Published
Mon, May 22, 2017, 07:21
- "There's no excuse for this," Underground Resistance label manger Cornelius Harris told RA.
Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance have accused trance giant Armin Van Buuren of plagiarising their name and logo for his new Ibiza residency, U R With Armin Van Buuren.
The Detroit crew took to Facebook on Saturday to make their point. "Is there no shame? What happened to electronic creativity? What the fuck is it all about the money?? To 'those who know' MOVE TO CONDITION RED!! To those who steal culture, you have been warned," reads a post on their official page.
Cornelius Harris, label manager at Underground Resistance, also provided RA with a statement. "There's no excuse for this," he says. "It's lazy and irresponsible of the artist AND promoter. I'm all for folks having fun regardless of the style of music, but that can be done without trying to exploit the years of work that another artist has put in for your own benefit. Van Buuren offers no explanation for it, simply calling U R 'my new concept' and leaving it at that. Sorry man, no fucking way."
Earlier this morning, a spokesperson for Van Buuren told RA they had "decided to keep both the logo and the name as they were." They've since provided a new statement that says they "will be only communicate the full name of the concept: Universal Religion. All logos/flyers will be changed ASAP." The revised statement was provided to Resident Advisor after discrepancies emerged in the information provided by Van Buuren's team to other news outlets.
The rest of the Van Buuren's statement reads: "I would like to start off by saying how unfortunate and unpleasant this situation is for everyone involved. My team, the team of Hï/Ushuaïa and myself were not aware of the similarities between our logo and the logo of Underground Resistance. Originally, UR—the name of the new event through which I'll perform in Ibiza every week—is derived from Universal Religion, an older but nonetheless well-known Armin van Buuren concept. Its symbol, which consists of a custom-made font and frame, was designed to conform with the Armin van Buuren brand."
U R With Armin Van Buuren is due to run across 13 weeks at new club Hï Ibiza, with support from Dutch EDM duo Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano.