‘Natalia’s Song’: did Zomby even write it?

Update: Zomby’s currently addressing this issue on Twitter. Well, sort of.


A producer on Soundcloud has uploaded a loop of music that he claims to have written, solo, in October 2007.

Many FACT readers will instantly recognise it as Zomby’s 2011 single ‘Natalia’s Song’, bar a couple of minor differences. The producer, named Reark, claims that the title is a reference to Natalia Ladygina, a Russian friend of his, covering Irina Dubcova’s ‘O nem’. He goes on to detail the sequence of events as he sees them:


“01. I wrote this loop back in October 2007, entirely by myself, posting it on myspace.

“02. Zomby, with whom I was communicating, hears the loop and offers to collaborate to finish it. I agree and send him the original Reason song file + Rex file of the vocals.

“03. Zomby posts the loop on his myspace without crediting me, I complain, he takes it down.

“04. In the next months Zomby suggests where the track might get released. I continue to remind him that it’s a collaboration.

“05. Without my knowledge, a slightly revised version is aired by Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1, you can hear Zomby’s revised drum variation from 1:06 — 1:36. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDLXRtbeLg0 This is the only significant change he’s made to the track. The rest is looping, and some slight editing of the vocal cuts.

“06. The track gets released on 4AD in May 2011, I notice in August 2011. I complain first to Zomby with no effect, then to 4AD, to whom I send this loop plus an e-mail sent from me to Zomby with the original Reason song file from October 2007. 4AD accept my evidence and change credits to include my name.”


A glance at 4AD’s website shows that they have now credited Reark on the track, so his sixth point is certainly true. It’s not the first bit of controversy to crop up from ‘Natalia’s Song’ either; upon the song’s release last year, Irina Dubcova wasn’t too happy. You can stream Reark’s loop below.


Natalia’s Song (original pre-Zomby loop)

  • ILoveTheBass

    Too much of this shit going on, so many of these so called genius producers making half baked dance music out of other artists work.
    If it wasn’t the “music business” half of these ponces would be locked away for fraud and theft!

  • Ddecembrine

    If someone can do that and still get away with it, it’s defintely Zomby.

  • Ddecembrine

    If someone can do that and still get away with it, it’s defintely Zomby.

  • Northernbastard

    Have you seen the dubstep forum piece on Louises Lovers (joy Orbison) playing Fidget at a club (youtube) and a FrankMusic fidget remix, 3 months before the release of Hyph Mngo, makes you wonder?

     http://www.dubstepforum.com/vi…

  • Ojj

    It’s very refreshing to see how many people are vocally angry about this. I caught that story recently of Mac Miller jacking another producer’s beat and couldn’t believe how many idol worshippers just sided with the bigger name.

  • Guest

    What about Test Me For a Reason? Apparently the most interesting part of it was plagiarized from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4vItkoMv2Y .

  • Simon

    ah yes, i demand a certain.. heh.. purity.. in MY post dubstep anthem makers *is a fucking fifteen year old*

  • Northernbastard

    Its funny how that works mate, seems like all of the digital online mags are scared to upset these”bigger name” artists as well. 
    There doesn’t seem to be much response to the Joy Orbison comments, about how he was making fidget and remixing shit artists like Frankmusik in a fidget style, literally 3 months before the release of Hyph Mngo, amidst all of the rumours that he didn’t even write that track? 
    Check dubstep forum,”What Joy Orbison used to make”. Apparently he went under the name of “Louises Lovers” and prior to that “Drone” it doesn’t mention any of that in his history on Wikipedia, also, where are these 8 bar Grime beats he used to make?
    He seems to have made himself a false persona just like the artist he recently remixed Lana Del Ray and everyone has fallen for it, why doesn’t some investigative reporter look in to the real truth behind him and other fraudulent “artists” out there, who just seem to scene hop and pretend that they were the cool instigators of every trendy scene that comes along.So he’s made D&B, Grime, Fidget, Future Garage, Post Dubstep, Deep House and now Techno, 99% of artists would get slated for this

  • tl

    who cares if joy orbison remixed frankmusik? he might have got a decent bit of money for it – and given that it was pre-mngo, he probably could’ve done with it. nothing wrong with that.

  • Ayen

    :/

  • Flying lotus

    Zomby = genius

  • brobro

    i love that the story behind the track is that he ‘wrote it for burial’

  • Mr. Gasparov

    The funny thing is that the song is actually quite average anyway… no disrespect!

  • http://twitter.com/Joao_deAlmeida JoĂŁo de Almeida

    There’s a war happening here: https://twitter.com/#!/ZombyMusic

  • Northernbastard

    you’ve missed the point, apart from the fact that its not about the money, its just that he was making shit fidget and doing shit fidget remixes just a few months before jumping on yet another bandwagon, how do you progress from making such poor music to making a track that was so “groundbreaking” in such a short space of time?
    Obviously, some of the rumours are true!

  • Brianmaiden

    your so far off the mark! what, so because an artist ‘ genre hops ‘ their not as TRUE to you, ? fuck off…. Should an artist choose a style and then for the next 20 year’s just say ‘ dang, i’ve made my bed….’ NO… creativity is not bound by some 2bit member of the populous that expect’s every artist to adhere to their retarded ideas of what an artist should be. i guess bowie can fuck off as well then… and eno while were at it… 

  • Brianmaiden

    your so far off the mark! what, so because an artist ‘ genre hops ‘ their not as TRUE to you, ? fuck off…. Should an artist choose a style and then for the next 20 year’s just say ‘ dang, i’ve made my bed….’ NO… creativity is not bound by some 2bit member of the populous that expect’s every artist to adhere to their retarded ideas of what an artist should be. i guess bowie can fuck off as well then… and eno while were at it… 

  • Someone

    to be honest, you are shit scuba, your tunes sound all the same… lol.

  • fuckyouridols

    zomby is a skinny little chav plagiarist , and scuba is a angry conservative, socially inept douche bag that makes cookie-cutter dub techno and trance.  you should both take a long walk off a short pier. 

    too much print given to both.

  • fuckyouridols

    zomby is a skinny little chav plagiarist , and scuba is a angry conservative, socially inept douche bag that makes cookie-cutter dub techno and trance.  you should both take a long walk off a short pier. 

    too much print given to both.

  • Northernbastard

    You missed the point mate, i’m all for artists progressing with their music, its just that certain artists get slated for genre hopping, which incidentally isn’t a progression of music.
    I’m talking about artists that jump on a scene because its happening, then hiding their past, something David Bowie nor Brian Eno have done.
    Are you one of these “Brianmaiden”

  • yr mum

    Zomby = David Nugent. fucking hell!!

  • CaterpillarSam

    Can we stop talking about this please, I really like Natalia – perhaps it was a collab!

  • Burial

    lolololololololol

  • Mensah-NYTA

    lol

  • Cloud_n1ne

     classic. doesn’t know the name of girl doing the vocals…

  • Luciano

    Scuba is awsome.

  • Zomby

    I’m sorry i ripped the song of guys, hope you can forgive me. new tunes soon xoxo

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