Portishead’s Geoff Barrow has claimed that the composer of TV series Gone admitted to ripping off his Devs score.
The musician worked on the score for the 2020 Hulu series alongside Ben Salisbury and The Insects, and has been claiming since earlier this year that he had been watching a then-undisclosed TV series where the score sounded “exactly the same” as a cue on Devs.
“The composer and director both knew it was the same as our Devs score but obviously thought it wouldn’t matter,” he added.
Barrow further said the composer “has admitted to copying it” and “tried to get the director to accept an alternative version but he wouldn’t”.
The Portishead member has now shared a new Instagram post on the saga, showcasing a clip of the “score police” in which he compares Harry Escott’s score for a part of ITV’s Gone to a bit from his and Salisbury’s work on Devs. It also includes a clip of director Richard Laxton talking about the score and how he and Escott “crafted” it together.
Writing in the comments, Barrow claimed: “So then as promised. About four months ago both me and Ben separately heard this on this TV show ,we contacted our agent he then spoke to the composer who admitted he’d copied our score for DEVS and had told the director that it was fair to close to use.
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“He obviously didn’t think so. So we decided to make this little film featuring director Richard [Laxton’s] interview after the series had come out,” he continued. “As composers we all have to chase temp scores we’ve done it ourselves many times. But it’s time that producers and directors realise you can’t just be ripping off professionals in your own industry and get away with it. TAA RAA.
“(PS we don’t need any pseudo Musicologyst Takes on this as the composer has already fessed up he ripped it off ).”
This isn’t the first time that Barrow has levelled accusations of being ripped off, with the musician claiming in 2019 that rapper Lil Pump sampled his and Salisbury’s Annihilation score without their permission for a “deeply fucking sexist song”. He also accused The Weeknd of sampling Portishead’s ‘Machine Gun’ for his song ‘Belong To The World’ without their permission in 2013, though said The Weeknd denied it.
Meanwhile, last year Portishead reunited to perform their song ‘Roads’ at the ‘Together For Palestine’ show at London’s Wembley Arena.
NME has reached out to Escott for comment.