
is in effect copying another artist. I'm aware that in this age and
that in my specific genre of music making that the issue of copying
another artist's work has become an even more black and white issue
mostly due to the frequency of digital sampling and more specifically
the clearing of digital samples.

And while digital sampling has made the idea of copying musical ideas
less ambiguous and more easily detected than ever before, I find
myself in the situation where I feel I have become the target of good
old-fashioned copyright infringement.

I am writing this in the sincere hope that you will listen without
prejudice to the evidence I'm providing to you.

Introduction

I believe that the recording artist Josh Wink (aka Winx) has
knowingly copied arrangements, sounds and production techniques from
my own copyright protected work and has failed to acknowledge the
source of his success. It is my belief that Wink has developed a
pattern of loosely basing his musical structures and arrangements on
my own original work. I also believe that his next release "Freak" is
his most daring copy yet of one of my arrangements. [...]

2
History:

I have met Josh Wink several times. The first time was in November
1990 in Detroit where I was scheduled to perform as Cybersonik with
Richie Hawtin at a nightclub called "1515 Broadway". The performance
was canceled hours before it was to start and we only found out when
we reached the venue. There was no line-up or crowd waiting to get
in, only two people were waiting when we arrived. One of them was a
disappointed, then unknown, Josh Wink, who I remember had traveled
from Philadelphia to see us and was a "big fan" of our music.

I saw Josh Wink again in 1992 in either Rochester N.Y or Philadelphia
PA while on tour again as Cybersonik. The DBX "Phreak" (the track in
question) was released weeks before on my label Accelerate. He was
sent a copy of this record from the +8 label directly (the label
pressed and distributed my label Accelerate). He said he "loved" the
track "Phreak" and that he "just wished the track was longer" - it's
approx. 3 and half minutes long (his "Freak" approx. 5 mins).

The next time I had an encounter with Josh Wink was in 1995 just
months after I had released my "Losing Control" record. The record
was a huge underground success most notably because it featured a
monotone voice repeating the words "I'm Losing Control" on every bar
faded in and out of the song. The effect was similar to a melodic
hook in popular music. The entire song was based on the manipulation
of the vocal. At the beginning of the arrangement the vocal is
introduced with the high frequencies muted and only the audible
frequencies are the lower frequencies. As the song progresses more of
the high and mid-frequencies are revealed until the whole phrase
of "I'm Losing Control" is audible. The vocal is then manipulated and
echoed and then disappears by subtracting the frequencies in the
reverse way they were added. To my knowledge, this way of slowly
manipulating a frequency filter over a repeated vocal phrase, over
the course of an entire track was never done before in dance music
prior to this record

Josh Wink called, he told me he had a similar track called "Don't
Laugh" that had a "laugh" instead of the vocal "Losing Control" that
was manipulated and arranged in a similar way. It was strange that
Wink had phoned me about this because I had never received a call
from him before or since that day. "Don't Laugh" was released in 1995
and was licensed to several high profile record companies who were
able to promote the single into mainstream markets that were not
familiar with "Losing Control". In contrast, Peacefrog records of the
U.K., the original label to release "Losing Control" froze sales at
10,000 copies in order to make the release rare and in-demand to
develop prestige for the label. Even though the release was the
biggest seller on the label to that point, no promotion was done. In
the end, 500,000 copies of "Don't Laugh" were sold worldwide. Despite
the similarities and the overwhelming feeling that he was trying to
capitalize on my ideas, I felt that that there was no recourse for me
because his track still had some differences.

3

In 1995 Josh Wink released a successful mix-c.d. on the DMC label
entitled "United DJs of America Vol. 3 " in which he licensed "Losing
Control".

In 2000 Josh Wink released "How's Your Evening So Far" a track that
featured a digital loop of Lil Louis' 1988 hit "French Kiss" . The
track also featured a voice repeating the title - similar again
to "Losing Control" - only this time the way the vocal was
manipulated in almost the exact same way, as if 7 years later he
finally figured out the specific technical approach on how the
original was done.

Regarding the Lil' Louis aspect of the song the New Music Express
reported on July 4th 2000:

"JOSH WINK has run into a legal wrangle with PETE TONG's label ffrr
over his version of the LIL LOUIS' acid house anthem `FRENCH KISS'.
The record is due to be released in the US on Ovum label at the end
of July, but a worldwide release is not likely until an agreement has
been reached over how the Wink version will be credited".

Josh Wink reportedly resisted the Lil Louis co-writing credit that he
was eventually forced to put on his release. Many reviewers noted
that the release sounded like a remix of "French Kiss" rather than a
new song.

In December 2001, Josh Wink showed up at a club in Philadelphia PA
that I was djing at and told me that "I have a track called "Freak"
that's going to be really big" and that it was inspired by early
tracks. The track has been tentatively titled either "Freak"
or "Superfreak" (I also have a track entitled "Superphreak" a 1993
release on Peacefrog) and has been played on Pete Tong's show on
Radio 1 in London.

This track "Freak" sounds like a remix or remake of my track "Phreak"
from 1993. It features a pitched-down robotic voice saying "Freak" on
every bar. The arrangement is sparse like the original Also the main
musical repeating notes are very similar and may even be samples of
my track cut up.

There already is a big buzz in several countries regarding this
release and I believe it is slated for release on the Ovum records in
the summer months. I feel that this is the last straw and that this
track is too close to my own. Please help to publicize this
situation. His New York lawyers claim there are no similarities. Let
the people judge for themselves by supplying them with all the
information.

Thank-you for your understanding and attention,
Daniel Bell

[brianc]

Regardless of copyright infringement, I think it's really pretty lame that Wink releases stuff that mimics other people's work. Don't Laugh is a great track (Richie even did a remix of it way back when), but there's no doubt that it's pretty much Losing Control.

I'm pretty sure I've heard Freak. I just thought it was a remix of the Dan Bell track, actually.

[jpls]

i think this raises an interesting questions...is sampling ok even if it is
conceptual? this argument from dan bell does seem to provide an idea
that josh wink is over-extending the whole idea. so, at what point does
inspiration become infringment?

this reminds me of a conversation i recently had about todd sines and
marc houle.

[patrick bateman]

An old letter, came up 2-3 years ago.

Rumours say that it was an American DJ/Producer/Label owner, now living in Berlin, who made this letter, and that it was just for fun, to see what reactions it could make...

[cyhl]

this reminds me of a conversation i recently had about todd sines and
marc houle.

wanna tell us more? what is there to talk about? curious

[fader]

if josh wink would be a nobody, i think bell would have just laughed at it. painfull is that wink made much more money out of it, coz bell was too much ahead of the times

[John Clees]

An old letter, came up 2-3 years ago.

Rumours say that it was an American DJ/Producer/Label owner, now living in Berlin, who made this letter, and that it was just for fun, to see what reactions it could make...

yeah i didn't even noticed the dates (2002) on the letter / website.

found @ http://midsouthraves.org/community/prin ... php?t=3932

if josh wink would be a nobody, i think bell would have just laughed at it. painfull is that wink made much more money out of it, coz bell was too much ahead of the times

I think that is the point and perhaps to even go a step futher to say it wasn't about money at all...but to not even give a credit....

[nubianmindz]

am I the only one who thinks this is fake????