Monday 8 June saw UK dance duo Disclosure announce their hotly anticipated sophomore record, Caracal, which has upset fellow Brit producer Aaron Jerome aka SBTRKT as well as his art director, A Hidden Place.
In a series of tweets, the pair have called out brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence of Disclosure for apparently copying SBTRKT’s LP release of 2014, Wonder Where We Land, believing they copied the artwork for the forthcoming Caracal, as Pitchfork reports.
Jerome first tweeted “@jonrsinn @disconaivete ‘anonymous cat’ common album theme. ;/” which then led him to accuse the Lawrence brothers of copying more of his ideas, including the theme from the first SBTRKT record cover art of an anonymous mask, pointing on the similarities of his song ‘Wild Fire’ to Disclosure’s music festival Wildlife, as well as the hit SBRTKT song ‘Hold On’ to Disclosure’s later hit, ‘Holding On’.
The artist responsible for SBTRKT’s cover art went on to slam Disclosure, writing that he “used to think they were really cute wanting to be like Sbtrkt. But whats up w/ going from face to mythical creature” and “quick cut and paste of artistic ideas. Perhaps cos they cant afford to pay creatives?”
The series of tweets have since been deleted, but copies have been taken from the original Pitchfork article. Interestingly, SBTRKT has since posted on Twitter that he will keep his mouth shut next time and that “Disclosure are great guys and musically unique.”
The Lawerence boys of Disclosure are yet to make any response to the online allegations made by SBTRKT and A Hidden Place.
As Billboard note, Howard Lawerence did initially speak of the reasoning behind selecting a Caracal cat as the cover for their upcoming record, “A caracal is an incredible wild cat that I became fascinated with while on tour last year; I just love the way they look, their physical capabilities and their anonymity.”
“It felt like a perfect fit for our Wild Life brand too, so the Caracal made perfect sense as the lead visual for the new album and over the course of recording, it also felt like a natural title for the new record too.”
Check out the pieces of album artwork, as well as the Tweets below:
